Unless you’re a hardcore rock ’n’ roll fan who used to love reading the liner notes on classic albums back in the day, you might not know the names of Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, Waddy Wachtel and Steve Postell, but you almost certainly recognize the names of the artists with whom they collaborated, including Tracy Chapman, Reba McEntire, Hall & Oates, Rod Stewart, Joni Mitchell, B.B. King, Jackson Browne, The Beach Boys, Bill Withers, Bob Dylan, Richard Marx, Keith Richards, Santana, Neil Diamond, Faith Hill, Carlos Santana, Bee Gees, Jimmy Buffet, Warren Zevon, Tony Bennett, Carly Simon … the list goes on forever.
Some 15 years after director Denny Tedesco gave us “The Wrecking Crew,” a documentary that told the story of the legendary studio musicians (including his father, Tommy) who played on countless hits in the 1950s and 1960s, Tedesco helms a spiritual sequel of sorts with “Immediate Family,” which features shared memories from the aforementioned quintet of greatly talented and innovative musicians, a fantastic array of archival clips, and testimonies from the likes of Phil Collins, Carole King, Don Henley, Keith Richards, the late David Crosby, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young and Jackson Browne.
(The fact so many greats agreed to be interviewed for the project tells you something about the level of respect industry-wide for these guys, who recently toured as the world’s greatest cover band, dubbed “Immediate Family.”)
After a quick recap of the Brill Building era, when anonymous writers cranked out hits for a variety of artists who had little or no say in what material they’d record, we segue into the late 1960s and the early 1970s, and the emergence of the singer-songwriter. One by one, Kortchmar, Kunkel, Sklar et al., made their way to California and the Laurel Canyon era, with one or more of them teaming up with James Taylor, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and others. Director Tedesco employs some clever animation to capture certain moments, and also delivers a bounty of memorable moments when various musicians play a familiar drumbeat or guitar riff or piano intro in present day, e.g., Russ Kunkel playing brushes to hit the tom fills on “Fire and Rain.”
We hear the stories and see footage of Leland Sklar playing bass on Phil Collins’ “Inside Out.” (Says Collins: “I would buy records just because [the Immediate Family] were on it.”) Waddy Wachtel takes us through the memorable opening guitar riff he played on Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen.” Danny Kortchmar recalls playing the guitar solo for Carole King’s “It’s Too Late,” not realizing it would be heard on car radios and home stereos and in grocery stores etc., for decades to come. We hear songs ranging from James Taylor’s “Your Smiling Face” to Jackson Browne’s “Doctor My Eyes” to Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” to Steve Perry’s “Oh Sherrie” to Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” in a whole new way, knowing the magnitude of these artists’ contributions. They were the Immediate Family to the stars.
