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Q: How do you get a guitarist to turn down?
A: Put a chart in front of him.
Ain't seen nothin' yet indeed. There he is on the Bravo special, and again tonight with his "Jazz Thing" at the Yardbird Suite - Mr. Takin' Care of Businessman, staring intently at sheet music on a music stand as he sweats through the unmistakable strains of jazz music.
Bachman claims not to have heard the joke, but says, "Yeah, it's true."
His gig is no joke.
Though he agrees it's rather like Michael Jordan quitting basketball to play minor-league baseball, Bachman is dead serious about wanting to become a jazzman. He's not bored of rock 'n' roll, per se - currently acting a mentor/producer to numerous young artists across Canada - just a bit tired of his own rock thing. No one wants to hear new Guess Who songs, nor should they, he says, and he feels unchallenged cranking out the classics note for note on the never-ending Guess Who reunion tour. Jazz has no such constraints.
On the phone from his studio on Saltspring Island, Bachman explains, "I've been doing the Guess Who thing on remote for years. It's the same old classic rock over and over. People don't want one different note. They want to hear the performance exactly like it's etched in their brains. You wake me up at three in the morning, put me in a bag like Yoko Ono on the side of the stage, I could play any of my songs. Now I get to do something that's totally new, and yes, turned down a little. I have to play with charts now, and this stuff doesn't come easy to me. It was a whole new thing for me to do. I've always wanted to do it and now seemed the time."
Despite not being able to read or write music up to now, the 60-year-old rock icon was responsible for a good chunk of the "soundtrack of our youth," depending on when one's youth was. Careful listeners will detect jazz influences in Guess Who/BTO material, such as Undun and Blue Collar.
Along with new Bachman originals, more oldies are included - and further jazzified - on his new album, Jazz Thing.
Careful observers of his career will also know that the late Canadian jazz guitarist Lenny Breau had a profound influence on a young Bachman. The two met in Winnipeg when they were teenagers, right around the time Elvis Presley made his television debut - the event that got Bachman into rock 'n' roll. The shy Breau, on the other hand, introduced his new friend to entirely new musical worlds, the playing styles of Chet Baker, Les Paul, Scotty Moore. It all came easy to Breau, Bachman says. In return, Bachman was Breau's connection to Winnipeg nightlife, girls and rock 'n' roll. Breau eventually quit his family band "to play with the cats uptown" and got serious about jazz - much too crazy for Bachman at the time.
"It was frightening to me," he recalls. "There were all these odd notes and dischords and things. And so I went to the more melodic thing, which at the time was rock 'n' roll. I joined a band - the Guess Who."
Though their paths diverged - one ending in murder in 1984 - they remained friends. Whenever touring would take the Guess Who back home, Bachman would always pop into the local jazz hole in the wee hours to see Breau play. In fact, when the Jazz Thing plays Winnipeg on May 18, Bachman is playing Breau's old haunt at the Windsor Hotel - complete with Breau's old band.
"I want to do the real jazz clubs," Bachman says. "It would be a joke if I did the jazz festivals. Not yet, anyway. To do the clubs, I'm going to pay my dues for the jazz aficionados and critics and say, 'Here I am, this is my honest-to-goodness shot at being a jazz musician. I can do this. This is my new career.' "
Avoiding novelty is one thing, but he's mindful of curious Guess Who/BTO fans who will certainly turn up expecting to hear the soundtrack of their youth, jazzified or not.
"A lot of people will sit patiently through the set and say, 'Are you ever going to do Takin' Care of Business?' So I do it. They want to hear that. When I go to see Neil Young or something, I don't want to hear a bunch of new songs. I want to hear the hits."
Even so, an entire album of jazzified Guess Who covers would be too campy - for a debut.
"I'm saving that for way, way later," Bachman says. "Right now I want to show people that I can write this stuff and play it and get a really good jazz band. I'm looking forward to doing this jazz thing for 10, 15 or 20 years."
Like someone once said: Jazz is much too crazy. He'll play it when he's old.
Tickets to Randy Bachman's Jazz Thing were in the $28 range, probably the most expensive Yardbird Suite show of the year so far - but both the 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. shows are sold out.
Paying your dues indeed.