Music Banter - View Single Post - Bulldog's Armchair Guide To Elvis Costello

Gavin B. · 12-21-2009, 12:46 PM

I'd love to hear the full content of the Costello/Frisell set. To my knowledge the EP has never been released in the USA. Frisell is an awesome guitar player. In the late 80s and early 90s Frisell was associated with the avant garde downtown jazz movement in New York and recorded a couple of albums with John Zorn. Frisell's distinctive playing can also be heard as Costello's session guitarist on the Juliet Letters (1993) and The Sweetest Punch: The Songs of Costello and Bacharach (1999). Frisell's playing is unique because the timbre of his Fender guitar swells and breathes like saxaphone and often has the lush tonality of a pedal steel guitar.

This is a bit off topic but has a marginal relevance to an overview of Costello's music. I recently heard Elvis Costello mention on his syndicated show Spectacle that his father a jazz and big band vocalist of some noteriety. Elvis went so far as to say his father was (and still is) a better vocalist than he is.

Costello's claim got me curious and I found out his father's name was Ross McManus and I came across this amazing YouTube video of Ross McManus playing conga and singing Patsy Girl with the Joe Loss Band at the 1964 New Musical Express Big Beat Show. The song was a minor bluebeat/ska hit in England. The physical resembalance of Elvis Costello to his father is striking. McManus really does have a fantastic voice and Costello's vocal phrasing is very similar to his father's.

I'm guessing that many Brits are already familiar with Ross McManus' musical career and his paternal relationship to Elvis Costello but McManus is virtually unknown in America.

12-21-2009, 12:46 PM	#124 (permalink)
Gavin B. Model Worker Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 1,248	I'd love to hear the full content of the Costello/Frisell set. To my knowledge the EP has never been released in the USA. Frisell is an awesome guitar player. In the late 80s and early 90s Frisell was associated with the avant garde downtown jazz movement in New York and recorded a couple of albums with John Zorn. Frisell's distinctive playing can also be heard as Costello's session guitarist on the Juliet Letters (1993) and The Sweetest Punch: The Songs of Costello and Bacharach (1999). Frisell's playing is unique because the timbre of his Fender guitar swells and breathes like saxaphone and often has the lush tonality of a pedal steel guitar. This is a bit off topic but has a marginal relevance to an overview of Costello's music. I recently heard Elvis Costello mention on his syndicated show Spectacle that his father a jazz and big band vocalist of some noteriety. Elvis went so far as to say his father was (and still is) a better vocalist than he is. Costello's claim got me curious and I found out his father's name was Ross McManus and I came across this amazing YouTube video of Ross McManus playing conga and singing Patsy Girl with the Joe Loss Band at the 1964 New Musical Express Big Beat Show. The song was a minor bluebeat/ska hit in England. The physical resembalance of Elvis Costello to his father is striking. McManus really does have a fantastic voice and Costello's vocal phrasing is very similar to his father's. I'm guessing that many Brits are already familiar with Ross McManus' musical career and his paternal relationship to Elvis Costello but McManus is virtually unknown in America.