Hey all, I know its been a few days, but I have been hard at work with a project with the one and only Austin Wells. We have been recording (props go to Austin for this one) and recording our version of the "Ooh Ooh It's Love" jingle for the 2012 Subaru of New England jingle contest. The contest is to cover the jingle and submit a video. The original jingle from the past year is below.
We decided to up the ante a little and get some inspiration and slightly more extravagant video editing. We were inspired to do it in the style of the one and only Tom Jones. Below is a clip of Tom Jones for those who do not recognize his presence in only his name and the masterpiece that we hope wins. I don't think there is any sort of voting that accompanies it so just pray.
Tom Jones in the critically acclaimed(bahaha) film "Mars Attacks!"
It another hot one out there for much of the country so I thought I would go back to some French art film music. No other than Martial Solal, who some consider to be the Art Tatum of France. He has wrote a number of compositions that have been featured in films, notably during the 1960's. The composition I have transcribed below is "New York Herald Tribune" from the the film "A bout de souffle" (or "Breathless" for the English translation)by Jean-Luc Godard.
The film is about a thief named Michael who is on the run after shooting a police officer. Michael hides out with his American girlfriend, Patricia, who is a student and journalist that sells copies of the New York Herald Tribune on the streets of Paris.
The song that plays while she is selling newspapers is very understandably the New York Herald Tribune. The reason I thought to write out this song is in the expressive way Solal plays his long runs, but its also a song I have never heard played or covered anywhere. I think there is a recording of Solal playing at the Village Vanguard, but besides this track no one else has thought to play it. I thought it might be interesting perhaps in a trio setting to play this as either a) a stand alone piece or b)as almost solemn transition between two larger compositions or improvisations.
July 4th Reflection and Oh You Pretty Things! by David Bowie
Happy July 5th, Everyone! This was the day the men at the signing of the Declaration of Independence woke up the next morning and thought, "Oh, Hancock wasn't joking. We are doing this thing..." Apologize for the delay in between posts. I had a couple days working on some original tunes (won't divulge these until they are ready for proper consumption), a larger project which I will get to in a moment, and doing some job scouting and future gig searching.
"I will find you, gigs. Oh yes."
I have a special treat for any Bowie Fans with a written version of "Oh! You Pretty Things" off the album "Hunky Dory".
"Oh! You Pretty Things"
Unfortunately, the program I am using, Musescore, which is free for download, is picky about its formatting, so I cannot post it here on the blog. I do hope to maybe perform it sometime in the near future, so I will update when that happens.
I went down to the Esplanade for the Fourth of July Pops Fireworks Celebration. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Boston, the Esplanade is a stretch of public land by the Charles River where the Boston Pops conducted by Keith Lockhart perform their nationally televised concert which is accompanied by Fireworks.
Keith Lockhart, You Smiling Rogue
This year and apparently for the past two years, this show has been hosted by one Michael Chiklis, whose most famous work that I know of has been as the main character on the Shield and as 'the Thing' from Fantastic Four.
The clear choice for a program of symphonic music and explosions.
I understand that he is from the area, but as a person who was at the event his role in the whole thing was confusing. I guess he actually did something for the national telecast because he was introduced to everyone before the show started i.e. a lady told him he was so great and asked him what his next projects are. If I had not seen that introduction I would have no idea that the guy was even the vicinity. If anything, it seemed like the host was our good buddy, Keith Lockhart.
Hopefully, not relation to this Lockhart
Going forward, I think if you are going to take the reigns of the program out of the conductor to a host in title only, make it for honorific reasons. Like maybe to a group of Marine Corps members who have just done a tour of duty. Or maybe a group of kids from a Boys and Girls Club. The Fourth of July is a nostalgic, feel good event and enough things are encrusted with token celebrity. Not to say Chiklis has not worked hard to get to the position he is in, but having a middle aged white male actor who is famous for beating up suspects and being a genetically altered version of Hulk Hogan does not line up well with symphonic music, especially when they are covering Mamma Mia.
I really didn't know what to say either
So to the people at Boston 4 Productions, if you are looking at next year and still want a in-name only host who is a white middle aged actor whose screen credits revolve around fighting bad guys and doing a little torture along the way, might I say upgrade a step...
