AirTalk Event: The history and future of Hollywood film music. Sheila E plays the Playboy. KG Omulo, Christian McBride & Terri Lyne Carrington play the Playboy Jazz Festival. The one, two, three, four of James Brown’s music and life.
The history and future of Hollywood film music
Long before movies could talk, they still had the power to tell a story – with music. In the silent era, Charlie Chaplin not only acted in and directed his own films, he wrote music for them. As film making evolved, so too did the process of scoring for the cinema.
Some of the greatest scores in film history are the product of a shared vision between directors and composers. The legendary pairing of director David Lean and composer Maurice Jarre resulted in some of the most memorable movies and scores of all time, creating a landscape both visual and musical, impossible to separate. Picture Doctor Zhivago and Lara defying the Russian snows with their passion, Lawrence of Arabia rallying his troops from the top of a train – what music do you hear?
When he made Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977, Steven Spielberg hired long-time collaborator John Williams to score the film before even one frame had been shot. But these days, movie budgets are shrinking and composers are feeling the pinch. Film scores generally comprise a very small portion of a film’s budget and are often commissioned so late in the game that the deadlines and demands on composers can be brutal. American films used to be scored by large orchestras; these days, thanks to budget and time constraints and the convenience of electronic music, live scoring is becoming a lost art.
What does all this mean for the future of film music? Are we losing touch with the art? How has technology changed the business? Is there more or less originality in movie music now than 20 or 30 years ago? Is the golden age of film scoring over? How are today’s working composers able to overcome the many challenges?
Guests:
Michael Giacchino is an award-winning composer of films, television shows and video games; his feature film composing credits include Pixar's UP, which earned him an Oscar, The Incredibles, Super 8, John Carter, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, 50/50, Ratatouille, Cars 2, and Star Trek among others, as well as ABC's groundbreaking series, LOST. Giacchino sits on the Advisory Board of Education Through Music Los Angeles.
Randy Newman is a songwriter, singer, pianist, and composer. His solo albums span six decades and include 12 Songs, Sail Away, Good Old Boys, Harps & Angels, and the current Randy Newman Songbook series. Newman began scoring films in the 1980s, with movies such as The Natural, Awakenings, Ragtime, Toy Story 1, 2 & 3, Seabiscuit, James and the Giant Peach, and A Bug’s Life. He has been recognized with six Grammys, three Emmys, and two Academy Awards. Newman is on the Board of Councilors for the USC Thornton School of Music.
David Newman is an award-winning composer and conductor who has scored over a 100 feature films including War of the Roses, Matilda, Bowfinger, Heathers, The Spirit, Serenity, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel among others; his music has also been featured in Brokedown Palace, Hoffa, Norbit, Galaxy Quest, The Nutty Professor, The Flintstones, Throw Momma From the Train, Ice Age, The Brave Little Toaster and Anastasia. Newman also headed the Sundance Institute’s music preservation program in the late 1980s and recently has been touring, conducting the film "West Side Story," live with orchestra.
Trevor Rabin is an award-winning musician and composer who has scored 34 feature films including The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Get Smart, I Am Number Four, National Treasure 1 & 2, Bad Boys 1 & 2, Flyboys, Glory Road, Remember the Titans, Armageddon, Con Air, and Enemy of the State among others. Rabin is also well known as a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Yes from 1982 to 1994. As a member Yes, Rabin wrote most of the material for the group’s bestselling album 90125, including the number one single “Owner of a Lonely Heart.”
Sheila E plays the Playboy
Sheila Escovedo, known by her stage name Sheila E., is an American drummer and percussionist, perhaps best known for her work with Prince, George Duke and Ringo Starr.
Sheila E was born into and raised around musical royalty. She is the daughter of percussionist Pete Escovedo, with whom she frequently performs. Her uncle is Alejandro Escovedo. Tito Puente was her godfather. Her uncles include Javier Escovedo, founder of seminal San Diego punk act, The Zeros, Mario Escovedo who fronted the long-running indie rockers, The Dragons and Coke Escovedo, who was in Santana and formed the band Azteca.
She made her recording debut with jazz bassist Alphonso Johnson on "Yesterday's Dream" in 1976. By her early twenties she had already played with George Duke, Lionel Richie, Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock, and Diana Ross. She also plays tuba and guitar.
GUEST
Sheila E, drummer and percussionist, appearing at the Playboy Jazz Festival, Hollywood Bowl on Saturday, June 16, between 3:00-11:00 P.M.
KG Omulo, Terri Lyne Carrington & Christian McBride Play the Playboy Jazz Festival
KG Omulo is a singer, songwriter and pioneer of Afro-Urban music. He grew up in Nairobi and listened to “a little bit of everything — I'm talking eastern, western, all the legends that came out of Africa back in the day.” He also listened to Bob Marley and a bit of the Beatles. Singing in both English and Swahili lyrics, Omulo regularly packs American clubs and sells out arenas in his native Kenya.
His music can be darkly ironic when he sings of politics or celebratory and sensual. His solo debut record “Ayah Ye! Moving Train” came out in January and in it he calls on the spirit of Bob Marley, Fela Kuti, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Omulo will appear at the Playboy Jazz Festival, Sunday, June 17 at the Hollywood Bowl with a band that includes some of Central Florida’s finest brass and string practitioners, who have collectively worked with Sam Rivers, Ray Charles, T-Pain, Mofrot, The Legendary JC’s, Junkie Rush, AM Conspiracy and Shak Nasti.
Grammy-Award winning jazz drummer, composer, record producer and entrepreneur, Terri Lyne Carrington has played with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Yellowjackets, and many more.
After 20 years of extensive touring with jazz luminaries, she returned to her hometown where she was appointed professor at her alma mater, Berklee College of Music. Terri Lyne also received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 2003. Terri Lyne had studied at Berklee under a full scholarship and then in 1983 moved to New York City where for 5 years she was very much in demand, working with James Moody, Lester Bowie, Pharoah Sanders, and others. In the late ‘80s she relocated to Los Angeles, where she gained recognition working as the house drummer for the Arsenio Hall Show and then again in the late ‘90s as the drummer on the Quincy Jones late night TV show, VIBE, hosted by Sinbad.
The Mosaic Project, released in 2011 was her fifth album overall and features a number of singers including Esperanza Spaulding, Diane Reeves and Cassandra Wilson. It won the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Christian McBride is jazz bassist whose father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists. They served as McBride's early mentors. McBride was born in Philadelphia born and at 17 moved to New York City to study classical bass at Julliard. Early on in his studies he was snatched up by alto saxophonist Bobby Watson and went on to play with some of the very best artists in jazz like Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Rollins, J.J. Johnson, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson. Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny to name a few. He has also played with and has arranged for R & B artists including Isaac Hayes, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan and the ultimate Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown.
In the pop/ rock realm, McBribe collaborated with such great as Sting, Carly Simon and Don Henley and he has also lent his expertise to hip-hop artists such as the Roots and Queen Latifiah. McBride is also a tireless spokesman for music and the arts and was named Artistic Director the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Summer Sessions in 2000 and the co-director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem in 2005. In 2006, he became the “creative chair in jazz” with the L.A Philharmonic, taking over from Diane Reeves. In 1998, McBride composed a four-movement suite called “The Movement, Revisited” dedicated to major figures in the civil rights movement and in 2008 he re-wrote and expanded the suite which was performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Since 2000, McBride has led The Christian McBride Band, which was described by award-winning writer Alan Leeds as “one of the most intoxicating and least predictable bands on the scene today.” His most recent album is “The Good Feeling” released in 2011. The Christian McBride Big Band plays the Playboy Jazz Festival on Saturday, June 16th at the Hollywood Bowl.
GUESTS
KG Omulo, singer, songwriter from Kenya. Omulo has lived and worked in the U.S since he was 20. His debut album “Ayah Ye! Moving Train” came out in January, 2012. KG Omulo is appearing at the Playboy Jazz Festival, Hollywood Bowl on Sunday, June 17, between 3:00-11:00 P.M.
Terri Lyne Carrington, jazz drummer, composer, record producer and entrepreneur. In 2011 she released The Mosaic Project, her fifth album overall, which featured a number of singers. It won the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Carrington is appearing at the Playboy Jazz Festival, Hollywood Bowl on Sunday, June 17, between 3:00-11:00 P.M.
Christian McBride, Philadelphia born jazz bassist, composer, arrangers, curator and music administrator.
The one, two, three, four of James Brown’s music and life
Even though he passed in 2006, no one else has been able to lay claim to James Brown’s famous moniker, “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business.” Truly an icon in his own time, Brown solidified his place not just in music, but in pop culture as well.
Author R. J. Smith explores Brown’s legacy, both on stage and off, in his new book, “The One: The Life and Music of James Brown.” The title does not refer to Brown’s placement on any list, however, but to his intense obsession with the first beat in a series of four.
His attention to detail was one of his master attributes, as he was known for fining or firing band members for numerous offenses, including trying to achieve a shine on one’s shoes by cutting corners with Vaseline. Also covered is Brown’s turbulent childhood growing up in the South, and the inherent paradox in how a man who was so outspoken as an activist for fairness in society routinely abused the people, specifically women, in his life. Finally, Smith traces Brown’s life to the very end, when his issues with growing old and not having access to the limelight pushed him to eccentric habits and activities.
Why did Brown succumb to his demons the way he did throughout his life? What impact did he have on popular music and society? What are your most vivid memories of James Brown, musical or otherwise? Why does Brown still captivate and hold our attention today?
Guest:
RJ Smith, author of “The One: The Life and Music of James Brown” (Gotham)