James Taylor (Boston, 72 years old) gets up from the sofa and approaches the large window of the room to point out the buildings that grow on the horizon of Hyde Park. "You see? One, another, another one ... Every time I come to London they grow faster. I would swear that the first time I came here there was none, ”he says in a temperate voice, a prime example of the polite person who receives the journalist in a central London hotel. The musician is concerned about the speed of the world, delivered to a dizzying career induced by the advancement of technology. "To a competition", in his own words. That is why, through his new album, American Standard, which is published this Friday, he invites calm, as is usual in this singer-songwriter, who in 2011 received the National Medal of the Arts of the United States - the greatest cultural distinction U.S-. And it also invites something equal or more important: "know the past."
“This album comes from my parents' record collection. I was always listening to music at home. These are songs that remind me of my days in North Carolina, ”he explains. American Standard is made up of 14 compositions that would belong to what Americans call the Great American Songbook , a catalog of classic songs from the first half of the 20th century, embedded in American cultural memory. “When I learned to play guitar as a child, I practiced with many of these songs. They are part of my first musical vocabulary. They are compositions that have accompanied me all my life. I am very associated with them, ”he says.
They were North American soundtrack between wars, a time when, according to Taylor, "the combination between music and culture was at the highest point." Hence, its "great cultural value for the United States." Hence also they have been recurring for the great voices of the country from Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley to Ella Fitzgerald or Dinah Washington. The last artist to rescue them with philosophical determination has been Bob Dylan. “These songs are also part of a generation of singer-songwriters, of good song writers. Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Randy Newman, Carole King, Joni Mitchell ... This music educated them. And it's important for the lyrics, ”explains Taylor, who says they are songs with“ a brand ”. “They are alive by themselves. They are more important than who sings them. They can't stay in a museum, ”he says.
“Folk always helped people think how to stay alive”
With his velvety voice, Taylor, who at the age of 20 was signed by the Beatles for his label, Apple Records, stood out from the first day for his talent as an interpreter of caramelized songs, seemingly simple pills of a great sentimental waste and in which He demonstrated guitar skills, the instrument on which he sustained his four decades of career. “When the record company asked me what record I was preparing, I told him a guitar one. A true guitar record because these standards are passed through the body of the guitar. ” On that body he raised a work in the seventies with beautiful albums such as Sweet Baby James, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon and JT , a work he published with the powerful CBS after signing him at the heel of a booklet and which eventually became one of the best selling records in history. “When I started my career, there was a revival of folk. The folk exploded. It benefited me, ”he acknowledges, although he later had a fall to the hell of heroin that had an impact on the quality of his records in the eighties and early nineties.
Taylor has been clean for many years, but acknowledges that he no longer has the same ease of composing songs as before. However, he remains dedicated to defending the territory of folk, a music that led to large audiences. "Folk music always made people think how to stay alive," he explains. It has also helped those same people to have a more complete emotional map about their past, one of the reasons why American Standard makes more sense. “I am very concerned about the state of our society. There has been a technological revolution that has ended up being cultural. ” He points to the mobile and the digital tablet on the table and continues speaking: “The great change began in the nineties and in these years it has been taking place. Now we live in the beginning after the great change of mentality. We are learning how to communicate in this new technological world. It is a difficult learning. ”
So difficult that his country moves, like a large part of the West, to lurch. Apart from softening hearts with his music, Taylor is an expert on political issues and in supporting the cause of the Democratic Party in the United States. He was one of the most active musicians in supporting Hillary Clinton before Donald Trump. What happened for the US to pass from Obama to Trump? “Honestly, I don't know. I just know that I don't believe it yet. Hillary Clinton had more votes than Trump, ”he recalls and explains that Clinton was a victim of false news, of a whole device mounted by the current president's disinformation army, which includes the Russians. “I could have been a wonderful president. The first".
In these times of post-truth, fake-news may fulfill its objective better than messages in music, but this septuagenarian, who wears an English cap and stares into the eyes when he speaks, he hopes that it will not be so. "Possibly," he says after stopping for a few seconds. “Music helps to react to people. It can make you realize things that you had not otherwise repaired. But from there, sacrifice is also necessary, ”he says.
He stands up and goes to the large window of the room. The green of Hyde Park shines in London's sunny midday. His guitar rests to the side. Taylor invites to contemplate the "wonderful views" and comments that the great task that the human being has is "to protect the Earth". "We should share the mission of not killing our planet," he emphasizes. And he starts counting buildings, which are seen in the distance, as if they were threats that progress unstoppably.