YOUNGER COODER FINDS HIS OWN VOICE
Ry’s son, Joachim, explores fatherhood on newest EP
Joachim Cooder released his debut album Love on a Real Train in 2012. So why does the Grammy Award-winning drummer and percussionist consider his most recent 2018 EP, Fuchsia Machu Picchu, as his first true solo album?
The album is the kind of genre jumping, global-embracing mix you would expect from Ry Cooder’s son, who was part of the rhythm sections on such massive albums as 1997’s Buena Vista Social Club and 2005’s Chavez Ravine.
“Love on a Real Train was a collection of instrumentals that I sent to my brother-in-law (and Ry Cooder band bassist), Robert Francis, my wife Juliette (Commagere), Inara George, Petra Hayden and others and said, ‘do something you want over this,’” Joachim Cooder said.
“Fuchsia Machu Picchu started very purely with me and my electric mbira and the goal of achieving something that I could go out and do on my own. I’ve never worked like that before, writing my own songs, singing them and so forth.”
Cooder freed his inner composer through this process. He found voice to what becoming a father has meant to him and his deep relationship to his daughter, and brought it out in the joyfully quirky tunes. The lullaby-like Elevated Boy takes its inspiration from an adventure his daughter’s doll has.
“My daughter and I come up with stories about anything and everything and it’s one of those,” he said. “That’s what a lot of these songs came out of, really simple thoughts and ideas. And the deep connection her and I have.”
The results aren’t simple. Because the Moonlight may literally describe why “this house is filled with blue and white,” but it also drifts into psychedelic realms of
philosophy in its layered hypnotic grooves. Chimes, bells, woodblocks and whispering choruses all embellish the soft, understated material on Fuchsia Machu Picchu.
As it turned out, reproducing a track like Gaviota Drive on stage wasn’t going to be as easy as the composer originally planned. Enter saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Sam Gendel. He rounds out the performing duo for Joachim’s music and both players appear in Ry Cooder’s Prodigal Son backing band with Robert Francis.
“Sam is this incredible saxophonist who I met at this party I had been asked to play at,” Cooder said. “He went on before me and I have never been so transfixed by another musician, I was like, ‘Sam, pleasure, now you have to play with me.’
“I’ve recreated my show with him and it’s the next level of really going out and doing my own songs like this for real.”
He’s pleased to be able to head out on the road and bring his project to the numerous festivals his father is headlining this season. As someone who has toured and played with Ry Cooder since he was 16, Joachim can be trusted to fairly assess the tour. He says this one is killer.
“His show has me, Sam, Robert and the Hamiltones — this amazing vocal group with Tony Lelo, J. Vito, Corey Williams II who backs singer Anthony Hamilton — all in it and it’s a really hip band that came about off-the-cuff and last minute,” said Cooder. “It’s very cool to see and hear this very natural reimagining of his music.”
Joachim is a big fan of his father. Asked why he thinks Ry has kept a “family business” going so well for so long in a scene where rivalry is routine, the drummer responds:
“Dad plays guitar, I play drums and Robert plays bass and we all follow along on his songs and it’s great,” he said. “But if I played guitar, I’d be like the saddest guy going, ‘Hi, I’m Ry Cooder’s son, I can play guitar, too.’”