BBC4TV have broadcast a terrific documentary about the American singer, songwriter and actor, Tom Waits.

You can watch the film, here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08g8hj3

Like David Bowie, Tom Waits has created a number of characters that inform his performance. In general, these characters frame the songs and presentation in relation to various aspects of modern American popular culture…amongst the most important of these themes are

The mythology of the road…

Kerouac, and the sound of words

Los Angeles and film noir

The Dada cabaret style of Kurt Weil

Southern American evangelical preaching

And US vaudeville

Waits has consistently worked with experimental styles of music deriving from the natural sounds of Harry Partch and the multi-directional sounds of Charles Ives (Country Band March c1907 for example)…More recently Waits has performed with Gavin Bryars.

Waits has also worked with Francis Ford Coppola as both actor and sound artist.

If you are interested, watch

One from the Heart (1982), Rumble Fish (1983) and Cotton Club (1984)…

and the wonderful documentary about American circus life, here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06yghfw (watch on box of broadcasts)

I’ve posted about Charles Ives and Gavin Bryars before, here