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September 15, 2016:

TRIPPING DOWN MEMORY LANE

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I continue on the trip down memory lane and yesterday I listened to more Terry Trotter and then a beautiful album I also never remember we did. Terry-wise, I listened to Company in Jazz, which is really very good. Terry’s ability to really reinvent the feels and yet never compromise the music is nothing short of astonishing and, at times, breathtaking. I moved from Company to the show that followed, Follies. That is also a seriously wonderful CD – he just finds the essence of each tune and it’s a terrific listen and that particular Sondheim music is just so haunting and splendid. I then moved on to the controversial album of the six we did – A Little Night Music. Even Sondheim was taken aback and on first listening missed the trio. But I knew from the start it would make an amazing solo piano album – few agreed with me at the time, but one listening will tell you just how right I was. Like Passion, it is virtually a perfect album, start to finish. To strip that music to its barest, to let Terry fly on his own, to hear that brilliant musicianship in every track – I thought it could be like a solo piano album of Ravel, the composer that was certainly the inspiration for the sound of the score, and that is indeed what it sounds like it. Sondheim wrote “Art isn’t easy” but sometimes it is – sometimes it’s the right idea with the right person and it just pours forth. I could listen to this album forever – so, it’s a little surprising to me that I haven’t actually heard it since the day it was shipped. It’s glorious and if there’s any doubt that Terry is one of the greats, is one for the ages, this album will be the proof that he is.

I moved from there to this album called Cinema Romance, which I did with Grant Geissman. I’d had my great success with Titanic, and the other guy at Varese was busy doing all these symphonic scores in Scotland, and I became the guy who could do these somewhat inexpensive theme compendiums. I did Cinema Romance for selfish reasons – in those days I was having a masseuse come to the house twice a week – remember I was doing nineteen albums year back then and I NEEDED the massage. And I was bored of hearing the same relaxing music all the time – I think it was always the Sax and Violence CD. So, I came up with Cinema Romance, an album of then-current movie themes all of which were tonally relaxing and the musical equivalent of a great massage. It worked. Grant couldn’t take credit as the leader because he had a record deal elsewhere, but it’s all him. And it is really swell. Haven’t heard it since back then but it plays beautifully and is perfect music to relax by. I’m sure it can be had for pennies and it’s worth checking out. Speaking of Grant, I also listened to our album Bacharach: The Instrumental Side – it, too, is pure Grant and just great. The album, like Swing, was completely buried by Varese, who simply didn’t have a clew. Grant has played with Burt on any number of occasions so his arrangements are wonderful as are the musicians who play them.

Yesterday was just another day with Mercury in Uranus or whatever the HELL is going on. I only got six hours of sleep again, got up, did my morning ablutions, did work on the computer, got Dropboxed The Brain from Planet X video from 2006 all broken up into clips so everyone can learn their blocking from that – that way we’ll be ahead of the game in our limited rehearsal time. I’d asked one of the regular Kritzerland performers to play the husband but his mom is sick and he can’t commit until October and then if he can’t do it that puts me in a real bind to find someone, so I’m asking someone else to do both it and the November Kritzerland show, which, crazily, plays the night before The Brain.

I went and had some chicken tenders for my meal o’ the day, then picked up no packages, and came home. At one-thirty, Richard Sherman came over. He wanted me to hear a project that got away and one that is near and dear to his heart, a musical about a real-life person. It never even had a single reading – he and his brother loved the show and what they wrote for it. So, we played the demo CD as he told me the story. I enjoyed the score, but hearing a précis of the show while jumping from song to song is not optimal. The book writer is very well known and I’m a fan of his, so Richard will now bring me the script to read. He knows it still needs work, and I told him that if I like it, as I’m sure I will, then I’ll put together a proper staged reading of it with a terrific cast and we’ll hear the damn thing. If that goes well, and if everyone agrees to be VERY collaborative with me, I will put aside the show I’m thinking about doing at LACC next September and do a world premiere of this instead. I suspect that it will need more than a little work, as the book writer hasn’t ever written a musical before. We shall see.

He also left another demo for me to hear, this an adaptation he and his brother did for a pretty well known book by one of my favorite authors. This demo has a band and good singers and if we can find something to pair it with, I think we’ll put it out on Kritzerland. We’re also going to record a commentary together for an upcoming Blu and Ray, and we’re going to do an encore performance of our An Evening With Richard Sherman we did at LACC two years ago. We both had so much fun and I got asked if we could do it as a fundraiser for Sami’s school so of course I said I would and since Richard loves Sami he’s happy to do it, too. He doesn’t really want to do any more of that kind of thing, but with me it’s really fun and I ask stuff that’s not the usual stuff so he gets to actually tell new stories. As I did at LACC, we’ll do four or five songs interspersed throughout the chat we do. I made the decision that all the talent will come from the drama department. Sami will sing, of course, and we’ll find another couple of soloists. We’ll also do The Whimsey Works and Two Roads to close out the show. We had a blast two years ago and I’m sure we’ll have one this time. We’re not free this time, our cost is a really nice, leisurely dinner prior to the show.

That part of the day was simply aces, as you might imagine. After Richard left, I did the shorter jog. That seems to work for me – long jog, shorter jog – on alternating days. Then it doesn’t become so tiresome. Then I went and got four tiny drumettes and a little salad with just lettuce, a couple of mushrooms, onions, and red wine vinegar, so no calories at all in the salad. I came home and ate them all up whilst sitting on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched a motion picture entitled Raising Cain, a film of Brian de Palma. Having just watched the documentary I was looking forward to seeing one of the few De Palma films I’d never seen. Well, it is, in my opinion, terrible but wacky terrible, over the top terrible, not terrible terrible. The writing is horrible, the actors are all fine, the score is good and Mr. De Palma’s work is filled with his customary flourishes and style, and he obviously takes great delight in it. This one’s a little Peeping Tom, a little Psycho, and a few other things. I know he wants the viewer to be constantly fooled, but, sorry, everything is as obvious as can be. The structure is really awkward and there are head-scratching moments where you just go, “WHAT?” That’s because he made a last-minute decision in the editing room to reorder the scenes and begin the film with stuff from twenty minutes in. I understand completely why he did it. He now regrets it, because some director/fan overseas had a script and put the film back in its more fragmented original structure. I watched that, too, but it didn’t work any better and I actually preferred the theatrical cut. I do have to laugh that they call it a Director’s Cut. It may have been done by a director but that director is not the director of the film. But I will tell you, De Palma’s fans are like no other – for them he can do no wrong, for them every film is a masterpiece, even the obvious misses. Everything can be justified, everything has hidden meanings – it’s just hilarious to read this stuff.

After that, I just relaxed and listened to music. And we still don’t have our final guy for the Kritzerland show, and if I don’t have him by three today then we’ll have one guy and I’ll bring in another gal – pretty simple. I’m just bored to tears of the casting difficulties we face every month. Happily, the November show is already half cast, so that’s good.

Today, we must find our final cast member, then I can get everyone their music and choose the final few songs. Then I have writing to do, I’ll do the longer jog, hopefully pick up packages, then I do the drive to Thousand Oaks to have an early supper and then see Parade.

Tomorrow I have a lot of catching up to do, liner notes to finish, releases to prep (I’m going to try and do four releases in October – we’ll see how that goes. Saturday I hope will be a ME day and I hope it involves having what I will now do once a week – a splurge meal. I’m allowed to do that after losing over twenty pounds. It’s this final fifteen to twenty that’s the hardest, but those pounds will be gone, hopefully by the end of the year or for my birthday. I couldn’t give myself a better present than that. Sunday I have a work session, and then next week is filled to the brim with stuff.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, cast, get people music, write, jog, hopefully pick up packages, sup, and see a show. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could have one show score done as a jazz album or a cover version, which would it be (one that hasn’t had those treatments)? And which modern score from the last decade do you think would lend itself to a jazz treatment or cover version? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be continuing this little trip down memory lane.

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