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SINGSONG PR NEWS: Appleseed RecordingsDonovan - Beat Café Press reviews
Donovan’s latest release, “Beat Café”. As is my way, I rarely read the “press release” material which accompanies most new albums. That is until I have listened to the same a number of times. My reason for this is simple - I have no desire for my point of view to be influenced by record company spin. Of course at some point there had to be the exception. Whether this is due to the influence on my teenage years that Donovan had, or maybe it was down to being a teenager in the 60’s when many of my thoughts and ideals were to be reflected in the lyrics of Donovan’s early work. Either which way, my view of the man and his work are such that I could have almost written the “PR” myself. When chatting to others of my era you would be fortunate indeed to bump into anyone who didn’t hold this artist in high regard. Sadly some who, misguidedly I believe, see Donovan as a UK copycat of Mr Zimmerman. To hold this view (in my opinion) is to completely misunderstand where this singer/songwriter is coming from. The album. Beat Café. On Vocals and Guitar, Donovan Leitch.On Double Bass, Danny Thomson. On Drums & Percussion, Jim Keltner and on Keyboards, John Chelew. Opening with the overtly sensual Love Floats, we hear Donovan whispering a sensual chant and then we listen to the gentle vocals as the male protagonist states succinctly how he can take his lover to new pleasurable heights, as the song progresses she invites him to “let’s do it again” as “Love floats in the space between us”. This is heady stuff. In Beat Café, Donovan seeks to capture the days, memory and atmosphere of the Bohemian Café Culture. In their heyday such places would be the home of musicians, poets, and philosophers, whilst the roots of such Cafés go back to the mid 19th century, they were also prevalent in the 50’s and 60’s in the UK and were the domain of the “Beatnik” where they would gather to listen to coolest vibe around, listen to poets and were the perfect avenue for street philosophers to vent their musings. Like the first track there are others that are sensual in nature such as Ying My Yang, Two Lovers. Whilst the lyrics are sensual nature they are by no means smutty, they are in fact beautifully written poems put to music. Two Lovers, which in my mind is related to Love Floats, starts by being read like a rhythmical poem with gentle whispering backing vocals, for the romantics out there you may well find yourself whispering these words to your significant other during a private moment. Then again if you are a true romantic you shouldn’t need the promptings of another! The Cuckoo; the tenth track on the album is included I am convinced, to add a sense of irony, as the title of this much loved song suggests, in nature a cuckoo has no home of its own, in a similar way this track is whilst a terrific and hugely popular song performed in true Donovan style, is, despite it’s earthy bass, “the odd man out” on this album. The penultimate track, an adaptation of the Dylan Thomas poem, “Do Not Go Gentle” this, uniquely read/delicately performed piece perfectly sums up both the whole Bohemian feel and atmosphere that pervades this stunning album and one that Donovan and his band work so hard to achieve, with great success. Throughout this album you will be treated to some of the very best Double Bass playing by Danny Thomson, it is little wonder, he is widely regarded as being amongst the very best Double Bass players in the world. Add to this Jim Keltner’s excellent drums and percussion all working together to create an ethereal album. I have yet to mention multiple Grammy-winner John Chelew. This highly talented bunch of musicians who between them have worked with the like of, Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, The Blind Boys of Alabama. Is it any wonder that this album has the potential to be a standard? Sitting writing this I am grateful to Donovan for this fascinating release. To find out that he has a world tour to back this up will excite most music lovers. Check out his website for details. If you, like me, would like to experience the Bohemian café culture atmosphere, then go and buy this album, you won’t be disappointed. To get more info on Beat Café go to http://www.donovan.ie/beatcafe/ Hugh McKay
UNCUT October 2004 Donovan BEAT CAFE appleseed recordings *** Return after eight years' silence from '60s legend That's Beat as in Kerouac rather than Fatboy Slim, for Donovan Leitch's first album since 1996 is a warm evocation of the bohemian world of bebop, poetry, berets and coffee houses. Despite his folk roots, Donovan's acoustic jazz leanings were always evident and, with the help of Danny Thompson and Jim Keltner, Beat Cafe takes up where '60s classics such as "Sunny Goodge Street" left off. The opener," Love Floats", borrows and slows down the tune of his'68 hit "Barabajagal", "Lord Of The Universe" is a delightful tongue-in-cheek blues and " Do Not Go Gently" is a Mingus-mellow-fantastic setting of Dylan Thomas' poem. The remaining nine tracks are equally inventive. It's great to have him back. Nigel Williamson
South Hams Newspapers DONOVAN: Beat Cafe (Appleseed) Donovan's first album for adult listeners in eight years, this finds him exploring a fascinating hinterland of folk and soft smoky jazz. The finger-picking acoustic guitar and that inimitable voice are clearly Donovan, and with double bass player Danny Thompson and drummer Jim Keltner backing him, you know the results will be something special. Spiritual overtones on Do Not Go Gentle, a blues tinge on Lord of the Universe, and the brisk jazz stylings on Poor man's Sunshine, prove that the man is back and on top form. Friday August 20, 2004
Hip to the beat Donovan is back with his first 'grown-up' album in eight years - and his vision of bohemian utopia is irresistible John L Walters Friday August 20, 2004 The Guardian To promote Beat Cafe (Appleseed, £14.99), Donovan has promised some "'underground' "beat happenings" - what a thrilling prospect! Beat Cafe is Donovan's first grown-up album in eight years - he released The Pied Piper, a kids' CD, in 2002. However I use the term "grown-up" advisedly, because it only takes a few Donovan songs to make me regress, quite pleasurably, to a beatnik hippy utopia populated by hip, jazz-lovin' dudes and cool chicks with painted toes and flowers in their hair. Yes, Beat Cafe is the feelgood summer album we've been waiting for. Donovan was always the pop craftsman par excellence. His appearances on Ready Steady Go! in 1964, aged 18, helped launch a string of hits: Catch the Wind, Universal Soldier, Sunshine Superman, Mellow Yellow, There Is a Mountain. I didn't appreciate how good he was until I heard Donovan in Concert - which I bought for Harold McNair's flute-playing. Despite my teenage jazz prejudices, I had to admit that Donovan wrote good tunes, and that mixing folky songwriting with muscular jazz could produce powerful results. Since that time we've had comparable explorations from Van Morrison (Astral Weeks), John Martyn, Mike Cooper and Robin Williamson. Beat Cafe taps into the boho vein of folk, jazz and poetry that flowed long before the first summer of love: songs with titles like Love Floats, Yin My Yang and Poorman's Sunshine, and a setting of Dylan Thomas's Do Not Go Gentle. Donovan writes a brief liner note about counter-cultural movements which he traces back to 1840s Paris: "Where the artist led, the mass followed. All this came out of the bohemian cafe, jazz and R&B clubs, art schools and hip book shops ... new generations must create their own 'beat cafe' ... a state of mind, an oasis of culture and an actual cafe." I'm right with you, Don, I want to hang out there, too. Especially if the house band is as good as the one on this album, with bassist Danny Thompson, drummer Jim Keltner and producer John Chelew (who's produced the Blind Boys of Alabama, among others) on keyboards. Thompson and Keltner demonstrate the way creative musicians can turn a nice song into something profound: the bass and drums add both sensuality and depth, while leaving room for Donovan's distinctive voice and guitar. Chelew's occasional keyboard mimics plangent vibraphone pads, or swirling organ, and his mixes are warm and uncluttered.
London's most authentic jazz cafe, the
Vortex, in Stoke Newington, is closer to a state of mind than a real venue
these days, despite a few samizdat gigs organised by Crass originator Penny
Rimbaud. Since the club closed at the end of May, the "Save the Old Vortex
Campaign" has been negotiating with the building's owner. The Campaign has
also filed an application for the venue to be given D2 status (arts, culture
and entertainment) in recognition of its cultural value over the past two
decades.
Beat Café, By Andy Gill 20 August 2004 As the Faerie Godfather, in effect, of the new movement of whimsical "weirdo folk music" played by the likes of Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart, it's fitting that Donovan should release his most satisfying album in ages just as their star is in the ascendant. His first album in eight years, Beat Café fulfils perfectly the expectations aroused by its title: most of these 12 tracks are cool bohemian ruminations, sketched in languidly oozing double bass and subtle percussive tints by the dream rhythm section of Danny Thompson and Jim Keltner, the latter also adding the gentle clunk of vibes, with producer John Chelew's keyboards fleshing out the space around Donovan's acoustic guitar and trademark vibrato susurrus. The title track is typical of the album's mood, a lovely evocation of smoky, pre-Starbucks coffee-shop ambience, a place where "the music is cool and the chicks are slow/ Poet in a beret as the sax he blow". It's the musical equivalent of a black turtleneck, shades, and a Sartre paperback in the hip pocket. The accompanied reading of Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" fits into the overall scheme, while Donovan's riskier gambits, such as a cloying reference to "flowers in your hair" in "Yin My Yang", are facilitated by the commanding presence of Thompson and Keltner.
BEAT GENERATION Donovan enlisted local pop scenester Richard Barone to read the opening of Allen Ginsburg's landmark beat poem "Howl" at Joe's Pub. In the Beat Generation's epicenter, San Francisco, he brought out surviving beat poet Michael McClure. "I wanted to show that the '60s could not have had its freedoms without the Beat Generation of the '40s and '50s," Donovan says. "The '60s songsmiths were fully informed by the bohemian poets. But it's still happening: There's a plethora of young, hip new writers who are tipping their hats to we writers of the '60s, saying, 'We were fed by you, nurtured by your work."' But the "beat cafe" of today, Donovan notes, is more "a state of mind," or "a virtual beat cafe" a la arts/culture Web site getunderground.com. "The actual cafe may have passed into history, but I still want to promote the bohemian idea of the '60s -- the rediscovery of the roots of folk music and the power of poetry married with the pop world." Meanwhile, the unmasking of "Lalena" provokes a final question. What about Dippy? "Dippy was a school pal," Donovan says, solving the mystery of his 1967 hit "Epistle to Dippy." "He had signed up in the army, so I wrote a song that I hoped he would hear on the radio and call me. It related to school and what I was going through and had references that he got and he called me -- and I bought him out of the army, which you could do. So it was a creative use of radio." Reuters/Billboard
Donovan
biography Pat Tynan Media Office: +44(0)1895 636935 Mobile: 07985 400297 An associate of SingSong Entertainment Publicity
http://www.singsongpr.biz/
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