#3682: The Art of Tom Waits

On this program, we devote an hour to the music of Tom Waits, sampling his distinctive voice and musical soundworld. The American singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist and actor falls neatly into the New Sounds wheelhouse where carnival music, cocktail bar music, the stuff of children’s nightmares, art song, jazz, and rock intersect. From the unmistakeable version of his song, “Way Down in the Hole”- covers of which ran during the title sequences of each season of HBO’s “The Wire”- to his singing along to Gavin Bryars’ hypnotic lament in “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet,” to musical plays co-written with Kathleen Brennan, and even Disney songs, listen to an hour of music from Tom Waits.

Hear the Tom Waits version of the work song, “Heigh Ho!” from Disney’s Snow White, a few excerpts from his early recording, “Closing Time,” as well as highlights from his Faustian musical stage work The Black Rider – a collaboration with director Robert Wilson and librettist William Burroughs. There’s also music from a collaboration by the English composer Gavin Bryars and the mezzo-soprano Jess Walker, “Mercy and Grand,” a project exploring music of Tom Waits. Plus, listen to Waits render his raspy “Innocent When You Dream," the almost cookie-monster throaty drunk-like voice combined with pump organ, bass, banjo, and piano from a collection of live recordings - the Bridge School's Benefit Concerts. Then jazzers Aaron Shragge, Brandon Bernstein, and Matt Otto (featuring Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar) take on Waits’ “Innocent When You Dream,” and musician Taylor Haskins takes on “Take It With Me” on melodica. And more.

PROGRAM #3682 The Art of Tom Waits (First aired on 1/13/2015)