Fanatic Promotion: Happy birthday, Ralph Carney! J Hacha de Zola posts prophetic cover of “My Special Angel” on which his recently departed friend appears.

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Happy birthday, Ralph Carney! J Hacha de Zola posts prophetic cover of “My Special Angel” on which his recently departed friend appears.

Track is an unreleased collaboration - now a poignant tribute - to the iconic sax sideman who played on all of Hacha de Zola’s albums to date.

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J Hacha de Zola as photographed by Miguel Peralta Jr.

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“My Special Angel” is J Hacha de Zola’s cover of the Bobby Vinton classic version and features legendary horn-player, Ralph Carney

[SOUNDCLOUD]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/j-hacha-de-zola-my-special-angel-cover

[MP3]: http://www.fanaticpr.com/jhachadezola-antipatico/jhachadezola-myspecialangel-cover.mp3

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Today, on what would have been the 62^nd birthday of his friend and legendary musician, Ralph Carney, Rahway, New Jersey-based artist J Hacha de Zola has posted a David Lynch-ian cover version of a song made famous by Bobby Vinton, “My Special Angel.” It is a prophetic tune, as the song features Carney’s tenor saxophones and trumpet, and was recorded shortly before the musician’s untimely passing.

Carney is best-known for his collaborations and work with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, They Might Be Giants, The B-52s, any many more, as well as for being the uncle of The Black Keys drummer, Patrick Carney.

Hacha de Zola reflects, “I never thought this would be among the last things we would work on together. It is truly bittersweet for me, given the title and Ralph’s untimely passing. His work will go on forever. Moving forward with my next record, I am truly at a loss as how to proceed without him. In a lot of ways, Ralph kind of led the way for a lot of band geeks in showing us that the horns can be more fun, free and wild. I am truly grateful to have worked with him and to have called him a friend.”

Hacha de Zola describes meeting Carney, saying, “I’d always been a big fan of Ralph’s playing, especially with Tom Waits. I had Big Time on cassette and I wore that thing out. I was recording in Portland, Oregon and I had heard that Ralph has recently moved there. I shot him a link to a track which opened with a bass sax that I thought might grab his ear, and sure enough, he responded with a single line, ‘Is that a bass sax?!’”

Hacha de Zola continues, “We hit it off and he most generously agreed to collaborate with me. We had such a blast, even though I was very nervous about having this accomplished musician play on my humble tunes! Ralph would go on to playing on every single song and providing me a lot of assurance and guidance along the way. Occasionally, he would randomly send me tunes he thought I should listen to, along with a note that said, ‘Listen to this, man! You need to know this!’ Literally the last thing Ralph said to me was ‘Keep working on your bad self. Remember that it takes a long time to get there my friend. Love you, brother.’”

Antipatico, the latest album from J Hacha de Zola, is out now. Hacha de Zola is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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J Hacha de Zola – In The Press

“A wild man.” – Paste

“The kind of alluring character found in old children’s books.” — UTNE

“Possibly the wildest record I’ve heard all year.” — BLURT

“Mutant blues rock.” — Treble Zine

“As enticing as it is distant and strange.” — MAGNET

“Straight from the mind of John Carpenter.” — Elmore

“Possessed and cacophonic.” — Atwood

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