Just came back from the Michael Franks website. Interesting story behind his album Sleeping Gypsy, released in 1977:
http://www.michaelfranks.com
-= N =-
Michael Franks said:Words & Music
April, 2002
S l e e p i n g G y p s y , 1 9 7 7
Recently, I celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of Sleeping Gypsy. This was the second album I made for Warner Bros. and, in some ways, it was a departure from The Art of Tea, released the previous year. When I reminisce about Sleeping Gypsy I am reminded immediately of my late friend and hero, Antonio Carlos Jobim, whose suggestion it was that we record the project in Rio de Janeiro. I had met Jobim in November of '75, introduction courtesy of my producer, Tommy LiPuma, who had arranged the meeting with Antonio to sign him to the label. I remember sitting in Jobim's upper Eastside New York City apartment, listening to rough mixes of The Art of Tea on a portable Sony cassette deck, astonished that I was in such close proximity to my idol and reduced to stunned, but happy speechlessness by his praise for my songs.(One of the highest compliments I've ever received was hearing him absent-mindedly scat the melody of 'Eggplant' as he walked into his kitchen to make us more coffee). Except for the musicians who played on the record, no one had heard The Art of Tea yet (it would not be released till early the following year), so this was the record's first review.
Jobim invited us to record in Rio, recommended a studio and several of the sidemen we worked with, and while we were there (in August of '76) was our godfather and host. On his advice we were sumptuously ensconced in a beautiful and famous old hotel called The Copacabana Palace, where our rooms overlooked the beach beyond a wide boulevard. My first night there I picked up the guitar and wrote most of 'Antonio's Song', from the sheer inspiration of being in Rio as the guest of its most famous citizen.
Thanks for listening.
http://www.michaelfranks.com
-= N =-
