'Immediate Family' pays tribute to the musicians who fleshed out the California sound
Robert AbeleDec. 15, 2023
Session players have long understood that the gig involves bringing what you can do, then playing whats required. Its a legacy of professionalism and anonymity, one that the 60s hit-song backup stalwarts known as the Wrecking Crew understood, but which morphed into something a bit different with the 70s musicians who make up filmmaker Danny Tedescos affably nostalgic music documentary Immediate Family.
The featured players guitarists Danny Kootch Kortchmar and Waddy Wachtel, bassist Leland Sklar and drummer Russ Kunkel were the heartbeat to the California sound of the singer
/ –
songwriter era forged by the likes of Carole King and James Taylor. Albums
from such as King’s
Tapestry
,
and Taylor’s
Sweet Baby James
,
to
Warren Zevons Excitable Boy and Jackson Brownes Running
O o
n Empty secured their reputations.
But audiophiles knew their names (because Asalbums liner notes
began listing personnel
)
, their skills cultivated fan bases
,
and they came to be seen less as reliable hired hands than specialized, sought-after artists.
The movie, built around interviews, archival footage
,
and a raft of memorable songs, is Tedescos generational follow-up of sorts to his 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew. That project was spurred by Tedescos desire to record his dad Tommys experiences playing with that legendarily versatile, unsung group, who
serviced supported
everyone from Frank Sinatra
and the Crystals
to Phil Spector and Brian Wilson.
One key difference with Immediate Family
as the next-gen session tale
is implied in the title. Its a name coined much later
— what , the one that
Kortchmar, Wachtel, Sklar and Kunkel tour under now as backup veterans stepping into the spotlight. But its also the
warm
feeling they engendered in their heyday, in the studio or onstage,
separately or together,
playing for Taylor, King, Browne, David Crosby, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, Stevie Nicks
,
and countless others. As Taylor says in the film,
on stage with them he wasnt a solo act:
I felt like I was playing in a band.
The wizard-bearded Sklar, correspondingly, saw that period as one that allowed for individuality within their duties as session
/touring
musicians, noting that while hes probably played bass on Fire & Rain 10,000 times, hes never played it the same way twice. Kortchmar, meanwhile, describes their in-demand status as not about being counted upon to copy someone. He says, We were called to be ourselves. We were character actors.
The big names listed above show up
, too,
to pay their respects on camera, as
well doasprominent producers Peter Asher and Lou Adler, and
80s solo giants Don Henley (who credits Kortchmar with igniting his post-Eagles career), Lyle Lovett and Phil Collins. Sure, its a lovefest, but its glimpse of the last great era of live-in-studio recording is an enjoyable, personality-rich one.
Also, any time you foreground artists who can background their
own
ego
s
to make great music, the breezy jam of backstage anecdotes
and music gab
becomes as organically melodic as one of Kortchmars iconic Tapestry solos, a Wachtel groove
,
or a Sklar-plucked bass line. Only the occasional touch of cheap-looking animation feels antithetical to a movie about commissioned expertise:
w W
as the
Russ Kunkel or
Waddy Wachtel of animators not available?
But its the strings worth picking in Immediate Family, not the nits.
If anything, you want even more stories from these guys who started out as rock and roll dreamers, transitioned to individual contractors, then came to feel part of something
both
larger than themselves
, and as intimate as they wanted
.
Because y Y
ou could try to become Keith Richards, or, if youre as talented as
Waddy
Wachtel, you can get tapped by Richards to play with him on his solo record, and make that sound just as rock-god-fulfilling.
What do you know — i I
t turns out
that
these session masters know how to meet the needs of a music documentary quite nicely, too.
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