Bgcolor	#FFFFFF
Manufacturer	Fender
Period	1958 — 1980; 1984 — present
Bodytype	Solid
Necktype	Bolt-on
Scale	25.5"
Woodbody	Alder, Basswood or Ash
Woodneck	Maple
Woodfingerboard	Rosewood or Maple
Bridge	"Floating" Tremolo
Pickups	2 Single-coil
Colors	(American Vintage Series, as of 2005) 3-Tone Sunburst, Olympic White, Black, Ocean Turquoise, Surf Green, Ice Blue Metallic (other colors may be available)

The Fender Jazzmaster is an electric guitar that was first introduced at the 1958 NAMM Show and was designed as a more upmarket instrument than the Fender Stratocaster, which was originally to replace the Telecaster model. As its name indicates, it was initially marketed at jazz guitarists but was more commonly played by surf rock guitarists in the early 1960s and, more recently, by indie rock artists. It is frequently confused with the similar looking albeit tonally different Jaguar.

Features

The contoured "offset-waist" body was designed for comfort while playing the guitar in a seated position, as many jazz and blues artists prefer to do. A full 25½” scale length, lead and rhythm circuit switching with independent volume and tone controls, and a floating tremolo with tremolo lock, were other keys to the Jazzmaster's character. The tremolo lock can be manually activated to keep the entire guitar from going out of tune if one string breaks. The Jazzmaster also had an extra-long tremolo arm.

The body is larger than that of other Fender guitars, requiring a more spacious guitar case. The Jazzmaster had unique wide, white "soapbar" pickups that were unlike any other single coil. Jazzmaster pickups are often confused with Gibson's P90 pickups. Although their construction is similar, it is not identical. The coil is wound flat and wide, in contrast to Fender's usual tall and thin coils. This gives them a warmer tone without losing their single coil clarity. The Jazzmaster has a mellower, jazzier tone than the Strat, although it wasn't embraced by jazz musicians. (Joe Pass, however, used one during his stay at Synanon.) Instead, rock guitarists used the instrument, especially for surf rock. The Ventures and The Fireballs were prominent Jazzmaster users. The Jazzmaster also played a part in the Indorock scene, with guitarist Andy Tielman creating a 10-string Jazzmaster using a red-hot nail to burn holes for the extra tuning pegs in his Jazzmaster's headstock. This marked the beginning of a long tradition of often-unusual DIY Jazzmaster modifications throughout the next decades.

Fender recognized the need for a purpose-designed surf-guitar, and introduced the 24" scale Fender Jaguar, with a shorter scale, built-in mute, chrome decorations and more Strat-like pickups. The main aspect that deterred jazz players was the Jazzmaster's tendency to produce feedback, especially if the body cavity were left without magnetic shielding. More experimentally-minded rock artists like Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine later embraced this as a new way to color their music. The Jazzmaster was also the first Fender guitar carrying a separate rosewood fingerboard with clay dot position inlays glued into a 2-piece maple neck and a 4-ply brown tortoise shell pickguard, although from 1958 to mid 1959 they came with a 1-ply gold anodized pickguard.

Some early pre-production/prototype examples came with a 1-piece maple neck, a rubber fingerboard and/or a black painted aluminum pickguard. Rosewood became a standard fretboard material on other Fender models around 1959. Binding was added to the Jazzmaster fretboard in 1965, and in 1966 the dot markings were replaced by pearloid blocks. An optional maple fingerboard with black binding and block inlays (black and painted, unlike the pearl inlays previously used) was briefly offered in the mid-1970s. Jazzmaster bodies have been constructed from ash, alder, and basswood over the years.

The Jazzmaster was officially discontinued in 1980, although some reports suggest no guitars were actually made after 1977 and guitars sold from 1978 to 1980 were old stock. The Jazzmaster was re-introduced in 1984 as a 1962 reissue model from Fender's Japanese factory. The American Vintage Series version was introduced in 1999. In 2007 Fender announced plans for a 'thin skin' Jazzmaster reissue with vintage nitrocellulose finish. The finish on the AVRI series is also nitro, but a 'thin skin' has a thinner nitro coat than usual (hence the name).

One of the big advantages - as well as disadvantages, depending on what you like to hear - of the guitar is the string resonance appearing at several fret positions if they have a simple length relation with the string length behind the floating bridge (for instance 48:12 = 4:1). At those positions a high overtone rises in volume. This becomes more clear when the guitar sound is overdriven. Although the overtone might sound odd, it still has a perfect harmonic relation, so is not out of tune related to the open string. For staccato playing it can be an annoying effect. Muting the string field behind the bridge with for instance a piece of felt solves this issue. See tailed bridge guitar for more information about this subject.

Influence

Fender intended the Jazzmaster to represent a solid body alternative to the hollow body archtop guitars that were then ubiquitous among Jazz guitarists. As the Telecaster and Stratocaster had done in other popular musical genres, Fender hoped to initiate a revolution in Jazz guitar, at the expense of their arch-rival Gibson. While the Jazzmaster never caught on among its intended audience, the Telecaster is now adopted by notable Jazz guitarists, such as Bill Frisell, as an alternative to the traditional fully hollow "Jazz boxes" of yore.

Jazzmasters were most successful in the burgeoning California-based surf music and instrumental rock scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Fender headquarters was located in Southern California, and Leo Fender himself actively solicited local players' input and guidance in designing the Jazzmaster's followup, the Jaguar.

Jazzmasters, along with Jaguars and their imitators, fell out of fashion among players during the 1970s largely due to their "old-fashioned" appearance and sonic characteristics. The 70s rock sound meant "fat" humbucker tone and lots of sustain, so guitarists gravitated toward the Gibson Les Paul and its copies. The Jazzmaster's short sustain and warm piano-like tone was not favored. Fender continued to offer the Jazzmaster as part of its product line until 1980, however many collectors believe actual production ceased around 1976, with guitars sold after that period representing unsold inventory. Due to the unwanted, pawn-shop status of the guitars, young musicians were able to purchase the instruments very cheaply, obtaining the high quality guitars for little money. Luther Perkins was one of the first Jazzmaster players, owning an early white version.

Just as Fender discontinued the Jazzmaster, Tom Verlaine of Television and Elvis Costello started giving the guitar a cult following. Thus, they were later embraced by the American indie rock scene. Sonic Youth are notorious for the hoard of Jazzmasters they acquired starting around 1985 while the guitars were still affordable, and for their unique customization jobs (e.g. Lee Ranaldo's "Jazzblaster" with Fender Wide Range pickups). Sonic Youth were also famous for playing on the strings below the tailed bridge (near the tailpiece) to get church-bell-like tones; this is sometimes referred to as 3rd bridge technique. Other bands, such as Yes picked behind the nut to achieve similar sounds (on other guitar models), but in a Guitar World interview, Sonic Youth rejected this practice as "art rock". Ranaldo even has a pickup mounted behind the bridge on one of his guitars. With the increasing visibility of old Jazzmasters, and the prices of collectible Telecasters and Stratocasters soaring out of sight in the 1990s, Jazzmasters became highly valuable. Thefts of vintage Jazzmasters from Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, and The Raveonettes in recent years illustrate this. Sonic Youth had nine Jazzmasters stolen from them in July 1999, along with dozens of other items.

Greg Camp of Defektor (formerly of Smash Mouth) uses a Jazzmaster, while Robert Smith of The Cure used two Jazzmasters (which he named Black Torty & White Torty) for the majority of his band's early work. J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr is a noted Jazzmaster devotee, and as of 2007 Fender produces a signature J Mascis Jazzmaster model. Mascis uses a Tune-o-matic bridge, however. The stock Jazzmaster continues to have a cultlike following in the "shoegaze"/ "dream pop" community, which values the buzzing, otherworldly sounds made possible by Leo's bridge design. Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine uses them as his main guitars, and bandmate Bilinda Butcher used them in addition to her Jaguars. A closeup picture of a Jazzmaster is featured as the cover of their critically-acclaimed album, Loveless (1991). One is also depicted on the cover of Band of Susans' Blessing And Curse EP (1987), although the band is more noted for their use of G&L; guitars. Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo favors a Jazzmaster as well as other vintage Fender guitars, often playing behind-the-back solos in concert. Nels Cline, solo artist and current (2007) lead guitarist of Wilco, uses the Jazzmaster as his main guitar. Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips uses a '67 Jazzmaster. Stephen Malkmus, solo artist (formerly of the highly influential 90's indie rock group Pavement), has used his vintage Jazzmaster as a main guitar throughout his career. J Mascis, Nels Cline, Tom Verlaine, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo (of Sonic Youth) all performed at the "Jazzmaster 50th Anniversary Concert" at the Knitting Factory in New York on September 12, 2008.

Frank Zappa briefly owned a Jazzmaster very early in his career (prior to his joining The Mothers).

Imitations and reissues

There are a wide array of budget-priced overseas Jazzmaster imitations, particularly from the 1960s and '70s. Dillion, Yamaha, Framus, Teisco, Aria, Jansen, Harmony, National, and Demel are some of the companies who indulged, mainly to capitalize on the surf rock sound of the 1960s. Many of the modern copies replace the Jazzmaster's bridge and tremolo setup with a Stratocaster-derived assembly, altering the character of the guitar considerably but making it more palatable to players used to the Strat. The vintage copies are rising in price, with guitars costing under $100 as little as 5 years ago now selling for as much as $600. Fender eventually got the offset-waist body shape patented, putting an end to the 'copy era'.

Fender's Japanese facility is noted for the high quality of its offset-waist guitars. These MIJ or CIJ (Made or Crafted In Japan) reissues have been sporadically available outside Japan since the late 1980s, either from Japanese dealers willing to ship overseas, or from US dealers who have imported them. However, these Japanese-made Jazzmasters, except for those with JV-prefix serial numbers, are often criticized for essentially having narrow Stratocaster pickups inside the wide soapbar Jazzmaster housings, thus giving the guitar a Strat/Jaguar "honk" rather than the classic, mellow Jazzmaster sound. Since 1996, its Squier offshoot has manufactured a budget version called the Jagmaster, though its humbucker pickups and Stratocaster-style bridge give it a much different, "hard rock" sound.

In May 2008 Fender introduced the Classic Player Series Jazzmaster, which is made in Mexico. Fender have made numerous changes to the original design, replacing the bridge with a Tune-o-matic type, giving it a 9.5" fretboard radius, moving the tremolo plate closer to the bridge and installing special designed P-90-type high output single coil pickups with a bar magnet at the base instead of the more Strat-like magnetized polepieces of the original pickups.

September 2010 saw the introduction of the Mexican-made Black Top Jazzmaster HS. This guitar sports a Duncan Designed single-coil Jazzmaster neck pickup and a hot vintage alnico humbucking bridge pickup, with other distinctive touches including skirted black amp knobs, a Jazzmaster tremolo tailpiece and a three-way toggle switch. Other features include an alder body, maple neck with 9.5”-radius rosewood fretboard, 22 medium-jumbo frets, gloss polyester finish and chrome hardware.

Signature editions

In July 2007, Fender released the J Mascis signature Jazzmaster, in honour of the Dinosaur Jr frontman. This model is much the same as previous Jazzmaster models aside from its Adjust-o-matic bridge (the Fender equivalent of the Gibson Tune-o-matic bridge), and its unusual purple sparkle finish. It is currently the only model of Jazzmaster in production with a matching headstock. In the past, a Nokie Edwards (of The Ventures) signature model was produced in Japan, without rhythm circuit.

April 2008 saw the introduction of the Elvis Costello Jazzmaster, the second signature Jazzmaster model made at the Corona facility - a faithful replication of Elvis Costello's 1960s Jazzmaster used during his 1977 debut album, My Aim is True. This signature Jazzmaster guitar features a solid walnut-stain finished alder body and a modified tremolo bridge for Costello's trademark "spy movie" sound. The Elvis Costello signature model has a natural brown finish and was released in 2008.

In June 2009, Fender announced Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore signature Jazzmasters, in honour of the guitarists of Sonic Youth. These models were released on July 1, 2009. Both editions are stripped down to have only one volume knob and a pickup switch that goes side to side and have a black headstock. The difference lies in the pickup, bridge, colour, and the relative placement of the volume knob to the jack input. Ranaldo's instrument has a Sapphire Blue finish and features dual Fender Wide Range humbucking pickups that are re-spec'd to Ranaldo's specifications and a Mustang bridge. Moore's version features a Forest Green finish, a pair of Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Jazzmaster single-coil pickups and a Tune-o-matic bridge. Users include Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys

Colors

The vintage Jazzmasters (Original series) were produced in the following colors:

3-Color Sunburst as standard

Additionally, but NOT limited to the following:

Olympic White

Lake Placid Blue

Candy Apple Red

Black (post CBS)

semi-transparent blonde

Vintage Jazzmasters have been seen in most of the common Fender Custom Colors of the era, and as Fender would sometimes paint guitars in any shade the owner requested, one cannot list the full range of colors made.

The American Vintage Re-Issue (AVRI) Jazzmaster was produced in the following colors:

3-Color Sunburst

Olympic White

Black

Ocean Turquoise

Surf Green

Ice Blue Metallic

Their pickguards come in Mint Green or Brown Shell colors. Jazzmasters featured bound necks with block pearloid inlays from 1966 until the end of their original run in 1977; the headstocks were also larger ("CBS-style") in this era. They have featured matching headstocks (headstocks painted the same color as the body) at several points throughout the guitar's history. Matched-headstock versions generally fetch a higher price and are currently not in production, except for the special J. Mascis edition.

Colors of the signature editions:

J. Mascis - Purple sparkle

Elvis Costello - Natural Brown

Lee Ranaldo - Transparent Blue

Thurston Moore - Transparent Green.

References

Resources

Fender: The Golden Age 1946–1970 by Martin Kelly, Terry Foster, Paul Kelly. London & New York: Cassell (2010) ISBN 1-844-03666-9

External links

www.FenderJazzmaster.com History and evolution of the Fender Jazzmaster

Fender Jazzmaster History, Specs, and Deals.

Jazzmaster

Name	Elvis Costello
Landscape	no
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Declan Patrick MacManus
Alias	D.P. CostelloThe ImposterLittle Hands of ConcreteNapoleon DynamiteD.P.A. MacManusDeclan Patrick Aloysius MacManus
Born	August 25, 1954Paddington, London, England
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums
Genre	Pub rockPunk/New Wave
Occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer
Years active	1970–present
Label	Stiff, Radar, F-Beat, Demon, Columbia, Warner Bros., Mercury, Island, Deutsche Grammophon, Lost Highway, Verve, Hip-O
Associated acts	The Attractions, The Imposters, Diana Krall, Burt Bacharach, Brodsky Quartet
Url	Elvis Costello.com
Notable instruments	Fender JazzmasterFender Telecaster

Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known by the stage name Elvis Costello, is a British singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the Punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader than that of most popular songs. His music has drawn on many diverse genres; the young American critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine describes him as a "pop encyclopedia," able to "reinvent the past in his own image".

Early life

Costello was born Declan Patrick MacManus in St Mary's Hospital, London, the son of Lilian (née Ablett) and Ross MacManus, a musician and bandleader. He is of Irish heritage. Costello lived in Twickenham, attending Hounslow Secondary Modern School, which is now St Mark's Catholic Secondary School, in neighbouring Hounslow. With a musically inclined father (who sang with The Joe Loss Orchestra), Costello's first broadcast recording was alongside his dad in a television commercial for R. White's Lemonade (I'm a Secret Lemonade Drinker). His father wrote and sang the song; Costello provided backing vocals. The advertisement won a silver award at the 1974 International Advertising Festival.

Costello moved with his Liverpool-born mother to Birkenhead in 1971. There, he formed his first band, a folk duo called Rusty, with Allan Mayes. After completing secondary school at St. Francis Xavier's College, he moved back to London where he next formed a band called Flip City, which had a style very much in the pub rock vein. They were active from 1974 through early 1976. Around this time, Costello adopted the stage name D.P. Costello. His father had performed under the name Day Costello, and Elvis has said in interviews that he took this name as a tribute to his father.

To support himself, he worked at a number of office jobs, most famously at Elizabeth Arden — immortalised in the lyrics of "I'm Not Angry" as the "vanity factory" — where he worked as a data entry clerk. He worked for a short period as a computer operator at the Midland Bank computer centre in Bootle. He continued to write songs, and began actively looking for a solo recording contract. On the basis of a demo tape, he was signed to independent label Stiff Records. His manager at Stiff, Jake Riviera, suggested a name change, combining Elvis Presley's first name and Costello, his paternal grandmother's maiden name.

Career

1970s

Costello's first single for Stiff was "Less Than Zero," released on 25 March 1977. Two months later, his debut album, My Aim Is True (1977), was released to moderate commercial success (No. 14 in the UK and, later, Top 40 in the US) with Costello appearing on the cover in what became his trademark oversize glasses, bearing a striking resemblance to Buddy Holly. Stiff's records were initially distributed only in the UK, which meant that Costello's first album and singles were initially available in the US as imports only. In an attempt to change this, Costello was arrested for busking outside a London convention of CBS Records executives, protesting that no US record company had yet seen fit to release Costello records in the United States. Costello signed to CBS' Columbia Records label in the US a few months later.

Costello's backing on the debut album was provided by American West Coast band Clover, a country outfit living in England whose members would later go on to join Huey Lewis and the News and The Doobie Brothers. Later in 1977, Costello formed his own permanent backing band, The Attractions, consisting of Steve Nieve (born Steve Nason; piano), Bruce Thomas (bass guitar), and Pete Thomas (drums; unrelated to Bruce Thomas). He released his first major hit single, "Watching the Detectives," which was recorded with Nieve and the pair of Steve Goulding (drums) and Andrew Bodnar (bass), both members of Graham Parker's backing band The Rumour (whom he had used to audition for The Attractions). On 17 December 1977, Costello and The Attractions appeared as the musical guest act on the episode of Saturday Night Live as a last minute fill-in for the Sex Pistols. Scheduled to play "Less Than Zero," he surprised the SNL crew by abruptly stopping the song mid-intro, and launching into "Radio Radio." This stunt helped ensure he would not appear on the show again until 1989. Following a whirlwind tour with other Stiff artists – captured on the Live Stiffs album, notable for Costello's recording of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David standard "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" – the band recorded This Year's Model (1978). Some of the more popular tracks include the British hit "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea" and "Pump It Up." His U.S. record company saw Costello as such a priority that his last name replaced the word Columbia on the label of the disc's original pressing.

A tour of the U.S. and Canada also saw the release of the much-bootlegged Canadian promo-only Live at the El Mocambo, recorded at a Toronto rock club, which finally saw an official release as part of the 2½ Years box set in 1993. It was during the ensuing United States tour that Costello met and developed a relationship with former Playboy model Bebe Buell (mother of Liv Tyler). Their on-again-off-again courtship would last until 1984 and would allegedly become a deep well of inspiration for Costello's songwriting. In 1979, he released Armed Forces (originally to have been titled Emotional Fascism, a phrase that appeared on the LP's inner sleeve). Both the album and the single "Oliver's Army" went to #2 in the UK. Costello also found time in 1979 to produce the debut album for 2 Tone ska revival band, The Specials.

Costello's standing in the U.S. was bruised for a time when in March 1979, during a drunken argument with Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett in a Columbus, Ohio Holiday Inn bar, the singer referred to James Brown as a "jive-ass nigger", then upped the ante by pronouncing Ray Charles a "blind, ignorant, nigger". Costello apologised at a New York City press conference a few days later, claiming that he had been drunk and had been attempting to be obnoxious in order to bring the conversation to a swift conclusion, not anticipating that Bramlett would bring his comments to the press. According to Costello, "it became necessary for me to outrage these people with about the most obnoxious and offensive remarks that I could muster." In his liner notes for the expanded version of Get Happy!!, Costello writes that some time after the incident he had declined an offer to meet Charles out of guilt and embarrassment, though Charles himself had forgiven Costello saying "Drunken talk isn't meant to be printed in the paper." Costello worked extensively in Britain's Rock Against Racism campaign both before and after the incident. The incident inspired his Get Happy!! song "Riot Act."

Costello is also an avid country music fan and has cited George Jones as his favourite country singer. In 1977, he appeared in Jones' duet album My Very Special Guests, contributing "Stranger In The House," which they later performed together on an HBO special dedicated to Jones.

1980s

The soul-infused Get Happy!! would be the first, and—along with King of America — possibly most successful, of Costello's many experiments with genres beyond those he is normally associated with. The single, "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" was an old Sam and Dave song (though Costello increased the tempo considerably). Lyrically, the songs are full of Costello's signature word play, to the point that he later felt he had become something of a self-parody and toned it down on later releases; he has mockingly described himself in interviews as "rock and roll's Scrabble champion." His only 1980 appearance in North America was at the Heatwave festival in August near Toronto.

In 1981, the band released Trust amidst growing tensions within the band, particularly between Bruce and Pete Thomas. In the U.S., the single "Watch Your Step" was released and played live on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow show, and received airplay on FM rock radio. In the UK, the single "Clubland" scraped the lower reaches of the charts; follow-up single "From A Whisper To A Scream" (a duet with Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze) became the first Costello single in over four years to completely miss the charts.

Following Trust, Costello released Almost Blue, an album of country music cover songs written by the likes of Hank Williams ("Why Don't You Love Me (Like You Used To Do?)"), Merle Haggard ("Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down") and Gram Parsons ("How Much I Lied"). The album was a tribute to the country music he had grown up listening to, especially George Jones. It received mixed reviews. The first pressings of the record in the UK bore a sticker with the message: "WARNING: This album contains country & western music and may cause a radical reaction in narrow minded listeners." Almost Blue did spawn a surprise UK hit single in a version of George Jones' "Good Year For The Roses" (written by Jerry Chesnut), which reached #6.

Imperial Bedroom (1982) marked a much darker sound, due in part to the production of Geoff Emerick, famed for engineering several Beatles records. Imperial Bedroom remains one of his most critically acclaimed records, but again failed to produce any hit singles. Costello has said he disliked the marketing pitch for the album. The album also featured Costello's song "Almost Blue"; jazz singer and trumpeter Chet Baker would later perform and record a version of this song.

In 1983, he released Punch the Clock, featuring female backing vocals (Afrodiziak) and a four-piece horn section (The TKO Horns), alongside The Attractions. Clive Langer (who co-produced with Alan Winstanley), provided Costello with a melody which eventually became "Shipbuilding," which featured a trumpet solo by Chet Baker. Prior to the release of Costello's own version, a version of the song was a minor UK hit for former Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt.

Under the pseudonym The Imposter, Costello released "Pills And Soap," an attack on the changes in British society brought on by Thatcherism, released to coincide with the run-up to the 1983 UK general election. Punch the Clock also generated an international hit in the single "Everyday I Write the Book," aided by a music video featuring lookalikes of the Prince and Princess of Wales undergoing domestic strife in a suburban home. The song became Costello's first Top 40 hit single in the U.S. Also in the same year, Costello provided vocals on a version of the Madness song "Tomorrow's Just Another Day" released as a B-side on the single of the same name.

Tensions within the band were beginning to tell, and Costello announced his retirement and the break-up of the group shortly before they were to record Goodbye Cruel World (1984). Costello would later say of this record that they had "got it as wrong as you can in terms of the execution". The record was poorly received upon its initial release; the liner notes to the 1995 Rykodisc re-release, penned by Costello, begin with the words "Congratulations!, you've just purchased our worst album". Costello's retirement, although short-lived, was accompanied by two compilations, Elvis Costello: The Man in the UK, Europe and Australia, and The Best of Elvis Costello & The Attractions in the U.S.

In 1985, he appeared in the Live Aid benefit concert in England, singing the Beatles' "All You Need is Love" as a solo artist. (The event was overrunning and Costello was asked to "ditch the band"). Costello introduced the song as an "old northern English folk song," and the audience was invited to sing the chorus. In the same year Costello teamed up with friend T-Bone Burnett for the single "The People's Limousine" under the moniker of The Coward Brothers. That year, Costello also produced Rum Sodomy & the Lash for the Irish punk/folk band The Pogues. By 1986, Costello was preparing to make a comeback. Working in the U.S. with Burnett, a band containing a number of Elvis Presley's sidemen (including James Burton and Jerry Scheff), and minor input from the Attractions, he produced King of America an acoustic guitar-driven album with a country sound. Around this time he legally changed his name back to Declan MacManus, adding Aloysius as an extra middle name. Costello retooled his upcoming tour to allow for multiple nights in each city; playing one night with The Confederates (James Burton et al.), one night with The Attractions, and one night solo acoustic. In May 1986, Costello performed at Self Aid, a benefit concert held in Dublin that focused on the chronic unemployment which was widespread in Ireland at that time. Later that year, he returned to the studio with the Attractions and recorded Blood and Chocolate, which was lauded for a post-punk fervour not heard since 1978's This Year's Model. It also marked the return of producer Nick Lowe, who had produced Costello's first five albums. While Blood and Chocolate failed to chart a hit single of any significance, it did produce what has since become one of Costello's signature concert songs, "I Want You." On this album, Costello adopted the alias Napoleon Dynamite, the name he later attributed to the character of the emcee that he played during the vaudeville-style tour to support Blood and Chocolate. (The pseudonym had previously been used in 1982, when the B-side single "Imperial Bedroom" was credited to Napoleon Dynamite & The Royal Guard, and was later appropriated by the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite). In 1989, Costello, with a new contract with Warner Bros., released Spike, which spawned his biggest single in America, the Top Twenty hit "Veronica," one of several songs Costello co-wrote with Paul McCartney in that period (see Collaborations).

1990s

In 1991, having grown a long beard, Costello released Mighty Like a Rose, which featured the single "The Other Side of Summer." He also found time to co-compose and co-produce, with Richard Harvey, the title and incidental music for the mini-series G.B.H. by Alan Bleasdale. This entirely instrumental, and largely orchestral, soundtrack garnered a BAFTA, for Best Music for a TV Series for the pair.

In 1993, Costello experimented with classical music with a critically acclaimed collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet on The Juliet Letters. During this period, Costello wrote a full album's worth of material for Wendy James, and these songs became the tracks on her 1993 solo album Now Ain't the Time for Your Tears. Costello returned to rock and roll the following year with a project that reunited him with The Attractions, Brutal Youth. In 1995, Costello released Kojak Variety, an album of cover songs recorded five years earlier, and followed in 1996 with an album of songs originally written for other artists, All This Useless Beauty. This was the final album of original material that he issued under his Warner Bros. contract. In the spring of 1996, Costello played a series of intimate club dates, backed only by Nieve on the piano, in support of All This Useless Beauty. An ensuing summer and fall tour with the Attractions proved to be the death knell for the band. With relations between Costello and bassist Bruce Thomas at a breaking point, Costello announced that the current tour would be the Attractions' last. The quartet performed their final U.S. show in Seattle, Washington on 1 September 1996, before wrapping up their tour in Japan. To fulfill his contractual obligations to Warner Bros., Costello released a greatest hits album titled Extreme Honey (1997). It contained an original track titled "The Bridge I Burned," featuring Costello's son, Matt, on bass. In the intervening period, Costello had served as artistic chair for the 1995 Meltdown Festival, which gave him the opportunity to explore his increasingly eclectic musical interests. His involvement in the festival yielded a one-off live EP with jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, which featured both cover material and a few of his own songs.

In 1998, Costello signed a multi-label contract with Polygram Records, sold by its parent company the same year to become part of the Universal Music Group. Costello released his new work on what he deemed the suitable imprimatur within the family of labels. His first new release as part of this contract involved a collaboration with Burt Bacharach. Their work had commenced earlier, in 1996, on a song called "God Give Me Strength" for the movie Grace of My Heart. This led the pair to write and record Painted From Memory, released under his new contract in 1998, on the Mercury Records label. They also recorded an updated version of Bacharach's "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" for the soundtrack to , with both appearing in the film to perform the song. He also wrote "I Throw My Toys Around" for The Rugrats Movie and performed it with No Doubt. The same year, he collaborated with Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains on "The Long Journey Home" on the soundtrack of the PBS/Disney mini-series of the same name. The soundtrack won a Grammy that year.

In 1999, Costello contributed a version of "She," released in 1974 by Charles Aznavour and Herbert Kretzmer, for the soundtrack of the film Notting Hill, with Trevor Jones producing. For the 25th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, Costello was invited to the program, where he re-enacted his abrupt song-switch: This time, however, he interrupted the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage," and they acted as his backing group for Radio Radio.

2000 to present

In 2000, Costello appeared at the Town Hall Theatre, New York, in Steve Nieve's opera Welcome to the Voice, alongside Ron Sexsmith and John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants.In 2001, Costello was artist in residence at UCLA and wrote the music for a new ballet. He produced and appeared on an album of pop songs for opera singer, Anne Sofie von Otter. He released the album When I Was Cruel in 2002 on Island Records, and toured with a new band, the Imposters (essentially the Attractions but with a different bass player, Davey Faragher, formerly of Cracker). He appeared as himself in the How I Spent My Strummer Vacation episode of The Simpsons. On 23 February 2003, Costello, along with Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, and Dave Grohl performed a version of The Clash's "London Calling" at the 45th Grammy Awards ceremony, in honour of Clash frontman Joe Strummer, who had died the previous December. In March, Elvis Costello & The Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He announced his engagement in May to Canadian jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall who he had seen in concert and then met backstage at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney Australia. That September, he released North, an album of piano-based ballads concerning the breakdown of his former marriage, and his falling in love with Krall. Also that year, Costello made an appearance in the television show Frasier as a folk singer in the Cafe Nervosa, sending Frasier and Niles on a search for a new coffee bar.

The song Scarlet Tide (co-written by Costello and T-Bone Burnett and used in the film Cold Mountain) was nominated for a 2004 Academy Award; he performed it at the awards ceremony with Alison Krauss, who sang the song on the official soundtrack. Costello co-wrote many songs on Krall's 2004 CD, The Girl in the Other Room, the first of hers to feature several original compositions. In July 2004 Costello's first full-scale orchestral work, Il Sogno, was performed in New York. The work, a ballet after Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, was commissioned by Italian dance troupe Aterballeto, and received critical acclaim from the classical music critics. Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, the recording was released on CD in September by Deutsche Grammophon. Costello released the album The Delivery Man, recorded in Oxford, Mississippi, and released on Lost Highway Records, which was hailed as one of his best albums. .]]

CD recording of a collaboration with Marian McPartland on her show Piano Jazz was released in 2005. It featured Costello singing six jazz standards and two of his own songs, accompanied by McPartland on piano. In November Costello started recording a new album with Allen Toussaint and producer Joe Henry. The River in Reverse was released in the UK on the Verve label in May the following year.

A 2005 tour included a gig at Glastonbury that Costello considered to be so dreadful that he said "I don't care if I ever play England again. That gig made up my mind I wouldn't come back. I don't get along with it. We lost touch. It's 25 years since I lived there. I don't dig it, they don't dig me....British music fans don't have the same attitude to age as they do in America, where young people come to check out, say Willie Nelson. They feel some connection with him and find a role for that music in their lives." In a performance in 2007 directed by Kasper Bech Holten at the Opera's studio theatre (Takelloftet), finished songs were interspersed with pieces from Costello's 1993 collaborative classical album The Juliet Letters, featuring Danish soprano Sine Bundgaard as Lind. The 2009 album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane includes material from Secret Songs.

On 6 May 2008, Fender Musical Instruments released Elvis Costello Jazzmaster, an exact representation of the late 1960s heavily modified Fender Jazzmaster guitar he had used to record his first 1977 album, My Aim Is True. Its features include a post-1968 neck design, a walnut stain finish and a tremolo with easier and greater travel, essential for that "Watching the Detectives" tone, or what Costello called "that spy movie sound".

On 22 April 2008, Momofuku was released on Lost Highway Records, the same imprint that released his last studio album, The Delivery Man. The album was, at least initially, released exclusively on vinyl (with a code to download a digital copy of the album). That summer, in support of the album, Costello toured with The Police on the final leg of their 2007/2008 Reunion Tour. Costello played a homecoming gig at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 25 June 2006. and, that month, gave his first performance in Poland, appearing with The Imposters for the closing gig of the Malta theatre festival in Poznań.

In July 2008, Costello (as Declan McManus) was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Liverpool.

Costello is the host for a Sundance Channel series entitled in which Costello talks and performs with stars in various fields. It airs on Wednesdays, beginning 3 December 2008.

Costello was featured on Fall Out Boy's 2008 album Folie à Deux, providing vocals on the track "What a Catch, Donnie", along with other artists who are friends with the band.

Costello appeared in Stephen Colbert's television special ; in the program, he was eaten by a bear, but later saved by Santa Claus; he also sang a duet with Colbert. The special was first aired on 23 November 2008. Costello released Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, a collaboration with T-Bone Burnett, on 9 June 2009. Burnett previously worked with Costello on King of America and Spike. It was his first on the Starbucks Hear Music label and a return to country music in the manner of Good Year for the Roses.

Costello appeared as himself in the finale of the third season of 30 Rock and sang in the episode's celebrity telethon, Kidney Now!. The episode references Costello's given name when Jack Donaghy accuses him of concealing his true identity: "Declan McManus, international art thief."

In May 2009, Costello made a surprise cameo appearance on-stage at the Beacon Theater in New York as part of Spinal Tap's Unwigged and Unplugged show, singing their fictional 1965 hit "Gimme Some Money" with the band backing him up.

On 15 May 2010, Costello announced he would withdraw from a concert performed in Israel in opposition to Israel's treatment of Palestinians. In a statement on his website, Costello wrote, "It has been necessary to dial out the falsehoods of propaganda, the double game and hysterical language of politics, the vanity and self-righteousness of public communiqués from cranks in order to eventually sift through my own conflicted thoughts."

Costello released the album National Ransom in autumn 2010.

Personal life

Costello has been married three times, the first time to Mary Burgoyne in 1974, with whom he had a son.

In 1985, Costello became involved with Cait O'Riordan, former bassist for the British group The Pogues, while he was producing The Pogues' album Rum Sodomy and the Lash. They married in 1986 and had split up by the end of 2002.

Humanitarian causes

Costello sits on the Advisory Committee of the Board of Directors of the Jazz Foundation of America. Costello began working with the Jazz Foundation in 2001, and has been a featured performer in their annual benefit A Great Night in Harlem since 2006. Costello has donated his time working with the Jazz Foundation of America. to save the homes and the lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians, including musicians that survived Hurricane Katrina.

Collaborations

In addition to his major recorded collaborations with Bacharach, the Brodsky Quartet, and von Otter, Costello has frequently been involved in other collaborations.

In 1987, Costello began a long-running songwriting collaboration with Paul McCartney. They wrote a number of songs together, including:

"Back On My Feet", the B-side of McCartney's 1987 single "Once Upon A Long Ago", later added as a bonus track on the 1993 re-issue of McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt

Costello's "Veronica" and "Pads, Paws and Claws" from Spike (1989) (Also, McCartney plays Hofner bass but does not have a writing credit for "This Town" - the opening song for the album.)

"So Like Candy" and "Playboy to a Man" from Mighty Like a Rose (1991)

McCartney's "My Brave Face", "Don't Be Careless Love", "That Day Is Done" and "You Want Her Too" from Flowers in the Dirt (1989)

"The Lovers That Never Were" and "Mistress and Maid" from Off the Ground (1993).

"Shallow Grave" from All This Useless Beauty (1996).

Costello talked about their collaboration:

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In 1987, he appeared on the HBO special Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night, which featured his long-time idol Roy Orbison, and was invited back to Saturday Night Live for the first time since 1977.

In 1988, Costello co-wrote "At the Other End (of the Telescope)" with Aimee Mann; this song appears on the Til Tuesday album Everything's Different Now.

In 2000, Costello wrote lyrics to "Green Song", a solo cello piece by Svante Henryson; this song appears on the Anne Sofie von Otter album For the Stars.

In 2005, Costello performed with Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong. They played both Costello and Green Day songs together, including "Alison", "No Action", "Basket Case" and "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)".

In 2007, Costello collaborated with the Argentinean/Uruguay an electro-tango band Bajofondo on the song "Fairly Right" from the album Mar Dulce.

In 2008, Costello collaborated with Fall Out Boy on the track "What A Catch, Donnie" from their album Folie a Deux.

In Jenny Lewis' 2008 release, Acid Tongue, Costello provided vocals for the song "Carpetbaggers".

In December 2009, it was announced that Costello would be portraying The Shape in the upcoming album Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a collaboration between rock singer John Mellencamp and novelist Stephen King.

In February 2010, Costello appeared in the live cinecast of Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, singing some of his own songs, and participating in many of the show's other musical and acting performances.

Artistic significance

Costello has worked with Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett, Lucinda Williams, Lee Konitz, Brian Eno, and Rubén Blades, as well as many other musicians not listed above.

Costello is also a music fan, and often champions the works of others in print. He has written several pieces for the magazine Vanity Fair, including the summary of what a perfect weekend of music would be. He has contributed to two Grateful Dead tribute albums and covered Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter tunes such as Ship of Fools, Friend of the Devil and Tennessee Jed in concert. His collaboration with Bacharach honoured Bacharach's place in pop music history. Costello also appeared in documentaries about singers Dusty Springfield, Brian Wilson, Wanda Jackson, and Memphis, Tennessee-based Stax Records. He has also interviewed one of his own influences, Joni Mitchell.

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #80 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

==Discography==

Costello has released over 30 studio albums on his own and with the Attractions, the Imposters, or others. He has also released five live albums: Live at the El Mocambo, Deep Dead Blue, Costello & Nieve, My Flame Burns Blue, and Live at Hollywood High. There have also been numerous compilations, box sets, and reissues by labels such as Rykodisc, Demon, Rhino, and Universal Music Enterprises.

Filmography

Actor

1979 film debut as "The Earl of Manchester" in Americathon

1984 as "Henry Scully" in the UK TV series, Scully

1985 as inept magician "Rosco de Ville" in the Alan Bleasdale film, No Surrender

1987 as "Hives the Butler" in the Alex Cox film, Straight to Hell, starring Joe Strummer and Courtney Love

1994 as himself on The Larry Sanders Show in the episode "People's Choice"

1997 as a barman in Spice World.

1999 as himself performing "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" with Burt Bacharach in

1999 as a younger version of himself in 200 Cigarettes

2003 as Ben on "Frasier," one episode

2004 as himself in Two and a Half Men - Season 2, Episode 1

2006 as himself in Delirious

2006 as himself in

2008 as himself in

2009 as himself on the episode of 30 Rock, "Kidney Now!"

2010 as himself on Treme

Soundtrack

2003 Academy Award nomination for best original song, "The Scarlet Tide", in Cold Mountain

Bibliography

Costello, Elvis. A Singing Dictionary. London: Plangent Visions Music; New York, N.Y.: Exclusive selling agent for the United States and Canada, Warner Bros. Publications, 1980. ISBN 0-7692-1505-X. Sheet music, chords, and lyrics for works 1977–1980.

References

External links

ElvisCostello.com

Official Elvis Costello Lost Highway Records Artist Page

The Elvis Costello Home Page Wiki

Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Elvis Costello & the Attractions members Category:English buskers Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:English male singers Category:English rock guitarists Category:English rock keyboardists Category:English rock singers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English people of Irish descent Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Lost Highway Records artists Category:Musicians from London Category:People from Paddington Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees‎ Category:Warner Bros. Records artists

Name	Lee Ranaldo
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Lee M. Ranaldo
Born	February 03, 1956Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, USA
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, drums
Genre	Alternative rock, Noise rock, No Wave
Occupation	Musician, Songwriter, Producer
Years active	1980–present
Label	Neutral, Ecstatic Peace!, Homestead, SST, Enigma, DGC, SYR, Interscope
Associated acts	Sonic Youth, The Cribs, Text Of Light
Notable instruments	Fender JazzmasterFender Telecaster DeluxeGibson Les Paul

Lee M. Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo and Thurston Moore, of Sonic Youth, the 33rd and 34th Greatest Guitarists of All Time, respectively.

Biography

Ranaldo was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, and graduated from Binghamton University. He has three sons, Cody Ranaldo, Sage Ranaldo and Frey Ranaldo and is married to the experimental artist Leah Singer.

Ranaldo started his career in New York in several bands and joining the electric guitar orchestra of Glenn Branca. Among Ranaldo's solo records are Dirty Windows, a collection of spoken texts with music, Amarillo Ramp (For Robert Smithson), pieces for the guitar, and Scriptures of the Golden Eternity. His books include several with art or photography by Leah Singer, including Drift, Bookstore, Road Movies, and Moroccan Journal: Jajouka excerpt (from a full-length book of writings on Moroccan travels and music). Ranaldo has also published Jrnls80s (published by Soft Skull Press), as well as a book of poems, Lengths & Breaths, with photography by Cynthia Connolly. His most recent book of poetry, Against Refusing, was published by Water Row Press in April 2010 with cover artwork by Leah Singer. His visual+sound works have been shown at galleries and museums in Paris, Toronto, New York, London, Sydney, Los Angeles, Vienna, and elsewhere.

Ranaldo has produced albums for artists including Babes in Toyland, You Am I, Magik Markers, Deity Guns, and Dutch art rock-ensemble Kleg. He has edited a volume of tour journals from the 1995 Lollapalooza Tour written by himself, Thurston Moore, Beck, Stephen Malkmus, Courtney Love, and others.

Collaborations

Ranaldo has also worked with jazz drummer William Hooker on improvised music, and reading and improvising poetry.

His main side projects are Drift and Text of Light.

Drift is a duo with his wife Leah Singer, with whom he has performed many live installation pieces with improvised music. This collaboration, utilizing live manipulated 16mm film projections, electric guitar and recited texts, occupied the duo from the early 90s until late 2005, when they re-created the performance as an art installation at Gigantic Art Space, a gallery in New York City. Since then the pair have been performing a new piece entitled "iloveyouihateyou", a combination installation and performance work that has been presented in the US and Europe.

Text of Light was founded in 2001 by Lee Ranaldo, Alan Licht, Ulrich Krieger, Christian Marclay and William Hooker. The core group is Ranaldo, Licht and Krieger with changing DJs (Marclay, DJ Olive, Marina Rosenfeld) and drummers (Hooker, Tim Barnes, Steve Shelley). The music is free improvised and mostly played along with, but not really referencing, films by Stan Brakhage. The name for the band comes from Brakhage's film The Text of Light.

In 2007 Ranaldo collaborated with British rock band The Cribs on their third album Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever. The track "Be Safe" is a Ranaldo spoken word piece performed by the artist, and backed with the Cribs music.

Ranaldo made an appearance in the 2008 feature documentary by Nik Sheehan about Brion Gysin and the Dreamachine entitled FLicKeR.

Equipment

guitar.]] Ranaldo usually uses Fender Jazzmaster, Telecaster Deluxe electric guitars and sometimes Gibson Les Pauls, with radically alternative tunings, and modifications. One of his Jazzmasters has a single coil pickup installed between the bridge and the tailpiece to exploit the resonating chiming sounds on that area of string at these so called tailed bridge guitars.

In 2007 Yuri Landman built for Ranaldo the Moonlander, a biheaded electric guitar with 18 strings: 6 normal strings and 12 sympathetic strings.

Since Ranaldo and Moore, together with Elvis Costello and J. Mascis, are known for being key figures in the popularisation and resurrection of the Fender Jazzmaster, Fender introduced in 2009 a special Lee Ranaldo signature edition of a transparent blue version, together with a transparent green one for Thurston.

Printed works

Bookstore and Others (Paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer, Hozomeen Press (April 1995), ISBN 978-1885175069

Drift (box set with DVD) - Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer, Gigantic ArtSpace (2005), ISBN 978-1933045344

Ground Zero: New Yorkers Respond (Paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, David Amram, Frank Messina, Wasteland Press (August 15, 2002), ISBN 978-0971581173

Hello from the American Desert (Paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, Curt Kirkwood, Silver Wonder Press (November 2007)

JRNLS80s (Paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, Soft Skull Press (1998), ISBN 978-1887128315

Lengths & Breaths (Paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, Cynthia Connolly, Water Row Press (August 2004), ISBN 978-0934953795

Moroccan Journal (Hardcover) - Lee Ranaldo, Fringecore (1999), ISBN 978-9076207520

Moroccan Journal: Jajouka excerpt (Unknown Binding) - Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer, Ring Tarigh for the Literary Renaissance (1997), ASIN: B0006RJF80

Online Diaries : the Lollapalooza '95 tour journals (Paperback) - Beck, Courtney Love, Stephen Malkmus, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Mike Watt, David Yow, Soft Skull Press (1996), ISBN 978-1887128209

Road Movies (Paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer, Soft Skull Press (Nov 30, 2004), ISBN 978-1932360738

Against Refusing (Hardcover) - Lee Ranaldo, Water Row Press (April 2010), ISBN 978-0-934953-84-9

Discography - solo recordings

From Here to Infinity (1987)

A Perfect Day EP (1992)

Scriptures of the Golden Eternity (1993)

Broken Circle / Spiral Hill EP (1994)

East Jesus (1995)

Clouds (1997)

''Dirty Windows (1999)

Amarillo Ramp (For Robert Smithson) (2000)

''Outside My Window The City Is Never Silent - A Bestiary (2002)

Text Of Light (2004)

Maelstrom From Drift (2008)

Countless Centuries Fled Into The Distance Like So Many Storms EP (2008)

References

Lee's interview for Slovak music magazine Novy Popular (in English), 2010

Category:1956 births Category:American experimental guitarists Category:Living people Category:Sonic Youth members Category:American rock guitarists Category:American male singers Category:American record producers Category:American poets Category:Binghamton University alumni Category:People from Glen Cove, New York