Trumpeter Ron Tooley played with James Brown and Mel Tormé; trumpeter Ravi Best played with Blue Note Records legend Sam Rivers; tenor saxophonist Stan Harrison recorded with David Bowie and Talking Heads; baritone sax player Eddie Manion played with Diana Ross and Robert Cray. It was brilliantly conceived by the husband-and-wife team Eilif Skodvin and Anne Bjørnstad. “I love everything about him, his origins and then turning into the Domino period and the later R&B and soul. I am really proud of it. Steven Van Zandt, or Little Steven, as he’s known, is a strikingly energising person, so it’s no surprise that he has succeeded in his quest to counter the bleakness of modern times with a joyous new album. Jagger was imitating the black guys as much as he could, and it worked. That feeling was very easy to tap into because it is just below the surface in all of us. We meet on 24 May, the day of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s show of tears at being forced to announce she will leave No.10. Steven, who talks eloquently and at speed, pauses for some time before recalling a gig he and Springsteen played with Chuck Berry at the Concert For The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in September 1995, more than a decade after he had left The Boss to pursue his own projects. On their current tour, Little Steven and his band have occasionally covered songs by Etta James (‘Blues Is My Business’) and James Brown (‘Down And Out In New York City’), and they were even joined by Bruce Springsteen in April in New Jersey for versions of ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out’, ‘Sun City’ and ‘I Don’t Want To Go Home’ at a concert at the Asbury Park Music And Film Festival at the Paramount Theatre. Though his work with Springsteen is admirable, Little Steven is a fantastic achiever in his own right, not least for his acting role in the classic HBO show The Sopranos, when he played Silvio Dante, the consigliere, chief advisor and best friend to James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano. “My core of rock meets soul is there, but I am venturing more into James Brown, Tito Puente and Sly And The Family Stone to fill in some of the colours. “I got the idea of fictionalising my life in 12 little movies and I am a different character in each one,” he says. “I decided I wanted to visit Van Morrison for the first time, as I have always been a huge fan of Astral Weeks,” says Little Steven. “I said that not only do I want to do a new record, I want to go in a new direction,” he explains. We had the opportunity to sit down and be educated on music by none other than Steve Van Zandt, aka Little Steven, when he and his band The Disciples of Soul performed in Vancouver on Monday. His next task was to work out how to bring the concept to fruition. “That’s the absolute key,” says Little Steven. They also had a fondness for Frank Sinatra. I was gonna use every f__king second of it. “When I started visiting schools, I found out that they were teaching kids the same way they taught me, with the message, ‘Learn this now and some day you will use it.’ I thought that was not going to work anymore, not for today’s children,” Little Steven explains. His idea for the album was “music that recaptured the feeling of summer”. Little Steven is a model of affability to the numerous passing strangers – and even cab drivers bringing their taxis to a shuddering halt in a busy road to leap out and say hello – who ask him about the next E Street Band project with The Boss. Summer Of Sorcery is out now and can be bought here. I don’t know. He was brilliant and a model, really, for any artist,” says Little Steven. Interview, Porträt, Filmografie, Bilder und Videos zum Star Steve Little | cinema.de He played for about five minutes and then I had him play again with the mute. “Muddy Waters was very important to me, as was Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James – the south side of Chicago guys. So that didn’t help. Little Steven’s music from Lilyhammer, which ended in 2014, has been collected together and will be released as two separate albums (Lilyhammer The Score: Volume 1: Jazz and Volume 2: Folk, Rock, Rio, Bits And Pieces) in July via Wicked Cool/UMe. He has been very vocal about the ills of Brexit and believes there is a distinct lack of “tough good guys”. What does give him optimism for the future? I’m not finding that to be true. But when I shout to drummer Richie Mercurio, ‘Give me Hal Blaine,’ he knows what I want.”. “Nooooooo! “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he adds. I think I have less patience than ever.”. The freedom of Mick Jagger’s crazy movements was a wonderful synthesis of black and white.”, Musically, Little Steven was also drawn to the American blues. We were brought back together for the opening of the Hall Of Fame, when we were accompanying Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. “It has been very rare, but I found it extremely awkward after The E Street Band had been disbanded. Once he had come up with the overarching theme, he fell back on his mantra of “craft, craft, craft”. Your email address will not be published. The two guys I really wanted on the album were Miles and Gil Scott-Heron. Albert King more than BB King – but not Freddie King. Robin And The 7 Hoods remains one of my favourite movies to this day. I didn’t have the lengthiest conversation with him when he turned up to record the song ‘Sun City’. I had been gone for quite a while. ‘Now let me really overdo it and it will be funnier,’ I said. Did he record Sinatra’s ‘My Kind of Town’ as a tribute to his mother and stepfather, with whom he moved from the Boston suburbs to New Jersey when he was seven. “It was a wonderful album that evolved organically,” he says. Vietnam was pretty dark, but this is an even darker time. Gil was on the lam at the time. But I have never taken it quite as far as I have with ‘Party Mambo!’”, It is one thing to have a picture in your head of all these musical streams but bringing them together is another matter – you need high-calibre, flexible and knowledgeable musicians. That’s how it became an album.”, Little Steven deserves credit for organising such a seminal protest album. We’ll see.”. This thing is gaining strength and I have hope for this millennial generation,” he says. So I decided, let’s find out. But with The Disciples Of Soul I came back to what is most uniquely me – which is rock meets soul. It was just a weird gig.”. “My God, what a dark time we are living in. And history is going to remember this as a new dark age. ‘That’s how Al did it,’ I told David Chase. When they said they’d written something for me, I said, ‘Jeez, I really shouldn’t play a gangster again, should I?’ I had been in The Sopranos for nearly 10 years, over seven seasons. The title track has echoes of Van Morrison’s music. Peter came in singing this weird chant, harmonising with himself.”. “I teach masterclasses on songwriting and it has been funny with this album, because I have been living my own classes in a way and taking my own advice,” he says. The programme features free, engaging interdisciplinary lesson plans. Beware Boris Johnson, he says. A wonderful man with countless stories, please have a viewing!If you would like to support our channel please click through to our Patreon page: http://patreon.com/RIMLTVLittle Steven on RIML references the following records:Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul - SoulfireThe Beatles - Srgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club BandThe Beatles - Help!The Beatles - For SaleThe Beatles - A Hard Day's NightThe Rolling Stones - 12x5The Rolling Stones - 5x5Original Score - West Side StoryRamones - Subterranean JungleRamones - Rock n Roll HighschoolMoby GrapeRhinocerosThe Youngbloods Van Morrison - Astral WeeksMarvin Gaye - What's Goin' OnMarvin Gaye - Let's Get It OnMarvin Gaye - I Want YouCurtis Mayfield - SuperflyLittle Steven, Steve Van Zandt on Records In My Life is hosted and produced by Charles Brownstein. “I took everything I learned from The Sopranos and applied it to Lilyhammer. I relate to that arc of his career.”. Required fields are marked *. I was as curious as anyone about how I would evolve. He’s taken by surprise with a Sopranos question, asking specifically about Silvio’s impression of Al Pacino in The Godfather Part III (“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”). Though he wasn’t a diligent student himself (“I was the worst… The real reason I am doing this is to make up for all the s__t I put teachers through in high school”), his venture tackles two problems: the axing of music classes, and an epidemic of students dropping out of high school. They are like a higher evolved species, and this is the only thing that gives me hope for the future. The scheme has registered 25,000 teachers and draws in more than two million children. Little Steven says he still enjoys touring and says the atmosphere among his Disciples is enjoyable. It was awkward. One that still leaves a sour taste? (2018) come about? We are on their turf, they relate.”, Little Steven talks about the frustrations of fundraising for TeachRock, adding, “I see billions being wasted on symbolic s__t that doesn’t work. “You are supposed to get more patient when you get older. And, by the way, Aretha comes from the gospel church and there is a bit about that. They don’t even get it, it’s like, ‘What are you people talking about?’ I love that, right? But it was David’s idea, because he always thought that the younger version of me resembled Pacino somehow… I don’t know.”, Little Steven is especially proud of his work on Lilyhammer, a Norwegian-American TV show in which he plays Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano. Little Steven was 12. I liked him and related to him even as a kid. It was very difficult but a blast.”. Was his Michael Corleone speech something he’d already mastered and then offered to the show’s writer and creator, David Chase? I was also inspired by hearing Peter Gabriel’s ‘Biko’, which was important for me in connecting with the whole South Africa thing. I liked Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. It could come from ‘La Bamba’, ‘Tequila’, ‘Twist And Shout’ and the Smokey Robinson ‘Going To A Go-Go’ Latin theme I have loved. “I think the young generation are smarter, faster and green naturally. “That’s amazing,” says Little Steven. Kids are naturally into music and instead of dragging them to us, let’s go to them. Half of them are vegan already. An antidote to “the f__ing dark ages”, ‘Summer Of Sorcery’ seeks to capture the “liberating feeling” of summer, says Little Steven in this interview.