Live Music: Steve Tyrell at Catalina Bar & Grill

By Don Heckman

Hollywood CA.  Steve Tyrell is back at Catalina Bar & Grill this week.  No surprise there, since the veteran singer has become a regular at the Hollywood jazz room, frequently drawing overflow crowds to his performances of familiar standards.

Which is what he did on Thursday night, with a program largely dedicated to the songs of Sammy Cahn, before an audience glittering with song writing associations.  Among his listeners – Cahn’s widow, Tita, Jimmy McHugh’s granddaughter, Judy McHugh, as well as the songwriting team of Alan and Marilyn Bergman, and songwriter Mike Stoller.

The Steve Tyrell Band:Bob Mann, Lyman Medeiros, Steve Tyrell, Lew Soloff

Tyrell’s extensive background as a producer taught him, early on in his career, that singers are always deeply reliant upon the quality of their instrumental support.  And he has wisely assembled an impressive seven piece band – featuring stellar work from guitarist Bob Mann, saxophonist Jeff Driscoll and trumpeter Lew Soloff – that provided consistently solid backing.  Soloff’s trumpet work, moving from plunger-muted soloing to far ranging, high note ensemble leads, was a particularly vital contribution to the colorful sounds and rhythms curling around Tyrell’s vocals.

Add to that the beautifully crafted arrangements by Mann, Don Sebesky and Alan Broadbent.  And, of course, there was the amazing catalog of Cahn’s music, overflowing with the sort of catchy lyrics perfectly appropriate for Tyrell’s jauntily expressive singing style.

Steve Tyrell

Working with barely a break, moving smoothly from one Cahn classic to another he hit many of the high points in this remarkable catalog, dealing with each in appropriately atmospheric fashion: “Call Me Irresponsible,” “Time After Time,” “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry,” “Come Fly With Me,” “It’s Magic, “Teach Me Tonight,”  “It All Depends on You,” “I’ve Got the World On A String” and “All the Way.”  (Note that there are a couple of Academy Award winners in that list.)

Tyrell also acknowledged some of the other songwriter presence in the audience by adding Jimmy McHugh’s “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” and the Bergmans’ “Nice and Easy.’  Topping it all off, he also included a pair of Bacharach and David tunes – “The Look of Love” and “This Guy’s In Love With You” – dating back to his youthful association, as a producer, with the great songwriting team.

Call it a well-crafted show.  Tyrell’s ebullient singing style, tinged with a good guy Texas accent and briskly rhythmic phrasing, was the centerpiece in an evening that was as entertaining as it was well-crafted.  Chatting amiably between numbers, telling a story or two, acknowledging celebrities in the crowd, he offered a virtual seminar in how to showcase the Great American Songbook.

There will be two more opportunities to experience Tyrell in action, with shows tonight (Saturday) and tomorrow at Catalina Bar & Grill.  (323) 466-2210 for reservations.

Photos by Bob Barry.

Live Music and Film: Bill Frisell and “The Great Flood” at Royce Hall

By Michael Katz

One of my regrets from the Monterey Jazz Festival was missing guitarist Bill Frisell’s commissioned piece.  So Saturday night’s performance in support of the Bill Morrison film The Great Flood at UCLA’s Royce Hall gave me the opportunity to experience another facet of Frisell’s diverse musical oeuvre

The 75 minute film, presented in conjunction with the newly named CAP UCLA program and the Angel City Jazz Festival, is a documentary about the 1927 Mississippi flood which submerged 27,000 square miles and spurred the migration of thousands of Delta residents, including many of the blues musicians who ended up in northern cities, especially Chicago. Morrison relies on footage from the National Archives and the Fox Movietone Newsreel Archive, dividing his story into visual and musical “movements” with no narrative other than introductory titles.

Bill Frisell

For audiences used to the Ken Burns documentary style – broad themes enhanced by individual stories, narrated by letters or diaries or biographical accounts — Morrison’s overview can seem lacking in focus. Even the Biblical Flood, after all, would be considerably less compelling without Noah. The film’s opening is effective enough, with a map of the Mississippi superimposed on the rising floodwaters. Frisell’s score is ominous with a hint of the Delta Blues. The accompaniment of percussionist Kenny Wollesen on vibes provided an unexpected layer of foreboding. Given the nature of the material, the music was bound to be elegiac, and the main voice through much of it belonged to trumpeter Ron Miles. His playing throughout was graceful, reminiscent of the thematic scoring and performance we’ve often heard from Mark Isham.

Still, without the individual stories to hang a theme on, it was hard to separate the   compositions from one movement to the next. About a quarter of the way into the film, Morrison presented an extended look at the 1927 Sears Roebuck Catalogue, which gave Frisell the opportunity to up the tempo and present a diversionary theme,  but there were few such segments in the performance.

The Great Flood of 1927

It’s impossible to view this film without making references to Hurricane Katrina, and it’s clear that, with all the changes in technology and communication, there was precious little difference over eighty years in the treatment of rich and poor. Morrison presents an effective overview early in the film of sharecroppers, working the field with horse and plow. When the floods rise, the evacuations stand in stark contrast: the well-to-do dressed in their Sunday best boarding trains north, while the mostly black sharecroppers huddle in tents like war refugees, watching the waters rise around them.

When the word “Politicians” flashed onscreen for the opening of the ninth segment,  snickers arose from the Royce Hall gathering. That in itself was as trenchant a commentary as what followed: white officials in suits and ties, trolling for photo ops, with looks that suggested they couldn’t wait for these moments of noblesse oblige to be over. You kept trying to read lips, waiting for someone to say “Heckuva job, Brownie.” Frisell again took advantage of the change in tone to present a more sardonic musical accompaniment, augmented by the fourth member of the quartet,  Tony Scherr, working on a variety of electric basses.

The latter part of the film dealt with the Diaspora that ensued. One segment, entitled “Friendship Baptist Church, Chicago,” simply used footage aimed at the front door of the church, as a seemingly endless surge of parishioners flowed out onto the street following a service. It was such an effective metaphor that the following segment, “Migration,” hardly seemed necessary.

The final segments of the film focused on the musical evolution of the blues, from its Delta origins to the urban streets of Chicago and other cities. Close-ups of blues players showed the progression from acoustic guitar to electric, steel and slide. Frisell chose not to mimic the sounds or present a blues digression of his own. Instead he adapted Jerome Kern’s “Ol’ Man River.” The fact that the arrangement worked so well underlined both his own strengths and the overall problems of the film. There was no shortage of passion, but it lacked the individual stories and themes that connect the audience with the material.

Great Flood of 1927 photo courtesy of Movietone. 

To read more iRoM reviews and posts by Michael Katz, click HERE.

To visit Michael Katz’s personal blog, “Katz of the Day,” click HERE.

Live Music at the Hollywood Bowl: John Williams — “Maestro of the Movies” — conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in an Evening of Film Music.

By Don Heckman

The high point of the John Williams: Maestro of the Movies concert at the Hollywood Bowl Saturday night didn’t actually arrive until the encore, when the “Maestro” conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic in his stirring music for Star Wars.  And that was no surprise to many members of the capacity – more than 17,000 – crowd.  They had either come prepared, or had made a stop in the Hollywood Bowl store to pick up exactly what they needed for that final piece.

When the familiar brass fanfare began, the Bowl suddenly erupted into a panorama of flashing lights.  Flashing light sabres, that is, because the audience was filled with reproductions of the famous light sabres from the film, colorfully swinging in time to the memorable music from the film. (Bought for $10.88 from the Bowl store.)

Here’s what a small section of the Bowl looked like when Williams kicked off the Star Wars encore.

Star Wars is played at the Hollywood Bowl

But there was much more on the program than Star Wars.  Williams has been criticized in the past for including too many of, so to speak, his “Greatest Hits” in his yearly Hollywood Bowl appearances.  That would mean all the Star Wars  flicks, so too for the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman. Harry Potter and E.T., to name only a few.  And he may, as a result, have decided with this show to also emphasize some less well-known works, and include mostly brief selections from the scores of his high visibility films.

John Williams

And it was fascinating to hear the far-ranging extent of his creative imagination.  It was a great pleasure, for example, to hear the emotionally stirring music Williams composed for the Olympic games.  For the highlight selection, The Olympic Spirit, NBC provided a powerful montage of extraordinary athletic scenes from the games to combine with the brilliantly atmospheric music.

Equally entertaining in a completely different way, Williams conducted his high spirited music for “The Duel,” from The Adventures of TinTin.  Once again, a montage of film clips, this time from generations of duel sequences in Hollywood feature films, provided utterly engaging video.  Among the highlights, clips from Scaramouche, Robin Hood, The Three Musketeers, The Mark of Zorrow, Black Swan and others, with prominent appearances from such film icons as Tyrone Power and Stewart Granger.

Gil Shaham

The guest artist performer, violinist Gil Shaham, also added some compelling musical moments to the mix in a trio of works.  The first, Carlos Gardel’s “Por Una Cabeza,” from Scent of a Woman, arranged by Williams, triggered Shaham’s dramatic way with a melody.  The poignant “Rememberances” from Williams’ score for Schindler’s List followed.  And Shaham and the Philharmonic wrapped it up with William’s arrangement of lively excerpts from Fiddler on the Roof.

The second half of the program was all Williams, with selections from his scores for Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Amistad and “Ðuel of the Fates” from Star Wars Episode i.

Then, before the Star Wars encore, Williams conducted the Philharmonic in the complete music for the last reel of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial”as the synchronized video was shown on large screens.

It was an impressive evening of music, as has been the case with Williams’ past Bowl performances. Listening to his ever appropriate and well-crafted contributions to such very different films raised the question of why so many producers and directors (including Stephen Spielberg) have turned to him over the course of his decades long career.  And the answer seemed clear to me.  Williams, like all the finest film composers, is a master of mood and atmosphere, as well as a brilliant composer of memorable melodies.

No wonder he’s been awarded five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and 21 Grammys.  When the history of 20^th century music is written, it may well be the works of film composers that will surge to the foreground, transforming our definitions of “classical music.”  Expect the music of John Williams to be in the vanguard of that surge.