“Other than Postell, for the rest of us it's been 50 plus years of playing together and finally coming together as a band again was pretty cool; it's still pretty cool," laughed bassist Leland Sklar of The Immediate Family as he discussed their formation, longevity, writing style and upcoming show at the Count Basie Center/Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre in Red Bank, NJ on January 12, 2023.
The Immediate Family, in all reality; isn't so "Immediate" as it has taken shape over the course of five decades and to this day continues to host some of the greatest musical talent ever assembled. The "Family" members include Sklar, Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel, Russ Kunkel and Steve Postell; all of which have performed with some of the greatest names in music.
Recently, Sklar opened up about the group and a new documentary on their careers as well as much more.
“The original band," he began, "This wasn't the original incarnation of this band, literally. The original incarnation of the bulk of us coming together was back when we were playing with James Taylor back in the very beginning and we ended up forming a band called The Section and we would open for him and we backed Jackson Browne and opened for him and worked as a unit a great deal. Then as you know, all these decades have gone on and we've all worked together in various configurations. So, I don’t know; God, it's been maybe about six to eight years ago; time at this point becomes really relative (laughs) but Danny Kortchmar had a record deal with a label in Japan called Vivid Records and they wanted him to do a solo album and he took a chance; he assumed all of the other guys could all be gone but he took a chance and called. Russ Kunkel and I were both in town and it was only going to take three days basically to do the album and so we went in the studio. He also wanted Waddy Wachtel to be doing it but he was out on the road with Stevie Nicks and their tour was just ending. So, we went into Jackson Browne’s studio in Santa Monica and cut all these songs that Kootch had done with other artists. Songs he had written for them like “Machine Gun Kelly” that James Taylor had recorded and “All She Wants to do is Dance” that he wrote with Don Henley and there was a whole bunch of other stuff and on the last day Waddy was available because he was back in town so he came down. There was also another guy that I had worked with before, I had done his albums, named Steve Postell and Kootch had hooked up with him because they were living near each other and had met up socially at a couple of events and started playing together. They did most of pre-production for the album and we finished the thing in like three or four days and the label was going to call it “Danny Kortchmar” and they asked him; what do you want to call it? He said, “These guys are kind of like my immediate family so let's call it "Danny Kortchmar and The Immediate Family” and that was for the Japanese label so he could fill out the agreement. When that was done, we went to Japan and toured it and we all kind of looked at each other and said, this is really fun! Let's just do it and it became The Immediate Family out of that. So, it's Kootch, Russ, myself and Waddy and Steve.”
Musicians tend to never actually leave anyone or any situation behind despite what may have caused a unit to go their separate ways or individuals to choose other options; so, just the sheer fact that this group of men has kept it together and have never lost touch and still look forward to playing and touring together is a true testament to their friendship.
“Things are still happening here out in L.A; we had four gigs and then we had two more to do and then we also went to Aspen for the Aspen Film Festival and then we played a show there and then the gigs in January; there are three or four in January. I mean, we're looking towards serious touring but right now we're focused on what we've just finished; a new album which will be coming out at the beginning of the year. Then the documentary movie that Denny Tedesco who did "The Wrecking Crew" has done about the group and so, we've been hitting all the film festivals with that and doing Q&A's and all that stuff. So, we are looking forward to actually getting out on the road and doing a real, you know, go out for like four to six weeks tour. We get calls from all over the country saying; when are you going to come here? We signed with a new agency and we're going to start putting all that stuff together; we might be a bunch of old farts but we're ready to kick some butt.”
This "Super-group" of seasoned professionals have resumes longer than their arms and are well worth being immortalized on film. So; how did the documentary come about?
“There's a certain amount of sadness to this whole thing," Sklar started slowly. "Danny Kortchmar's girlfriend was a girl named Lisa Roy and Lisa was a mover and shaker in the music business and we had all known Lisa for a long, long, long time and I think Greg Richling was one of the producers on a movie they were doing and it was a project that wasn't coming together and they were really frustrated by it. So, he was talking to Lisa and Lisa suggested; why don't you think about maybe doing something about these guys? All of a sudden, everybody's eyes lit-up; I had known Denny Tedesco for a long time because I was a real advocate of The Wrecking Crew and I had worked with all of those people and I used to go to the Q&A's with them as a transitory musician from their thing. So, Lisa really kind of planted the whole seed for this thing and was a real motivator in it and then she tragically died almost a year ago. So, she never really got to see it; she saw a rough cut of the movie which was wonderful but never got to actually see it go to its completion. So, Denny jumped all over it and he kind of looked at it, not so much like Wrecking Crew Two because he said that what we've done was very different than what his father's generation of Tommy Tedesco, Hal Blaine and all those guys that were in The Wrecking Crew did; because they existed as a unit for maybe a little over 10 years and they never left the studio. Hal would every once in a while, go to Vegas and play with Sinatra or somebody but for the most part they never left the studio. They would go in, make these records and then move to the next state and do it somewhere else and he said that, because we've been together over 50 years and we've written, produced and toured with many of the artists that we've worked with over the years and the fact that we've got new material coming out and we're continuing moving forward rather than being a bunch of guys that are kind of basking in their past glory and we're really looking towards more glory; it's a different thing but it really kind of came together. Easily, the biggest problem we had with the whole thing and in hindsight what benefited us; was having this project get nailed during COVID. All of a sudden, all of the things that you wanted to do required to be in person. Being with a film crew and all that and many of the people involved didn't want to do that, they didn't want to take the chance; especially early on before vaccines and boosters. Everybody was pretty reticent about even walking out their front door and it ended up moving at a kind of different pace and a different angle from what was originally conceived. I’ve seen the movie a bunch of times and Denny did an absolutely remarkable job on this and I couldn't be prouder of all the people involved with the band and Denny and the production team and all the tech people that were involved in this. So far, we've won three audience awards at film festivals and all kinds of accolades; we just did the New York Doc Festival and there was enough of a demand where they had three screenings of it and so things are chugging along; I'm thrilled with the way things are.”
A single, "Toughest Girl In Town" was released as a preview of what is yet to come and the interesting thing is; it's a cover tune. Sklar explained why and also the band's writing process.
“That was one of the things that Waddy and Kootch but really it was more Waddy who was the motivating factor because he is a big Sparks fan. Waddy was also listening to a bunch of other stuff but this one song came up and he said, "We should do a cover of it; I really love “Toughest Girl In Town.” We all listened to it and said, shit, let's do it; why not? So, it was kind of like somebody throwing the idea out and everybody just went yeah, let's go for it. I mean that's one of the things, we've all been together for so long that when somebody comes in with something; things fall together really quickly. There's not a lot of forethought going into it because of our history. When something's being conceived you kind of know in the back of your head what everybody's going to do because you know their playing and their thought process so well but the primary writers on the new project are Waddy and Kootch. I was out doing Phil Collins last tour when a lot of the writing for this was done and it's hard sometimes for all of us to stay focused together. So, if somebody's got time to do something they do what they can and then they present it at that point to the other guys and then we take it from there. I mean, the thing here is, that everybody listens to each other; it's like Kootch will suddenly say to me, “Look I've got this baseline idea for this that I’ve just written” and he shows it to me; I'll go yeah, no shit, that's great! Then I'll take that and make it my own but use his idea as a basis for it because the one thing that the band really has, which is really a wonderful thing, is a ton of respect for each other. So, you sit there and if there are disagreements, we talk them all out; there's no fights. The really unusual thing about this is when I hear about everything from The Everly Brothers to the Eagles and all of the internal strife and arguments and fights and all that; we've never had that at all. We are really like an immediate family, a bunch of friends and so when we get together to work, even if we don't agree on something, we really work things out civilly; it's not like well screw you, I'm out of here kind of attitude. I've seen that so many times with other groups and I’m so glad that we take a different road.”
That "Road" leads them to the Count Basie Center/Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre on January 12 and then a stop in Connecticut at the Ridgefield Playhouse on January 14 and then a night at the famed Iridium Jazz Club in New York City on January 15; three chances to see these legendary musicians.
To discover more or purchase tickets to their shows, please visit https://www.immediatefamilyband.com/#home-section.
Final note: This space would like to extend much love and thanks to Gary Wien for his guidance and support for yet another year and to the artists, performers, fellow journalists and especially to all of YOU for your support and readership. May you all have a successful, healthy and happy 2023!
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
