Toward the end of this enjoyable and inspiring 100 minute documentary, singer-songwriter Jackson Browne describes the eponymous collective of session musicians therein as “as much the authors of these songs and this music as the artists they did it with.” He makes an interesting point as to the integral, yet unsung, contributions made by seriously skilled musicians, outside of the conventional credits for songwriting, on countless back catalogues that are loved the world over.
The four musicians who provide the focus of Denny Tedesco’s film – guitarists Danny “Kooch” Kortchmar and Waddy Watchel, bassist Leland Sklar and drummer Russ Kunkel – while remaining relatively unsung, at least didn’t go uncredited. This fact is in contrast to the subject of another Tedesco documentary – 2008’s The Wrecking Crew!, of which this film is a natural successor – which focused on the Californian collective of session players who, among many others, worked with Brian Wilson in the creation of Pet Sounds, and helped realise Phil Spector’s seminal Wall of Sound.
While Hal Blaine and Carole Kay et al never got credited on the albums whose musicianship they graced, the Immediate Family musicians emerged at a time when the Brill Building-style songwriting factories had shifted to the self-authoring musical artists of the late 60s. The advent of musician credits on album liner notes (British musician Peter Asher, we learn, played an instrumental role) was a pivotal innovation. “It had a profound effect on our careers” says Sklar. Resulting in an industry level notoriety, it led to an inexhaustible demand for their services. Both separately and together, they worked with big hitters including James Taylor, Carole King, Joni Mitchel, Stevie Nicks and Randy Newman.
Alongside a brief summary of each musicians’ backstory and influences, we learn of school age Kortchmar’s serendipitous Martha Vineyard meeting with Taylor and, via the incestuous musical melting pot of late 60s Laurel Canyon, three of the musicians start opening shows for him as ‘The Section.’ Watchel, amusingly – and rather accurately – described by Kortchmar as “an adorable muppet”, later joined the collective and a musical brotherhood lasting fifty years was born.
Tedesco’s film features some impressive talking heads (Neil Young, Carole King, Linda Ronstadt, among others), a round table reminiscing between the central players, archival photographs and concert footage and cartoony animations to fill in the narrative gaps. Elsewhere, a rather enjoyable inclusion is each musician (all now in their 70s) contemporarily playing along to famous tracks they rendered with their brilliance; beneath his gargantuan white beard, Sklar lays down the bass for James Taylor’s delightfully jaunty ‘Your Smiling Face.’
As well as containing much interest for fans of those classic records from the late 60s and throughout the 1970s, a deep charm runs through the film. The clear love for music displayed by each character is infectious, and there are some nice touches of humour; making reference to his wizard-on-acid length of beard, Sklar jokes “my upper lip hasn’t been seen since ‘65” and producer Lou Adler makes a straight-faced declaration that “Kooch can play anything from the ‘40s to the future.”
The musicians were also somewhat pioneering in their being more than amenable to touring, where it made complete sense that the sonic chemistry that breathed magic into those special records could only be recaptured with the musicians responsible. We hear some tour stories, the long hours on the road no doubt significant in forging such enduring friendship. For example, a young Linda Ronstadt, in lieu of any I.D, is reduced to singing ‘Blue Bayou’ in gaining entry to a stripclub.
In later years, the collective numbered five with the addition of guitarist/producer Steve Postell, who makes his contributions here. With Postell on board the quintet are still making music and performing live as The Immediate Family. Such commitment to longevity can only be the products of love, both of the artform and the people around you. In his highly enjoyable and agreeable film, Tedesco has provided ample evidence of both.
Scott Hammond