Well, dear readers, I promised you some damn videos so some damn videos you’ll get, and I mean like now, not paragraphs from here, for why should I keep you dear readers waiting unnecessarily. So, our first video is our opening number, with Brennley and Sami starting our festively festive show with the classic Be A Santa by Jule Styne and Comden and Green from the not-so-classic Subways Are for Sleeping. Watch the hats just before the final chorus.
Next up we have adorable Hayley Shukiar doing I Love to Walk in the Rain, first done by Shirley Temple in Just Around the Corner. I love this song and this little girl is too much and stopped the show cold.
Now we have Sami doing the beautiful A Place Called Home from the Alan Menken/Lynn Ahrens A Christmas Carol. I love this song and Sami does a really lovely job of it.
Here’s our very own Robert Yacko doing the Irving Berlin classic, Count Your Blessings – one of my all-time favorite songs.
I have more but You Tube is being retarded right now – it took exactly three minutes to upload the videos already posted. Now it looks like the one that I’m currently trying to upload will take about three HOURS. Way to go, You Tube. BREAKING NEWS: I cancelled the upload, waited ten minutes, then tried again – this time it took two minutes, so here is Brittney Bertier doing my song, This Christmas.
Yesterday was a not too bad day, all things considered, and believe me I’ve considered all things, even though all things hasn’t actually considered me, which is damn inconsiderate if you ask me. I got nine hours of sleep, which was lovely. I got up, did the usual morning things, such as answer e-mails, print out some orders, and a little work on the computer. Then I went and had a chili, cheese, and onion omelet, an English muffin, and a few french fries as a little treat. Then I picked up packages, including the new Kritzerland computer, did some banking, and then came home.
Waiting for me was a screener for a motion picture called Lion and I’m not lyin’. I’d never heard of it and had no idea what it was even about. But first I sat on my couch like so much fish and did me some SACD listening. I finished with disc one of Madama Butterfly. The sound is amazing, although the orchestra does overpower the voices occasionally, due to recording with only three mics – but the sound is so detailed and full, just the way I like to hear an orchestra, with every detail crystal clear. Then I tried out a few of the other disc sitting there like so much fish. First I put on an SACD of the Rachmaninov third symphony – a live recording with the London Symphony with some Russian conductor. This is one of those new SACDs with 5.1 sound. Well, I got news for these engineers who clearly haven’t a clew they’re making a recording, not making an album wherein the sound is akin to sitting in the lobby of a concert hall listening to the orchestra through closed doors, or the last row of the balcony. The orchestra literally sounds like it’s in another room down a hall – there is no detail, just distant and washy sound, and that’s somehow pleasing? Note to engineers: Listen to any of these RCA Living Stereo recordings and tell me what you hear – because what you will NOT hear is distant, washy sound with no detail. You will hear the orchestra present and accounted for and incredible detail – and most of these recordings are close to sixty years older. Really, get a clew folks. Add to that what I felt was a lackluster performance with some very peculiar dynamic and tempo choices and I’ll just stick with Eugene Ormandy and Andre Previn.
I then auditioned the SACD Mahler sixth – the sound was a little more present but not enough for my taste. The parts I listened to seemed well done, but Mahler needs to be in your face and immediate-sounding and this simply wasn’t. What I’m discovering is that the old three-track recordings translate best to SACD. I have a few other modern SACDs on their way and perhaps one of those will do it right.
Finally, I listened to the SACD of A Chorus Line. As you all know, I’m a huge fan of Mr. Goddard Lieberson, who produced the cast album (it may have been his last) – unfortunately, it’s one of the few Lieberson albums I don’t love – the original mix and sound was just okay, nothing more. The remix done for the standard CD reissue of a few years ago helps a bit – you can actually hear the piano, and there’s more detail, although they remixer removes all the vocal panning. The same team did this SACD and I have to say it’s completely wacky and weird. There are times the band sounds stellar, the cast is in a whole other reverb that’s not as nice as the band, at least to my ears, and then there’s the inane decision to have Zach at the top of the show coming solely out of the rear speakers. It’s really so outré and I can’t even describe it. That doesn’t happen again until the finale, where all of the men singing One are coming from the rear speakers. I’ll just say it here and now and also now and here – give me the original multi-track tapes and let me have a go at it and I can guarantee you it will be better than any of these releases. I can hear what they are and aren’t doing and it certainly can be helped in the same way we completely fixed Follies. You would think after Follies got the reviews it did, those absolutely love-letter reviews, including comments from all the surviving creative team, that it might occur to someone to call and say, “Hey, would you listen to these tapes and see if you think you can do what you did with Follies?” But alas, too much ego and I suppose no one cares. Of course I would not touch anything that was great, but there are some cast albums that could use a little TLC.
Then I watched Lion. I will say it’s a good story that would be more effective if it had ten minutes shaved off the running time, and if it actually had a score that functioned as movie music rather than the ubiquitous droning strings and pointless piano arpeggios that do nothing to underscore the drama of the film. We’re just in a very bad period for movie music and at some point someone will write a real film score again and then that will be all the rage. I can’t wait for that to happen. So, what should be a really moving final twenty minutes isn’t thanks to the terrible music. No one realizes how much of a difference it would make, but I always suggest looking at the “Discovering Boo” scene at the end of To Kill a Mockingbird – the reason everyone is so moved by that is Elmer Bernstein’s perfect understanding of how to score it, how to get under the scene and make it transcendental. THAT is movie music and a lesson in how it works. I did like this movie, mostly thanks to the extraordinary little boy who plays the lead character through the first half of the film. That entire half works very well. Then all the ACTORS show up and start mumbling and whispering. They’re all fine, but I do wish they’d speak up a little. Dev Patel is good as the boy grown up, Rooney Mara doesn’t have much to do, and Nicole Kidman is the woman who adopts the boy and she’s fine.
After the movie, I listened to some music, finessed the Richard Sherman questions and printed them out, and that was that. Well, no more videos until tomorrow’s notes – the currently uploading video is at 16% after thirty minutes. There are times I wish You Tube would just take a damn hike. This is clearly their problem since the others uploaded so quickly and effortlessly. I may just stop this upload and try again tomorrow.
Today, I have stuff to do in the morning, I may jog, and hopefully pick up some packages, and then we have a rehearsal for the Richard Sherman event. We’ll run all the songs, I’ll do some staging, and then we’ll run everything down one final time with our musical director. Then we’ll go get something to eat, then I’ll head on home.
Tomorrow is the event. Richard will come here and I’ll drive us to Calabasas High and we’ll do our sound check at three-thirty for about thirty to forty minutes. Then we’ll be taken out for a nice dinner, then we’ll be back at six-fifteen and the show is at seven and should last around ninety minutes or so. Then Thursday is my very own actual birthday – other than a birthday lunch with Kay Cole I know not what is happening, probably not a damn thing. Friday we’ll probably start comping the vocals for Kay’s album
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do stuff, maybe jog, hopefully pick up packages, rehearse, and sup. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite movie scores that are actually movie scores rather than droning? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, not wanting to ever hear any more movie scores that are simply droning. Enough with the droning.