Tom Waits Small Change

Personnel includes: Tom Waits (vocals, piano); Harry Bluestone, Israel Baker, Nathan Kaproff, Nathan Ross, Murray Adler (violin); Sam Boghossian, David Schwartz (viola); Ed Lustgarden, Kathleen Lustgarden (cello); Lew Tabackin (tenor saxophone); Jim Hughart (bass); Shelly Manne (drums). Recorded at Wally Heider Recording, Hollywood, California in July 1976. Unquestionably the definitive recording of Waits' early period, SMALL CHANGE brings his beatnik/grifter/gruff, poetic piano man persona into sharp, defining focus. Waits' blues/jazz/'40s pop amalgam is at its most cohesive here, as he's backed by three West Coast jazz vets and an occasional (never overweening) string section. "Tom Traubert's Blues," later covered by Rod Stewart, is a milestone, and one of the greatest cry-in-your-beer tunes of all time. Waits plays the down-and-out, alcohol-ravaged troubadour to perfection here as well as on "Invitation to the Blues" and the devastating "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart," where one ca