Legendary actor, musician, and eternal cool guy Jeff Bridges has announced an album of archival recordings from the late 1970s. Slow Magic, 1977-1978 is a collection of never-before-heard music by the actor, which he wrote and recorded with a band of his closest friends. Light in the Attic is releasing the album digitally and on transparent blue vinyl for this year’s edition of Record Store Day, which takes place on Saturday, April 12. Today, Bridges has shared “Obnoxious,” the first offering from Slow Magic. Check it out below.
The songs on Slow Magic, 1977-1978 were salvaged from a single decaying cassette labeled “July 1978.” “Obnoxious” was written during a series of jam sessions that occurred after Bridges finished filming the 1976 remake of King Kong. He and a few friends rented a warehouse in Venice, California, where they also recorded the collection’s title track, “Slow Magic.” The sessions were overseen by songwriter and orchestrator Ken Lauber.
“Pretty wild that this thing that happened around 50 years ago wants to bloom,” Bridges said of the collection in press materials. “I guess weirdness is what’s happening these days. You never can tell what’s gonna happen.”
Physical editions of Slow Magic, 1977-1978 will include liner notes by author Sam Sweet, including a new interview with Bridges and never-before-seen archival photos courtesy of photographers Loretta Ayeroff and Candy Clark. The album includes 11 previously unreleased tracks, newly mastered by engineer John Baldwin. The LP edition also features a 20-page booklet.
Bridges jammed and recorded with a rotating cast of close friends and guest musicians in the 1970s, including Stan Ayeroff and David Greenwalt on guitar, Matthew Bright on bass, and Steve Baim on drums. (Many of them went on to have successful careers in film and television.) The gang would meet up at Bridges’ Malibu home or Baim’s Culver City art studio, playing loosely for hours. Additional players, such as horn players Sam “Sluggo” Phipps and Billy Superball, would also stop by the sessions.
In addition to releasing Slow Magic, 1977-1978, filmmakers Isaac Gale, Paul Lovelace, and Ben Wu (the team behind the documentary Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted) have produced a series of short documentariess surrounding Bridges’ project, slated for release this spring.
Read Philip Sherburne’s review of Jeff Bridges’ 2015 album, Sleeping Tapes.
