PAUL SIMON REVISITS SOME OLD FRIENDS

Paul Simon has recorded new versions of 10 songs from throughout his solo career for In the Blue Light, which Sony Legacy will release 9/7 as his farewell tour nears its completion.

Produced by Simon and Roy Halee, who have worked together since his Simon & Garfunkel days, the album showcases Simon working with a supporting cast of jazz musicians, among them Wynton Marsalis, Bill Frisell, Jack DeJohnette, Sullivan Fortner and Joe Lovano as well as classical artists such as the guitarists Odair and Sergio Assad.

“This album consists of songs that I thought were almost right, or were odd enough to be overlooked the first time around,” Simon said. “Re-doing arrangements, harmonic structures, and lyrics that didn’t make their meaning clear, gave me time to clarify in my own head what I wanted to say, or realize what I was thinking and make it more easily understood.”

Simon recorded three songs with the New York-based chamber ensemble sextet yMusic, two of which—“Can’t Run But” and “Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War”—they perform nightly on the farewell tour. Simon’s longtime guitarist, the late Vincent Nguini, appears on one song, “Darling Lorraine.”

Simon begins the final leg of the tour on 9/6 in New Orleans. He plays Madison Square Garden 9/20-21 and wraps the trek on 9/22 down by the schoolyard in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

In The Blue Light track listing:

“One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor”
“Love”
“Can't Run But”
“How the Heart Approaches What It Yearns”
“Pigs, Sheep and Wolves”
“René and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War”
“The Teacher”
“Darling Lorraine”
“Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy”
“Questions for the Angels”