Danny Kortchmar
Encyclopedia
Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar (born April 6, 1946) is a guitar
ist, session musician
, and songwriter
. Kortchmar's work with singer-songwriter
s such as David Crosby
, Carole King
, Graham Nash
, Carly Simon
and James Taylor
helped define the signature sound of the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s. Jackson Browne
and Don Henley
have recorded many songs written or co-written by Kortchmar, and Kortchmar was Henley's partner in the 1980s. Kortchmar is credited as Daniel Kortchmar, Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar, Danny Kortchmar, Dan Kortchmar and even Danny Kootch on different recordings.
. Kortchmar first came to prominence in the mid-1960s playing with bands in his native New York City
, such as The Kingbees
and the Flying Machine, which included the then-unknown James Taylor (Kortchmar having been a long-time friend of Taylor's; both of them summered in Martha's Vineyard
in their teens); in Taylor's autobiographical composition "Fire and Rain
", the line "sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground" is a reference to the breakup of that band. During 1966, Kortchmar traveled to England, where he spent time as a session musician. In 1967 Kortchmar joined The Fugs
, appearing on their 1968 Tenderness Junction album before following bassist Charles Larkey to California
, where they joined Carole King in forming a trio named The City. The group produced an album in 1969, Now That Everything's Been Said, which received scattered good reviews but was not a commercial success. The group subsequently broke up, but Kortchmar continued backing King on her more successful solo career, including the groundbreaking 1971 album Tapestry. In 1970, Kortchmar reunited with Taylor on his breakthrough album Sweet Baby James
. Kortchmar's work with Taylor and King made him one of the top LA session guitarists in the 1970s and 1980s. He toured and recorded with Linda Ronstadt
during this time, even appearing in her music videos, Get Closer, I Knew You When, and Lies. In 1983 he played her love interest in the video for "What's New?
".
Kortchmar worked on his own, reuniting with Larkey in the band Jo Mama in 1970 and 1971 and recording solo albums Kootch (1973) and Innuendo (1980), but he experienced his greatest success backing other artists such as Linda Ronstadt
, Warren Zevon
, Harry Nilsson
and Jackson Browne
. In the 1970s he made three albums with Leland Sklar
, Russ Kunkel
, and Craig Doerge
, as The Section
. He wrote music for the Cheech & Chong film Up in Smoke
and he has also produced recordings by Don Henley
, Neil Young
, Jon Bon Jovi
, Stevie Nicks
, Billy Joel
, Hanson
, Tracy Chapman
, Louise Goffin
and others. He is featured on guitar on Carole King's 1975 album, Thoroughbred
.
He had a cameo as Ronnie Pudding (Spinal Tap's bass player in their early years) in the "Gimme Some Money" video segment of the 1984 mockumentary
This Is Spinal Tap
.
Kortchmar started a new group, the Midnight Eleven, in 2004, and the band released its first album in 2005.
In 2006 he co-produced Hanson's album The Walk
, which was released in the U.S. in the summer of 2007.
Also in 2006, Kortchmar participated in the Japan tour of the Verbs, a unit consisting of Steve Jordan
and Jordan's wife, Meegan Voss.
Recently, Kortchmar has formed the group "Slo Leak" playing primarily blues rock on 2 cds.
In 2010 Kortchmar joined the Troubadour Reunion Tour
supporting Taylor and King along with Section bandmates Lee Sklar and Russ Kunkel. In the souvenir book for the tour, his biography states that he is currently working on an album of his songs that were originally recorded by other artists.
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist, session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
, and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
. Kortchmar's work with singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
s such as David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
, Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
, Graham Nash
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
, Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
and James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
helped define the signature sound of the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s. Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
and Don Henley
Don Henley
Donald Hugh "Don" Henley is an American singer, songwriter and drummer, best known as a founding member of the Eagles before launching a successful solo career. Henley was the drummer and lead vocalist for the Eagles from 1971–1980, when the band broke up...
have recorded many songs written or co-written by Kortchmar, and Kortchmar was Henley's partner in the 1980s. Kortchmar is credited as Daniel Kortchmar, Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar, Danny Kortchmar, Dan Kortchmar and even Danny Kootch on different recordings.
Biography
Kortchmar is the son of manufacturer Emil Kortchmar and author Lucy CoresLucy Cores
Lucy Michaella Cores Kortchmar was a Russian-American novelist.Born in Moscow, Cores was the daughter of violist Michael Cores and the niece of violinist Alexander Cores. Her family fled the Russian Revolution and arrived in the United States in 1921...
. Kortchmar first came to prominence in the mid-1960s playing with bands in his native New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, such as The Kingbees
The Kingbees
The Kingbees, also known as The King Bees, was a short-lived New York-based rhythm and blues musical group of the 1960s.The Kingbees were Danny Kortchmar , Joel O'Brien , Dickie Frank and John McDuffy...
and the Flying Machine, which included the then-unknown James Taylor (Kortchmar having been a long-time friend of Taylor's; both of them summered in Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
in their teens); in Taylor's autobiographical composition "Fire and Rain
Fire and Rain
"Fire and Rain" is a folk/rock song written and performed by James Taylor. As a song on his second album, Sweet Baby James, the song engendered widespread attention for him. The album was released in February 1970, with the song being released as a single that month. "Fire and Rain" quickly rose to...
", the line "sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground" is a reference to the breakup of that band. During 1966, Kortchmar traveled to England, where he spent time as a session musician. In 1967 Kortchmar joined The Fugs
The Fugs
The Fugs are a band formed in New York in late 1964 by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders...
, appearing on their 1968 Tenderness Junction album before following bassist Charles Larkey to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where they joined Carole King in forming a trio named The City. The group produced an album in 1969, Now That Everything's Been Said, which received scattered good reviews but was not a commercial success. The group subsequently broke up, but Kortchmar continued backing King on her more successful solo career, including the groundbreaking 1971 album Tapestry. In 1970, Kortchmar reunited with Taylor on his breakthrough album Sweet Baby James
Sweet Baby James
Sweet Baby James is singer-songwriter James Taylor's second album, and his first release on Warner Bros. Records. Released in February 1970, it showcased Taylor's talents and showed the direction he would take in the early 1970s with the expansion of his career. The album featured one of Taylor's...
. Kortchmar's work with Taylor and King made him one of the top LA session guitarists in the 1970s and 1980s. He toured and recorded with Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
during this time, even appearing in her music videos, Get Closer, I Knew You When, and Lies. In 1983 he played her love interest in the video for "What's New?
What's New?
"What's New?" is a 1939 popular song composed by Bob Haggart, with lyrics by Johnny Burke.It was originally an instrumental tune titled "I'm Free" by Haggart in 1938, when Haggart was a member of Bob Crosby and His Orchestra. The tune was written with a trumpet solo, meant to showcase the talents...
".
Kortchmar worked on his own, reuniting with Larkey in the band Jo Mama in 1970 and 1971 and recording solo albums Kootch (1973) and Innuendo (1980), but he experienced his greatest success backing other artists such as Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
, Warren Zevon
Warren Zevon
Warren William Zevon was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known...
, Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...
and Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
. In the 1970s he made three albums with Leland Sklar
Leland Sklar
Leland "Lee" Bruce Sklar is an American musician, singer-songwriter and film score composer. A prominent bass guitarist, Sklar has contributed to thousands of albums as a session musician...
, Russ Kunkel
Russ Kunkel
Russell Kunkel , also known as Russ Kunkel, is an American drummer and producer who has worked as a session musician with a number of well-known artists.Kunkel was born in Pittsburgh, PA...
, and Craig Doerge
Craig Doerge
Craig Doerge is an American keyboard player, songwriter and session musician.He began playing in a college band at Hartford, Connecticut, and then moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s to work as a studio player and songwriter with A&M Records, and with Jim Keltner and others playing on cartoon...
, as The Section
The Section (band)
The Section was an American rock band formed in the early 1970s encompassing both studio and stage work by musicians Danny Kortchmar, Craig Doerge, Leland Sklar, and Russ Kunkel...
. He wrote music for the Cheech & Chong film Up in Smoke
Up in Smoke
Up in Smoke, directed by Lou Adler, is Cheech and Chong's first feature-length film, released in 1978 by Paramount Pictures. It stars Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Edie Adams, Strother Martin, and Stacy Keach....
and he has also produced recordings by Don Henley
Don Henley
Donald Hugh "Don" Henley is an American singer, songwriter and drummer, best known as a founding member of the Eagles before launching a successful solo career. Henley was the drummer and lead vocalist for the Eagles from 1971–1980, when the band broke up...
, Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, Jon Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as the founder, occasional rhythm guitarist, and lead singer of rock band Bon Jovi, which was named after him...
, Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...
, Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
, Hanson
Hanson (band)
Hanson are an American pop rock band formed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by brothers Isaac , Taylor , and Zac Hanson . They are best known for the 1997 hit song "MMMBop" from their major label debut album Middle of Nowhere, which earned three Grammy nominations...
, Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her singles "Fast Car", "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", "Give Me One Reason" and "Telling Stories". She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award-winning artist.-Biography:Tracy Chapman was born in Cleveland,...
, Louise Goffin
Louise Goffin
Louise Lynn Goffin is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Signed by record executive Lenny Waronker to Dreamworks in 1999, Louise released her critically acclaimed CD Sometimes a Circle on Dreamworks in 2002...
and others. He is featured on guitar on Carole King's 1975 album, Thoroughbred
Thoroughbred (Carole King album)
Thoroughbred is an album by American singer-songwriter Carole King, released in 1976.-Track listing:#"So Many Ways" – 3:11#"Daughter of Light" – 3:11#"High Out of Time" – 3:15...
.
He had a cameo as Ronnie Pudding (Spinal Tap's bass player in their early years) in the "Gimme Some Money" video segment of the 1984 mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
This Is Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap is an American 1984 rock musical mockumentary directed by Rob Reiner about the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap...
.
Kortchmar started a new group, the Midnight Eleven, in 2004, and the band released its first album in 2005.
In 2006 he co-produced Hanson's album The Walk
The Walk (Hanson album)
The Walk is the seventh album by American pop rock group Hanson. It was released on July 24, 2007 in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and on April 30, 2007 in the UK and on February 21, 2007 in Japan...
, which was released in the U.S. in the summer of 2007.
Also in 2006, Kortchmar participated in the Japan tour of the Verbs, a unit consisting of Steve Jordan
Steve Jordan (musician)
Steve Jordan is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, musical director and Grammy Award-winning artist, who has made a name for himself as a producer from the Bronx in New York City. A graduate of the Fiorello H...
and Jordan's wife, Meegan Voss.
Recently, Kortchmar has formed the group "Slo Leak" playing primarily blues rock on 2 cds.
In 2010 Kortchmar joined the Troubadour Reunion Tour
Troubadour Reunion Tour
The Troubadour Reunion Tour was a 2010 international concert tour by Carole King and James Taylor. It celebrated the 40th anniversary of their first performance together at The Troubadour in November 1970, and was a continuation of their reunion at the Troubadour in November 2007.-History:The tour...
supporting Taylor and King along with Section bandmates Lee Sklar and Russ Kunkel. In the souvenir book for the tour, his biography states that he is currently working on an album of his songs that were originally recorded by other artists.
With associated groups
- 1969 The City / Now That Everything's Been Said (Ode)
- 1970 Jo Mama / Jo Mama (Atlantic)
- 1971 Jo Mama / J Is for Jump (Atlantic)
- 1971 (re-released 1996) James Taylor and the Original Flying MachineJames Taylor and the Original Flying MachineJames Taylor and the Original Flying Machine is the third album by American singer/songwriter James Taylor's early band, first released in 1971.-History:...
- 2005 Midnight Eleven / Midnight Eleven