This is the portrait of an artist. Don’t recognize him? His name is Waddy Wachtel. Never heard of him? That’s intentional. Wachtel, whom Keith Richards calls a “natural maestro,” made a life decision — to become, and remain, a top-notch, back-of-house studio musician. Playing behind front-line artists like Carole King, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Keith Richards, Randy Newman, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, David Crosby, Jackson Browne, Lyle Lovett, Phil Collins, and more, Wachtel had a knack of laying in the right rhythms, licks, and fillips that sent song originators to the moon.
A new, must-see documentary, IMMEDIATE FAMILY (2022), from Magnolia Pictures, tracks the rise and collaborations of these session players– Wachtel, Danny Kortchmar (guitar), Leland Sklar (bass), Russ Kunkel (drums) — through the 1970s and onward, chronicling their partnerships and formidable hit-making. They followed in the wake of the first wave of studio musicians of the ’60s, aka THE WRECKING CREW, to foster era-defining, indelible music. The film reveals the zeitgeist of an era that saw the emergence of the singer-songwriter, essentially solo acts that did not have bands in tow. They relied on studio musicians to add dimension to their essentially solo acts.
I was most fascinated by the nearly random musical beginnings that spawned four virtuosi. Here is Waddy Wachtel, in full-throttle, playing lead guitar for Keith Richards in “You Shouldn’t Take it So Hard”:
IMMEDIATE FAMILY has great contributions from talking heads Carole King, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Keith Richards, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, David Crosby, Jackson Browne, Lyle Lovett, Phil Collins, Lou Adler, more. Film is a tad long. Other than that pure pleasure, and for this viewer, an education.
Highly recommended.
IMMEDIATE FAMILY | in theaters opening dec 15