Burt Bacharach was one of the greatest American songwriters in history. His list of hits is endless. Rob Shirakbari spent decades as Bacharach’s pianist and musical director. He now is leading a tribute tour, featuring Todd Rundgren, called What The World Needs Now. He recently took some time to talk about the tour and his amazing career.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Rob Shirakbari interview:
On how the tour came together – Well, I think it was something that I’ve thought about doing for a while. Interestingly enough, I think about 15 years ago, I had an idea to do something called Bacharach Rocks. I was thinking, “Now, what if I took all the Burt songs and I ran them through the filter, if they had been recorded in the seventies as soft rock material?” I kind of sat on that for a lot of years. Angelo (Bundini) is a good friend of mine. We go back probably 25 years. So, I’ve always kind of run ideas and stuff by him. When the Celebrating David Bowie stuff started originally, I was part of that as well. The very first shows that were at that were in Los Angeles and then circled back around a few years later and did some string arrangements more or some around for some of those shows as well. So, he and I go way back. I think this has just been a natural progression. I think when, when Burt passed it was something I knew I was going to, I had to put on ice. It was like, I’m not going to do anything like this now. A good year go by before I even kind of thought about it again.
Then I sort of had an epiphany one day and said, “I think the time is right to do something”. I’ve stopped working with Dion now. As of recently I’ve kind of really officially stopped as her music director as of late last year. So, I think that I’ve been doing these songs now for the better part of 40 years. I thought, “Well, this is a good opportunity to dig deeper into the catalog. In a way that neither Burt nor Dion have been able to in their shows”. I just started kicking around the idea and then I called up Angelo and said, “Listen, I’m thinking about doing this show”. I was half wanting some advice, but also throwing a little bait out there to see if he would bite. Sure enough, he was like, “Well, what’d you think about doing this with my team?” We looked at all the options and decided, yeah, that would be a good fit. It’s just kind of snowballed from there.
On how the musicians were chosen for the tour – Well, it was again, conversations with Angelo. He certainly was the one who brought Todd (Rundgren) in the mix, having worked with him on the Bowie thing. I jumped at that because I’m a huge Todd fan. think he’s one of the actual real geniuses in the music business, so I really look forward to that.
Probyn (Gregory) I’ve known for a long time. Through his time when he was with Brian (Wilson), Burt’s band and Brian’s band would sometimes cross paths and I’ve known him for a long time and really impressed with his multi-instrumentalist skills. Kasim (Sulton) also I met, was introduced through Angelo and knowing his relationship with Todd, I thought, “well, this is going to be a good idea because that’ll give Todd a bit of familiarity” and then I’m a big fan of Kasim’s work as well. So, I thought “This is great”. He’s a phenomenal singer as well. A really great addition, but great singer. Most of the people in the band actually are serious vocalists as well. Kenny Dickinson, the guy on keyboards is from England originally, and he had worked in the band with Rumer, who’s a UK artist, who I actually happened to be married to. Kenny was in, has been in and out of that band, and then he relocated to Los Angeles. He seemed to be a really good fit. He and I, having worked together already, he kind of knows what I’ll be looking for in that second chair. Then we pieced it all together. Tori Holub was somebody that I brought to the table, clearly my wife again, Rumer brought her to my attention, could be maybe a year or so ago, and they had kind of been talking a bit and kind of had become friends, and she just seemed a perfect fit. If you know anything about Tori, so it’s just been a piece of getting together little by little, and until we found kind of a good magic chemistry. Elise (Trouw) on drums, great singer as well. And of course, Wendy (Moten), we’re going to cover so much ground on this show, we’re going to be leading on her pretty heavily.
On if Todd brought any songs up that he hadn’t thought of – It’s hard to dig us on now the catalog that I haven’t thought of because I do know the catalog pretty well. So, you’re going to be pretty hard pressed to stump me, but certainly, Todd’s a songwriter, so he gets it on that fundamental level of what this is. Yes, him knowing the catalog and being a fan, I think that was a good fit. So, with everyone, we sort of let them give us an idea of what songs they gravitated towards. With Todd, obviously, there was a priority to make sure that he was really getting the songs that he felt that he could bring something that he connected with and that he could bring something to and then we kind of went from there. We had to then piece together, we put together this show. It’s a very big puzzle. Jeff, we’re covering a lot of songs in this show. So. I think getting Todd’s piece was the big component and then from there we’ve kind of built around it.
On how he put the setlist together – I had a song list about probably 60 deep to start with, and that had a lot of deep cuts. I went through the same process when, when Burt and I wrote his live show, this was, I guess, the mid 90s when we revamped his show. You have this big, long list of songs and that’s where you kind of dig deep into the catalog going, “I wonder if I can get this in”. There’s so many hit songs that it’s either, you’ve got to either do a super long show, you’ve got to cut some things down into medleys, or you’ve just got to omit and things. So, I have been through this process a few times before and then the same thing with Dion’s shows as well. We kind of go through that catalog. But in this show, I’m really pleased because very few things are truncated and we’re getting a lot, a lot of songs in there.
On the role of a musical director in a show like this – I think in, in the case of this show, we’re finding that balance of going back to source. So, it is going back to the songs and the original recorded state and how they were written is one component of it. But then with the experience of working with Burt and all these different configurations by himself, with Dion as he’s worked with so many other artists as well. You get that chance to revisit these songs. I got to really got to see how he thinks of his songs. So that gives you a different perspective of that separates out the song from sometimes from the record. So, I think it’s down to taste Jeff. It’s down to thinking when this needs to sort of be true to the big iconic record that everyone knows. Sometimes, maybe that’s not it either. Maybe it’s getting to a different heart of the song. That either in my instinct is saying is a good way to go or is based on something I’ve experienced with him. I’ve also had the experience of sitting sort of six feet away from Dion playing many of these same songs and getting her take on it as, as the interpreter of the song.
That’s another element as well that I can’t really separate it out because when I play the songs, I sat for so long, six feet away from Burt, hearing him play the songs and watching him play and watching how he leads the band that all that sort of distilled into me. But then I spent so much time in his chair with Dion having that interaction and how she engages with the song. It’s sort of instilled the songs in me. Kind of into the DNA, really. When I’m approaching these songs for the show, it’s very much instinct. It’s not a thing of like, “Oh, we’ve really got to just copy the record on this”, or, “I want to get clever and try to reinvent”. There’s none of that. There’s no ego involved in it. It’s really just bringing the songs into life, into a current way. Then we’ve got the added benefit of what’s special with the show is as we do this with different artists. What they bring to the table. So how this will interact with Wendy or how this will interact with Todd or how this will interact with Woody (Mankowski), who’s one of the singers, a great sax player and guitar player, but he’s also a singer and he has some features in the show.
So, everyone has their special way to engage with the song and. That was always a part of what we did live with Burt when we bring in special guests. The songs would then have their own new little life in that way. That’s been the approach for this, is to really let them have the life that they want, but let, let the taste that’s been instilled guide the way to know where the lines are and then when to sort of bring it back home. But we’re not doing anything sort of super crazy clever of like, “Look how we can completely reinvent this song”. When the people come to the show, they’re going to get what they want. They’re going to get the songs bigger than life. And all live, by the way, no tracks, no clicks, no auto tune, nothing but the talent on that stage.
On what part of Bacharach’s career resonates most with him – It’s because it started connecting with me so young. When I even started to play piano, I was a bit self-taught. So, at my grandmother’s house, she had this sort of this big Reader’s Digest book of best love songs. This would have been early seventies. That was one of the books I started teaching myself. Of course, in there was “Close To You” and “This Guy’s In Love”. I started connecting with those big hit songs because they were just there, they were in the air That’s what I’m hearing on there. I’m growing up with them as well. I think I connect with that probably the most. Then, being around for the 80s, I’m around when the, as some of those records are coming out, some of those later records. You’re feeling those in a different way as well because I would sometimes be contributing to some of those.
On if this is a one-time tour of if it will continue – This is going to be a continuing thing. I think what this allows me to do is build each tour uniquely. With this one, we’ve got Todd, Wendy and Tori. When I take this to Europe or the UK, I think what probably makes sense there is we’ll get artists from that area and bring them in. Then also I think with the bands too, there can be change over with the band. I think every time I build the plan is for the future. As I build this is to be able to revamp it. Every time and that brings fresh life into it because you love to collaborate with some of the, there’s a whole lot of artists out there that have worked with Burt so that they make sense to bring in at times, but then also to have some new artists in as well. I think Burt would be tickled pink to know someone like Tori Holub, who’s growing on her own, but this opportunity to go out on the road for the first time to help break new artists with his catalog. I think he’d be thrilled for that. There was always an element of that.
Every one of these tours I think will be unique and be special because as we change that up, well then, the songs will get changed, male songs will become female songs and keys will change, and arrangements will change. Each one will be special and unique, this won’t be sort of frozen in any kind of set thing. I find that very exciting as an arranger. To then keep the collaborative bit up and give, give the songs an opportunity to work new artists. But that’s a little bit down the line. We’ve got this 22 dates ahead of us here. And that’s pretty much the focus for now.
On his upcoming plans – Not on the road. I’m in the studio mostly these days. My wife is an English artist called Rumer. I’ve been doing her records for quite a while. We’ve got a new original record that’s mostly written and will be in the studio some before this tour and then trying to finish up her record pretty much on the heels of the tour. I’ve been doing, I’ve been doing a little film and television stuff the last few years, and so I’m more there, so I think I’m going to keep the touring down to probably just this show.
