Film Score Friday 12/1/00

At this point there may or may not be a soundtrack album for Cast Away. The problem is that Alan Silvestri's score is very brief (15-20 minutes) and deliberately monothematic, so the question is what else to put with the score to fill out a potential album. We'll pass on any info we learn.

Due December 5 from London is the soundtrack album to Family Man, featuring songs and some score by Danny Elfman. A separate score album may be forthcoming as well.

The score to Traffic (Cliff Martinez) will be released by TVT Records on January 9th.

The Warner Bros. cartoon music of Carl Stalling was included on NPR's list of 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century in an installment lats Monday. The radio broadcast has already occurred but here's a link for more info: http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/vote/list100.html

Elmer at Eames

From the press release about this Sunday's event:
 

Award winning film composer, Elmer Bernstein, will be making a rare appearance at the Eames Office Gallery and Store in Santa Monica CA on Sunday, December 3rd between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m.

Mr. Bernstein will speak of his collaborations with Charles and Ray Eames-- scoring more than thirty of their films-- and introduce "Toccata For Toy Trains" for which he wrote the score. He will also be signing his recently-released Amber CD, "Elmer Bernstein, Music for the Films of Charles and Ray Eames."

Elmer Bernstein has composed over 200 scores for motion pictures and television in a career spanning five decades. His film scores include The Magnificent Seven, The Man with the Golden Arm, The Great Escape, Ghostbusters, The Grifters, and The Age of Innocence. In addition to receiving an Oscar in 1967, Mr. Bernstein has been honored with an Emmy, two Golden Globes, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and Lifetime Achievement Awards from The Los Angeles Film Critics Circle, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) The Society for the Preservation of Film Music, and The American Film Institute.

Professor Bernstein studied with Aaron Copland, Roger Sessions and Stefan Wolpe and currently teaches at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles.

The Eames Office is dedicated to communicating, preserving and extending the work of Charles and Ray Eames.

See www.elmerbernstein.com for more information.

Batman CD

From: "Mark Hasan" <markh29@sympatico.ca>
 

Just a congrats on the Batman cd - Never was a fan of the film (as it felt like an overlong tv episode), but the music always stood out. Over the years I've managed to grab most of Riddle's scores on lp, and Batman is, um, quite a change from the veteran composer/arranger's usual works. Clearly he had a lot of fun, and that energy is amply reflected in the numerous (and happily lengthy) cues on the FSM disc.

As for the Hefti theme that concludes the cd, I couldn't stop laughing, as I imagine there must have been a lot of takes with uncontrolled laughter among the singers. Hefti seemed to have a good sense of humour in general - even his jazz albums are light and bouncy - though I gather from the interview FSM published a few years ago, the composer wasn't an easy man to speak with. I have a feeling it took more time than normal to edit his responses...

There's one credit in Riddle's filmography that I find baffling. In 1970 he scored Hell's Bloody Devils (1970), a film I've never seen, but want to, because I need to see the proof that Riddle - a man of taste and genuine talent - was actually involved in an Al Adamson film. If you've never experienced the incompetence and exploitive rot that permeates this Z-level hackman, consider yourself lucky. Brain of Blood & Satan's Sadists are classics in cinematic ineptitude, but Dracula vs. Frankenstein is unequalled: an afro-challenged vampire (starring the ever-lovable Zandor Vorkov) with the voice of a tinny squawk box.

I can only presume Riddle was kidnapped and allowed freedom if he scored Adamson's western.

I have never heard of this Riddle score -- how interesting.

I did not do the Neal Hefti interview we had a few years back in the hardcopy magazine but I remember the answers being somewhat brief. I do remember going to the office one morning and playing the message that was on the machine: "Hello... I was wondering if I could get a copy of your latest edition... my address is [so and so]... my name is Neal Hefti..." Just one of the perks of editing a movie music magazine. I was thinking, what universe have I landed in?

But about Hefti, some people are just more comfortable and articulate in interviews but it does not necessarily correlate to being easy to talk to, being a good person, being smart, or anything really. There are a lot of people who are great to talk to but hard to interview and vice versa.

Poor Us

From: "Wilson Maffetano"<wilfemaff@sti.com.br>
 

What happened to the old FILM SCORE DAILY which gave us many precious information about composers, film music history, tips to find, buy and preserve our soundtracks and so on?

The column has become only a fountain of memoirs, remembrances on others feelings and "THIS IS THE MUSIC I LOVE" section!

Please return to your roots! Let's talk about SOUNDTRACKS, and not THIS WEEK TAPE CONTENTS!

Well, good question, and I wanted to provide an answer that I hope is not too much of an apology. We started "Film Score Daily" at the beginning of May 1997 having little idea how it would pan out over the upcoming days, weeks, months, years... we just figured we'd start it and see how long we could keep it going.

By my count we're approaching ONE THOUSAND of these daily entries... most of which are full articles -- reviews, commentary, news, letters, etc. And you can browse through all of them here on the site.

So it's a little bit like when I used to read comic books -- you can only read a title for so long before the plotlines repeat... "Doctor Octopus attacks again?"

All of this is to say at the moment we're trying to rest and recharge our batteries to think of new things to cover here in Film Score Daily. In the meantime we do need to coast a little on the broad memoir type articles we're been running lately.

HOWEVER...

WATCH THIS SPACE IN DECEMBER. It's the holiday season and we're dreaming up a lot of special promotions and giveaways for our magazines and CDs -- everything from discounts to special package deals to autograph copies. I know this isn't the same as "film music coverage" but it's important to us and we hope to make an event of this column in the next few weeks before Christmas -- keep on the look out for "24 Hour Sales"!

And hopefully by this time next week -- or perhaps early the week thereafter -- we'll announce our new CD release, a Golden Age Classic that I'm sure will be well-received...

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