Arrangements Vol. 1

バーバンク・サウンドの最重要人物であるヴァン・ダイク・パークス、その真骨頂は弦のアレンジにあるということは多くの人が指摘していますが、ワーナーからリリースされた諸作品をまとめて俯瞰するコンピは現在まで存在しませんでした。

本 作はヴァン・ダイクが自身のレーベルから満を持してリリースした「自ら選ぶ名アレンジ仕事集」です。リトルフィートやライ・クーダーなどの曲は勿論、その マッド過ぎるアレンジがソフトロック/ポップス・マニアから非常に人気がある(しかし今まで一度もCD化はされていなかった)"Eagle And Me"や"Farther Along"などのソロ・シングル曲も収録。更にはMOJO MENの"Sit Down I Think I Love You"がシングルヴァージョンで収録されたり、ボニー・レイットのシングルB面曲"Wah She Go Do"(隠れカリプソナンバー♪)など、ヴァン・ダイク・マニアのツボを突く納得の全15曲。マエストロの名に相応しい段違いの才能が詰まっています。現 在も入手困難なヴァン・ダイクのソロ・ソングルをまとめて聴けるだけでもマストと断言です。

During the Golden Age of Record Making in the 1960s and '70s, some acts would simply roll into the studio and record, but most were accompanied by hands-on producers who would partner them with musicians and arrangers who could help them create a unique and compelling sound with greater skill and efficiency than if left to their own devices, and a few musicians of the era created some of their best and most enduring work for other people. Van Dyke Parks helped Brian Wilson write the songs for SMiLE and recorded a handful of fine and critically acclaimed albums in the 1960s and '70s, but he earned his bread and butter as a producer and arranger, creating striking musical backdrops for other artists. Arrangements, Vol. 1 is a collection compiled by Parks himself that features 15 tracks he arranged; five were released under Parks' moniker, but the rest found him working for the likes of Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt, Arlo Guthrie, and Sal Valentino during his tenure as a staff producer at Warner Bros. Records. Most of these tracks reflect the same grand, outsized personality that Parks brought to his solo work; Parks is a man in love with musical Americana, but he's even more fond of the way other cultures stretch and shape American ideas, and his dandified vision, full of snappy and textural percussion, playful keyboard fixtures, bold horns and woodwinds, and strings that dance and sway with the melodies, truly defines each of these selections, even more than the folks who sing them. And while the tone of this collection is consistent, Parks can also mold his style to a variety of contexts, from the streetwise funk of Little Feat's "Spanish Moon," the mariachi guitars of Lowell George's "Cheek to Cheek," and the bawdy calypso of Bonnie Raitt's "Wha' She Go' Do" to the swampy Cajun pop of Sal Valentino's "Alligator Man," the psych-influenced sunshine pop of the Mojo Men's "Sit Down, I Think I Love You," and the very theatrical grandeur of Parks' cover of Joseph Spence's "Out on the Rolling Sea Where Jesus Spoke to Me." Parks' greatest legacy is in his albums Song Cycle, Discover America, and Jump, but Arrangements, Vol. 1 reveals that even doing work for hire, he had a sound and vision that set him apart, and the joyous eccentricity of this music is truly a delight. ~ Mark Deming|

2010年の来日、7インチでの6枚連続シングル・リリースと、ここ数年旺盛な活動を繰り広げているVDP御大。お次は自身のレーベルからの自選アレンジ・ベスト集です。今までベストの類がほとんど無く、ライ・クーダーやリトル・フィートでの仕事を俯瞰できるだけでも買いだが、入手困難なシングル・オンリー曲までまとめて収録とあれば、これはマストでしょう。現在隆盛を極める「譜面ロック」の創始者の功績を、今こそ讃えるべし。
intoxicate (C)杉山文宣