Tom Waits | Artist
Thomas Alan Waits is an American singer-songwriter, musician, composer and actor born 1949 in Pomona, California. Waits has had many musical personas: folk singer/songwriter, jazz beatnik, drunken lounge crooner, country outlaw and avant-garde percussionist. With lyrics often focusing on society's underworld, delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice, Waits creates characters and stories accompanied by music that’s unlike any other. Waits was born and raised in a middle-class family in Pomona, California. Inspired by the work of Bob Dylan and the Beat Generation, he began singing on the San Diego folk circuit. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1972, where he worked as a songwriter before signing a recording contract with Asylum Records. His first albums Closing Time (1973) and The Heart of Saturday Night (1974) reflected his American folk roots, and were studded with poignant vignettes of downtrodden characters. The double-live Nighthawks at the Diner (1975) is a scat-jazz masterpiece reflecting his nostalgic love for the beatnik-era sounds and attitudes of the late 50's, redolent of smoky cocktail lounges and fleeting late night romances. The following quartet of albums Small Change (1976), Foreign Affairs (1977), Blue Valentine (1978), and Heart Attack and Vine (1980) move in a more jazzy direction with sophisticated arrangements and backing, but still with vivid story-telling and characterisation at their heart. In 1980, Waits married artist Kathleen Brennan, split from his manager and record label, and moved to New York City. With Brennan's encouragement and frequent collaboration, he pursued a more eclectic and experimental sound influenced by Harry Partch and Captain Beefheart, as heard on the loose trilogy Swordfishtrombones (1983), Rain Dogs (1985) and Franks Wild Years (1987). Waits composed the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's film One from the Heart in 1982 and made cameos in several subsequent Coppola films. Later in the 80's he began working with independant film auteur Jim Jarmusch: starred in Jarmusch's film Down by Law (1986), lent his voice to Mystery Train (1989), composed the soundtrack for Night on Earth (1991) and appeared in Coffee and Cigarettes (2003). He then collaborated with Robert Wilson and William S. Burroughs on the "cowboy opera" The Black Rider (1990), the songs for which were released on the album of the same name. Waits and Wilson collaborated again on Alice (2002) and Woyzeck (2000). Bone Machine (1992) and Mule Variations (1999) won Grammys for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Contemporary Folk Album, respectively. In 2002, the songs from Alice and Wozzeck were recorded and released on the albums Alice and Blood Money. Waits went on to release Real Gone (2004), the compilation Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006), the live album Glitter and Doom Live (2009) and Bad as Me (2011). Waits is a captivating stage performer and ever-creative recording artist with a catalogue of superb albums. All twenty-one of the studio albums are unique and recommended without reservation. In 2011 Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. Introducing him, Neil Young said "This next man is indescribable.. He's sort of a performer, singer, actor, magician, spirit guide, changeling.. I think it's great that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has recognized this immense talent. Could have been the Motion Picture Hall of Fame, could have been the Blues Hall of Fame, could have been the Performance Artist Hall of Fame, but it was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that recognized the great Tom Waits." In accepting the award, Waits mused, "They say that I have no hits and that I'm difficult to work with. And they say that like it's a bad thing!"
Artist Website: tomwaits.com
Featured Albums: Tom Waits
Related Artists: Marc Ribot, Kathleen Brennan, Jim Jarmusch, Rickie Lee Jones
Collections: Music Visionaries
