Recording "Baby Face"
This image is a cover of an audio recording, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the work or the artist(s) which produced the recording or cover artwork in question. It is believed that the use of low-resolution images of such covers qualifies as fair use.
- Album Songs recorded during this session officially appear on the Venus And Mars - Archive Collection Official album.
- Studio:
- Sea-Saint Recording Studio, New Orleans, USA
Staff
Musicians on "Baby Face"
- Young Tuxedo Brass Band:
- Performed by
- Frank Naundorf:
- Trombone
- Greg Stafford:
- Trumpet
- Ted Reilly:
- Trumpet
- Walter Payton:
- Sousaphone
- Herman Sherman:
- Alto saxophone
- Joe Torregano:
- Clarinet
- Emile Know:
- Bass drum
- Laurence Trotter:
- Snare drum
Production staff
- Paul McCartney:
- Producer
- Alan O'Duffy:
- Recording engineer
About
Paul McCartney recorded a cover of the Tin Pan Alley jazz song “Baby Face” as a solo piano and vocal performance during the filming of the 1974 documentary “One Hand Clapping.”
In February 1975, while Wings was in New Orleans to record their new album, “Venus And Mars,” Paul came up with the idea of recording a backing track for “Baby Face” using a local brass band named the Young Tuxedo Jazz Band.
We did this crazy thing with the Tuxedo Jazz Band in New Orleans. It’s a backing track of me playing ‘Baby Face’ on the piano, for a TV video tape. It should be ready in a couple of months. But when we were in New Orleans I took the track and asked these fellows to overdub, and like these guys don’t know what earphones are, they’re a trad band right? A genuine, New Orleans brass band.
They couldn’t get the tempo for a while, but then they started to get it. It’s a terrible sound if you’re looking at it critically, but it’s got a lovely, joyousness about it. It’s great (Paul broke into a fair imitation of a tailgate trombone), it’s like they’re revving up all the time.
They’re brilliant. The drummer plays bass drum with his… melon…and he has a coat hanger in his left hand, and the bottom half of a hi-hat, which he hits with his coat hanger. So it’s boom, chick-a-boom, and his mate’s got the snare drum. They have this ethnic talent-it’s like a Morris dancing act. I’m not really a jazzer you know, I like it, but I’ve never been into it.
Paul McCartney – Interview with Melody Maker, May 31, 1975