A Score To Settle Podcast - Episode 17, Listening To... John Williams (Part 1)

Welcome to the next new episode of the podcast! In this installment, I am focusing on the music of the most famous and beloved film composer in the world, John Williams. His richly melodic and developed scores have thrilled and stirred audiences for more than four decades, whether accompanying sharks, space ships, wizards or bullwhips. In charting his career and listening for the hallmarks of his style, I wanted to primarily spotlight music before he achieved superstardom as well as those other movies concurrent to the popular blockbusters that are perhaps less notable or less well-known to general audiences. My aim is to focus a bit more on the John Williams you might not have heard.  

Here in part one, I talk about his early career, first as a session player on various film and TV scores recorded in Hollywood, then to his own work in the 1960's including TV series such as LOST IN SPACE and THE TIME TUNNEL and wacky adult comedies with goofy titles like NOT WITH MY WIFE, YOU DON'T. I continue on through that decade and on to his scores from the 1970's, as the variety of projects expanded along with his musical vernacular. This runs the gamut from THE COWBOYS to THE MAN WHO LOVED CAT DANCING, THE TOWERING INFERNO and THE FURY, all of which showcase Williams's immense compositional range, something often undervalued, along with his ability to perfectly accompany any cinematic story. 

I hope everyone who listens finds the episode entertaining and informative and as usual, forgive me any technical or factual errors on my part. Below is the embedded player from which you can listen or simply click on the website link to head directly to where the show is hosted on Podbean. Also, feel free to subscribe and download the episode via iTunes, just search their podcast store for "a score to settle". If you do listen through iTunes, take a moment to rate and write a review of the show, it will help bring more notice. Check out the link to the Facebook page along with my Twitter account, the latter of which you can find at @score2settlepod. Thanks again!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a-score-to-settle/id1317649943?mt=2

https://ascoretosettle.podbean.com/e/asts-017-listening-to-john-williams-part-1/

A Score To Settle Podcast - Episode 16, Listening To... John Barry

Welcome to the next new episode of my podcast, "A Score To Settle"! In this episode, my topic is the unmistakable and always resonant music of the unrivaled, brilliant, often imitated but never duplicated John Barry. His unique and indelible film scores have elevated every project for which he composed, from the James Bond series to DANCES WITH WOLVES and so much wonderful music in between. My focus here is mainly on his music outside of James Bond, since I feel that 007 would deserve his own episode, and how Barry's style evolved from the jazz & pop trends of his day to the lush, sonorous orchestral works that garnered him awards and notoriety, heard in such scores as SOMEWHERE IN TIME and OUT OF AFRICA. 

John Barry was born in York, England in 1933 and became steeped in the craft of movie-making thanks to the fact this his father owned several local cinemas, allowing the young Barry to watch, observe and absorb films of all types. His formal music studies led to him to the trumpet, then diving into the world of jazz and pop, expressing all of this during the late 1950's and early 1960's primarily through his own band, The John Barry Seven. In a way, he could be considered one of the first film composers who entered from the world of pop music, an early example for current composers such as Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer, themselves formerly from the pop/rock genre. Barry's time as composer and arranger in the jazz/pop world led him into scoring film and TV projects, first in the UK and eventually in Hollywood. 

I hope everyone who listens finds this episode entertaining and informative and as always, forgives any technical and factual gaffes on my part. Below is the embedded player from which you can listen or just click on the website link to head directly to where the show is hosted, on Podbean. Also, feel free to subscribe and download the episode via iTunes, simply search their podcast store for "a score to settle". If you do listen through iTunes, take a moment to rate and write a review, as it will help bring more notice. Check out the link to the Facebook page, along with my Twitter account, the latter of which you can find at @score2settlepod. Thanks again!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a-score-to-settle/id1317649943?mt=2

https://ascoretosettle.podbean.com/e/asts-016-listening-to-john-barry/

A Score To Settle Podcast - Episode 15, Guest Stuart Balcomb, composer

Welcome to the next new episode of my podcast, "A Score To Settle"! In this episode, I am joined by well-renowned composer, orchestrator and copyist Stuart Balcomb, talking about his background and career. In addition we discuss the wonderful music he provided episodes of the highly-regarded and popular BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES from the 1990's, for which Stuart was a member of an amazing group guided and mentored by the talented and late lamented composer, Shirley Walker. But first, I inquire into his publication of the memoirs of famed Hollywood session player, composer and conductor Artie Kane, titled "Music To My Years: Life and Love Between The Notes". The latter was published by Stuart through Amphora Editions.

Regarding Artie Kane, he grew up as a piano prodigy and initially made a career of performing on radio and stage shows before emerging as one of the top session players for TV and film scores in Hollywood. He also played on albums for many famous pop stars of their day, such as Frank Sinatra. Artie Kane then moved into composing for media, including many popular TV series such as WONDER WOMAN, THE LOVE BOAT and MATLOCK. Then starting in the 90's, he became a sought-after conductor on scores for notable composers including John Williams, Danny Elfman and James Newton Howard. Kane's memoir tracks his life both professionally and personally. the good and the bad, in an honest and entertaining fashion, funny and sometimes heartbreaking, and is an enlightening read for anyone interested in the art and craft of music.

You can find out more about Stuart Balcomb at his website https://www.stuartbalcomb.com/. You can find out about Artie Kane's memoir, "Music To My Years: Life and Love Between The Notes" at https://amphoraeditions.com/.

I hope everyone who listens finds this episode entertaining and informative and as always, forgive me any technical and factual gaffes on my part. Below is the embedded player from which you can listen or simply click on the website link to head directly to where the show is hosted, on Podbean. Also, feel free to subscribe and download the episode via iTunes, just search their podcast store for "a score to settle". If you do listen through iTunes, take a moment to rate and write a review, it will help bring more notice. Check out the link to the Facebook page, along with my Twitter account, the latter of which you can find at @score2settlepod. Thanks again!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a-score-to-settle/id1317649943?mt=2

https://ascoretosettle.podbean.com/e/asts-015-guest-stuart-balcomb-composer/

A Score to Settle Podcast - Episode 14, Guest David Das, composer

Hello everyone and welcome to the next new episode of my podcast! In this episode, I am joined by composer, songwriter and music producer David Das. We talk about his background in studying music, arranging and composing and how the inimitable George Gershwin concert piece "Rhapsody In Blue" provided him so much inspiration and direction. Additional topics include writing music for all forms of visual media, whether trailers, games or dramatic projects, as well as his efforts as president of the non-profit group The Academy of Scoring Arts, which is an organization devoted to the study of influential classical, jazz and film music and is also a way for creatives in the industry to network. Lastly, we discuss various concert classical works, from Mozart to Debussy to Schoenberg and Stravinsky, and their collective influence on movie music, both compositionally and philosophically. You can find out more about David and his accomplishments at http://www.daviddas.com and The Academy of Scoring Arts at http://www.academyofscoringarts.org.

I also talk about the fascinating and entertaining new memoir by famed musician, film/TV composer and conductor Artie Kane, published by Amphora Editions, titled "Music To My Years: Life and Love Between The Notes", available at https://amphoraeditions.com/books/.

I hope everyone who listens finds this episode entertaining and informative and as always, forgive me any technical and factual gaffes on my part. On that topic, there actually are a few brief instances of electronic glitches present in this episode, so I apologize in advance! Below is the embedded player from which you can listen or simply click on the website link to head directly to where the show is hosted, on Podbean. Also, feel free to subscribe and download the episode via iTunes, just search their podcast store for "a score to settle". If you do listen through iTunes, take a moment to rate and write a review, it will help bring more notice. Check out the link to the Facebook page, along with my Twitter account, the latter of which you can find at @score2settlepod. Thanks again!

https://ascoretosettle.podbean.com/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a-score-to-settle/id1317649943?mt=2

A Score To Settle Podcast - Episode 13, Listening To... Hans Zimmer

Hello everyone and welcome to the next new episode of my podcast! In this episode, I turn the spotlight on composer Hans Zimmer and his music for the movies. Born in 1957, in Frankfurt, Germany, Zimmer's initial musical background is by way of pop music, most famously with the band The Buggles, who had a huge hit in 1979 with their perky tune "Video Killed The Radio Star" (of course, you might have to be over a certain age to remember this one). Later, he shifted into writing ad jingles before notable British composer Stanley Myers brought him as an apprentice. Soon they were co-composing a number of film scores together. Zimmer quickly graduated to his own solo composing career in 1988 with A WORLD APART, which very soon led to notable and well-remembered huge hits such as RAIN MAN, DRIVING MISS DAISY, BACKDRAFT, CRIMSON TIDE, THE LION KING and more. I wanted to take a listen to how Zimmer's unique blend of synths, pop, exotic instruments and traditional orchestral forces changed the soundscape of movie music, starting in the 90's and continuing through to today, as heard in such blockbusters as the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and DARK KNIGHT series, INCEPTION and DUNKIRK.

I hope everyone who listens finds the episode entertaining and informative and as usual, forgive me any technical or factual goofs on my part. Below is the embedded player from which you can listen or simply click on the website link to head directly to where the show is hosted on Podbean. Also, feel free to subscribe and download the episode via iTunes, just search their podcast store for "a score to settle". If you do listen through iTunes, take a moment to rate and write a review of the show, it will help bring more notice. Check out the link to the Facebook page along with my Twitter account, the latter of which you can find at @score2settlepod. Thanks again!

https://ascoretosettle.podbean.com/e/asts-013-listening-to-hans-zimmer/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/asts-013-listening-to-hans-zimmer/id1317649943?i=1000415408999&mt=2