Songs from The Capeman [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster] (CD - 1997)

Personnel includes: Paul Simon (vocals, acoustic & hi string guitars); Ruben Blades, Marc Anthony, Ednita Nazario, Frank Negron, Myrna Gomila, Teana Rodriguez, Sara Ramirez (vocals); Arlen Roth (acoustic & electric guitars); Vincent Nguini, Steve Cropper (guitar); Oriente Lopez (flute, Fender Rhodes piano, organ); David Rodriguez, Ray Vega (trumpet); Oscar Hernadez (piano, celeste, synthesizer, vibraphone, glockenspiel); John Beal (bass); Robby Ameen, Richard Crooks (drums); Milton Cardona (congas, bongos, maracas, clave, guira); Marc Quinones (timbales, congas, cua); Bobby Allende (bongos, cymbal, bell tree); Briz, Myrna Gomila, Karen Gernod, Renee Connell-Adams, DeWayne Snype, Kia Jeffries, Ed Vasquez, Derrick James, Danny Rivera (background vocals).

Recorded at The Hit Factory, New York, New York.

Includes three previously unreleased bonus tracks.

Personnel: Paul Simon (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, background vocals); Teana Rodriguez, Myrna Lynn Gomila (vocals, background vocals); Ednita Nazario, Frankie Negron, Marc Anthony, Rubén Blades, Sara Ramirez (vocals); Mitch Frohman (tenor, tenor saxophone); Saturnino Laboy, Diomedes Matos, Arlen Roth (guitar, acoustic guitar); Vincent Nguini (guitar, electric guitar); Harper Simon (guitar, harmonica); Paul Livant, Wallace Richardson, Steve Cropper (guitar); Edgardo Miranda (cuatro); Nelson Gonzalez (tres); Krista Bennion Feeney, Paul Peabody (violin); Janet Hafner, Juliet Haffner (viola); Laura Bontrager (cello); Oriente Lopez (flute, Fender Rhodes piano, organ); Michael Ramos (accordion); Pablo Calogero (bass clarinet, baritone saxophone); Marcia Butler (oboe); Bob Franceschini (soprano saxophone); David Andrew Mann, David Mann (tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone); Bill Holloman (tenor saxophone, trumpet); Chris Eminizer (tenor saxophone); David Rodriguez Jr., John Walsh, Ray Vega (trumpet); Barry Danielian (flugelhorn); Stewart Rose (French horn); Luis Antonio Lopez, Luis Lopez , Ozzie Melendez (trombone); Oscar Hernandez (piano, celesta, synthesizer, vibraphone, glockenspiel); Horace Ott, John Beal, Paul Griffin (piano); Bernie Minoso (bass guitar); Robert Ameen, Richard Crooks, Shannon Ford (drums); Milton Cardona (congas, bongos, claves, maracas, background vocals); Jimmy Sabater (congas, cowbells); Marc Quinines, Marc Quiñones (congas, timbales); Johnny Montalvo (congas); Pablo Nunez (bongos, cowbells); Bobby Allende (bongos, cymbals); Crusher Bennett (shaker); Johnny Andrews (timbales); Angelo Aponte, David Davila, Renee Connell-Adams, Ed Vasquez, Hechter Ubarry, Sean Pulley, Derrick James, Briz, DeWayne Snype, Bobby Bright, Dionte Sutton, Hans Giraldo, Trent Sutton, Luis Marrero, Robert Vargas, Edgar Stewart, Kevin Harrison, Karen Bernod, Kia Jeffries, Nestor Sanchez, Angel Ramirez, Jr., Ray de la Paz (background vocals).

Audio Mixer: Andy Smith.

Audio Remasterers: Dan Hersch; Bill Inglot.

Liner Note Author: Paul Simon.

Recording information: The Hit Factory, New York, NY.

Photographers: Sigrid Nama; Nitin Vadukul.

Unknown Contributor Roles: Marc Quinines; Marc Quiñones.

When Paul Simon released GRACELAND, it seemed like the apex of an already impressive career. A few years later, he compounded expectations by extending both his reach and his grasp with the Brazilian-tinged RHYTHM OF THE SAINTS. Continuing his tradition of raising the aesthetic bar, Simon explores new vistas yet again with SONGS FROM THE CAPEMAN. The album features his versions of the songs he wrote with poet Derek Walcott for the play THE CAPEMAN.

Based on the exploits of a street gang character of the same name, THE CAPEMAN incorporates several different musical styles into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts (a method to which Simon is no stranger). In the songs that make up the bulk of the storyline, there's street-corner doowop (one of Simon's early loves), Latin music and of course the sophisticated harmonic sensibilities that mark THE CAPEMAN indelibly as a Paul Simon project.

During the production of The Rhythm of the Saints, Paul Simon latched upon the idea of turning the story of Salvador Agron -- a '50s Puerto Rican hoodlum nicknamed the Capeman -- into a musical. (Agron was convicted of stabbing two kids to death during a New York street fight; during his prison term, he educated himself and turned into a poet and activist.) Collaborating with poet Derek Walcott on the lyrics and book, Simon worked on the musical for seven years, writing a set of songs that evoked doo wop, '50s rock & roll, and Puerto Rican music. A few months before the Broadway premiere of The Capeman, Simon -- who was not performing in the musical -- released Songs from The Capeman, an album that functioned as a calling card for the play. The record suggests what a complex and ambitious musical The Capeman may be, but it doesn't succeed on its own terms. Simon's songs have the narrative drive of a stage musical, but are littered with idiosyncratic, conversational flourishes, profanities, and self-consciously literate wordplay that keep them insular and nearly impenetrable. Similarly, the music is forced and labored -- it often sounds like he has to push the melodies into unnatural paths -- and it never has the graceful, joyously organic spirit of doo wop and Puerto Rican music, which is what he needed to capture in order for The Capeman to succeed. Instead, the project is a cerebral exercise, not only in writing but also in white liberal guilt, and it's an exhausting one at that. [In 2004, Warner Strategic Marketing reissued Simon's studio albums as remastered editions with bonus tracks, packaged in cardboard digipacks. Like the other Simon reissues in this series, the remastering is excellent. Songs from The Capeman contains three bonus tracks, all previously unreleased. "Shoplifting Clothes" is an unreleased song from the recording sessions, while there are demos of "Can I Forgive Him" and "Born in Puerto Rico," the latter featuring José Feliciano.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize