WEBVTT - Michael Feinstein 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:12.440 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets Podcast. 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:18.639 My guest today is performer Arkipass, singer the ambassador to 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:22.880 the Great American Songbook, Michael find Scott. I go on, 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:26.880 so you said you were just performing last night at 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:30.280 the Pasadena Pops. Tell me about that. This is the 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:32.360 this is the end of my seventh season. I've been 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:35.280 working for seven years conducting and it's something I've never 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:37.920 done before. I was asked to do it at the Pops, 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:43.080 and I primarily programmed classic American musical arrangements, ones that 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:45.600 often are not heard for decades, or some that have 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.600 never been publicly played before. We played for the first 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:52.520 time live the original orchestration of Over the Rainbow, which 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:56.560 was recorded October seven at MGM and has not been 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:00.560 performed in its entirety since that time because the orchestration 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.120 was lost and I just recently found it. Okay, what 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.640 is different from that than the well known version? The 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:09.120 version that Serta in the movie is wonderful, but it 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:12.479 was recorded with one microphone. There were different well, there 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:16.000 were I should say one input. There were a few microphones, 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:19.360 but it was recorded on one channel, so you don't 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:21.120 hear a lot of things that are in the arrangement, 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:25.560 and every time it's been transcribed, people have left out, uh, 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:27.840 what what I think are essential parts of the arrangement. 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:31.560 But you literally couldn't hear it. So it was a 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.160 revelation for people. People went crazy just being able to 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.080 hear this iconic piece of music in this iconic arrangement 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:39.600 that they thought they knew. But I've never really heard 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.120 that way. Okay, you're really an expert. So let's go 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:45.640 back at that time. Do they even have multi track recording? Yes, 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:49.760 yes they did. They recorded on separate strips of film. 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:52.560 It was optical film, so yeah, you get like the 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:56.400 Silver Street on the side. Yeah, and MGM was doing 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.440 it as early as there's a there's a recording of 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:02.360 a ballet by Dmitri Tiomkin that was written for an 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.560 unreleased MGM film called The March of Time, and it 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:10.720 exists in multi channel. And they usually would only record 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.360 multi channel when they did a choir, when they needed 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:15.960 a separate voice channel, or where there was something complex, 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:18.680 and oddly, with a Wizard of Oz which is a 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.400 very complex score with a lot going on, there are 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:23.960 only two cues that they recorded multi channel which was 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:27.400 the overture and the cyclone music. The rest of it 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:30.200 was recorded one channel, which I find a mystery because 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:33.320 b movies, lesser films with lower budgets were recorded multi 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.919 channel at that time. Okay, So how many channels could 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:38.160 they ultimately have as many strips of film as they 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:40.840 wanted they could line them up? I mean, I don't 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.080 literally know if there's but but but there are some 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.640 that there are six channels, seven channels. And of course 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:50.400 Fantasia was released in Fantas Sound in l A and 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:54.520 at Radio City, which was a six channel process, and 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.040 that's what they labeled fantas Sound. Yes, And was there 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:01.120 any other movie in fantas Sound? Just just one? Okay? 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:03.440 So if it was six if the theaters at that 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.840 time did they have multi channel exhibition rooms, they had 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:09.239 to fit them specially for that, and which is why 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:14.200 it wasn't, which is why they needs yet right, okay, 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.040 So what else did you play last night? What else 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:19.760 did I play? It was a salute to MGM, So 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:23.320 I played the Barn Dance from seven Rights for Seven Brothers, 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:27.880 the overture from High Society, which was orchestrated by Conrad Salinger. 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:31.600 The greatest Hollywood arranger, and Skip Martin. I played Love 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:33.200 Is Where You Find It, which was an aria for 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:36.000 Katherine Grayson because I found that original MGM chart. The 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.960 MGM library was thrown away in the late nineteen sixties 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:40.800 by a guy named James Aubrey, who was head of 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.440 the studio, because it was a cost cutting measure. So 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.960 every single MGM arrangement was destroyed. They were all put 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:49.320 into a dumpster, or they were used as landfill for 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:53.560 the four oh five Freeway. The entire MGM library was destroyed, 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:55.840 so all the musical greats that worked for MGM, their 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.280 work was was destroyed unless somebody happened to keep a 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.880 copy themselves, and so this entire legacy was lost. So 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:04.880 whenever you hear an MGM arrangement like Singing in the 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:07.720 Rain or or any of those iconic things that they'll play, 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.440 and they're always reconstructed, and Over the Rainbow is a 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.520 chart that well, they saved the Conductor books, which is 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.000 which is a rudimentary reduction of the full scores, and 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:20.400 so they reconstruct from the Conductor books. But in the 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:23.599 case of Over the Rainbow, nothing survived. There was not 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:26.400 even a Conductor part for the original arrangement, and so 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:28.200 when I found it it was it was one of 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:30.599 those Eureka moments. Well, once again, how did you find it? 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.279 I found it at the offices of David Rose Music. 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:40.360 Angela Rose White, who is David Rose's daughter, had been 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:42.279 moving some things in our office and I went over 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:44.360 there and I saw a folder that said over the Rainbow, 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:46.479 and I assumed it would be an arrangement that her 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.119 father did in the nineteen fifties and instrumental thing because 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:51.960 he wrote these incredible He did these famous mostly for 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:56.960 the stripper. Yes, and um. I opened up the folder 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:59.839 and it said Loos Incorporated Production ten sixty and I 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:01.920 lest I was looking at a set of original parts 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.400 for the Over the Rainbow, which if David Rose had returned, 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.599 would have been destroyed. So the fact that he didn't 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:10.719 return it is why it survived. And he was married 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.599 to Judy Garland from so it must have been borrowed 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.440 for something and never returned. Did you find anything else 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.800 in Angela's trove? I found other charts that he created 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:25.880 for for Judy Garland, and he worked so ubiquitously in Hollywood. 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:27.520 There were charts for many other singers and he was 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.039 married to Martha Ray and got he did some wonderful 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:33.360 records with Martha Ray. And so this is the stuff 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:35.120 that I spent my lift looking for. You know, I 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:36.599 know we talked about this all the time, but let's 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.720 go stay with the Pasadena Pops. Had you ever conducted 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:43.599 before you got this gig? No, And you'd think that, 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:45.720 having worked with so many orchestras, that I would have 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.200 turned around and paid attention to a conductor. I always 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.039 took it for granted, you know. And when I started 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:54.640 doing about Jesus Christ, this is hard. So what was 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.200 the learning curve? Like? Tell us, Well, it's kind of 0:05:57.240 --> 0:05:59.040 like the actor's nightmare, you know, like being on a 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:01.600 stage and not knowing your lines. Because that first time, 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:04.800 well they asked, what happened was I had done an 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.440 appearance with the Past Lena Pops with Marvin Hamlets, who 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:11.000 was their principal Pops conductor, a Cole Porter show, and 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.480 two weeks later he died. That turned out to be 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:17.160 his last concert, and it was shocking to everybody and 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:21.680 in terrible and about two weeks after his passing, somebody 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:24.080 from the Past La Pops called and said, would you 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.960 consider taking over Marvin's post, and I said, well, why 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:32.479 don't you get somebody who's a conductor, And they said, well, 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.920 we need somebody that has some sort of name value, 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:38.400 and we we think that you'd be great. I said, well, 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.200 I love pops music. I said, but I don't conduct. 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:44.960 And I said no, and they kept after me, and 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.960 they contacted me again, say well, we've already asked her 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.080 season and we're gonna we could possibly go under if 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:53.080 we don't have someone to It was that, you know, 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.039 no guilt trip. So I said, well, I'm willing to 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:58.479 try it, but you have to understand I have never 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:00.800 done this and I don't know how to do it. 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:04.400 They said, well, we're willing to take that chance. I said, okay. 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.800 So I hired an orchestra to practice. I went to 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:11.800 Seattle and Larry Blank, who's an amazing conductor, coached me. 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.200 I went to Seattle and for three days I worked 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.040 with an orchestra and had the musicians give me notes. 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:19.400 And then I worked and worked and worked. And then 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:22.920 June of next year whatever that was seven years ago 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:30.040 or eight years ago. Uh and uh i uh. I 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:32.320 raised my hands and they came in and they played 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.240 and they really saved me, you know, they really were 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:39.040 very kind and and uh, and it worked and now 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:40.560 I can do it. Now I know what I'm doing. 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:42.520 But then I was what is the key? What? What 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:47.480 do you have to learn to conduct? Of course, the 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:53.480 rudimentary um signals UH, of of giving a clear downbeat, 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.240 of having your arms raised high enough that everybody can see. 0:07:56.520 --> 0:08:00.880 It's it's clear communication when there are what we call corners, 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:02.720 when there's a change in tempo, or when there's two 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:04.240 things going on in the orchestra and you have to 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:06.400 cut them off on the left and keep going on 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:11.720 the ride. And and so it's all about communicating um, 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:17.440 a sense of the music and it's um. It looks 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.559 easy and parts of it are easy, but the parts 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.400 that are not easy can be fiendishly difficult. And one 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:26.800 of the hardest parts for me is that there is 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:31.480 always a slight time delay from the time you physically 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.400 give the down beat and the orchestra plays the down beat. 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:39.120 When I play the piano, it's instantaneous, but with an orchestra, 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:43.960 depending on which orchestra it is, there is a time delay. 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.400 And in Europe there are even longer time delays, and 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.520 the the conductors are accustomed to it, but it's maddening 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.160 because you have to conduct ahead of the beat, and 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.520 if you're accompanying a singer, you have to conduct ahead 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:58.160 of the beat, so you will hit the down beat 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.520 when they hit their downbeat in next bar. And it's 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:04.240 It was one of the most difficult things I'd ever 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:06.640 had to do. And I was talking to Andre Preven 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:08.920 about it, who of course was one of the most 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:13.080 magnificent conductors, and he said, it's just conditioning. You just 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:15.760 have to keep moving ahead because if you actually start 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.920 to follow the orchestra, you'll get behind the beat. Let's 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.679 just assume you were not on the podium and the band, 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.080 the orchestra had all the music in front of them. 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:27.440 With that work at any level, to what degree is 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:31.199 the conductor necessary? To what degree does the conductor add? 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:34.320 It's easy if it's a thing that just counts off 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.280 and it stays at the same tempo. Uh. It's very 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:40.560 difficult if it's a maller symphony, because somebody has to 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:44.319 give all of the cues. Uh. And there have been 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:48.280 times where an orchestra has continued to conduct. Famously, when 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:52.240 Tuscanini in his waning years I was conducting a Wagner 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:56.600 piece and he was very proud of his Uh. I 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:58.400 don't know if it was a photographic memory, but he 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:00.560 memorized the music. And he is in the midst of 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:04.080 this Wagner piece and he forgot the music and he 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.480 was so humiliated that he hung his head and he 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:11.080 walked off the podium. And the NBC Symphony kept playing 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:16.240 because they weren't going to stop, but they they knew 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.720 to keep playing. And the default is the concert master. 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.280 The first violinist is the one that that you follow. 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:26.040 But if it's a piece that the orchestra has played before, 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:30.199 they have the muscle memory and the potential to keep playing. Okay, 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.520 So when you have a great night, how much is 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:37.080 the responsibility of the conductor as opposed to the players. 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:41.200 It's both, It's really both, because there are still times 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:44.880 when they will save my ass and uh, where I'll 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:48.360 miss a cue here or there, and there are times 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.640 where I will bring them up because one of the 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:53.559 other things that's hard without if it's a piece that 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:56.360 doesn't have a drummer, keeping the pulse of the orchestra 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.160 because it's a lot of people playing, and especially this 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:01.439 is an outdoor vent so the acoustics are different from 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.560 the back of the place to the front, and so 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:05.600 there's gonna be a delay with the trombone, so you 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:07.040 have to tell them to play ahead of the beat. 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.160 So one has to communicate the pulse. You have to 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:12.400 keep the po I have to keep the pulse going. 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.000 And when it's a piece of music that's difficult, the 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:18.200 orchestra sometimes will will slow down. And the other thing 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.400 that you learn as a conductor that I learned, and 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:22.880 it's sort of counterintuitive, is that the beat has to 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:26.080 get smaller. And the tendency is when you want it 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:28.000 to be faster, is to flail your arms more and 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:30.360 move your arms more. But it actually you have to 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:32.920 do the opposite. You have to become more economic with 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:35.680 the beat and you have to bring it in uh, smaller, 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:38.400 so they pay. I don't know what it is, but 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:40.600 that's the way it's done. Okay, that's done so that 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.720 the orchestra is not over loud. So let's play faster. 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:46.360 So okay, the beat is smaller. Okay, let's go back 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.000 to the trombones. When you say the timing is different, 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.960 you're talking about for the audience or for the conductor, 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:53.880 the front of the house the back of the house. 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:57.800 The timing is different in that for the sound to 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:02.600 travel from the trumbo section to the front of the podium, 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.480 it's a little bit of a delay, and I, well, 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:10.319 that's what I found. Okay, So how many gigs a 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:14.000 year at the Pasadena Pops? We do five concerts every 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:17.040 every summer, three of which I conduct, one I just sing, 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:18.960 and then there's a fifth one that I that I 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.080 don't conduct, and then I conduct another orchestra in in 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:24.400 Palm Beach, Florida in the winter January, February, and March, 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:27.640 which which I do. Uh. Another three. So the other 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:29.560 thing that's hard for me is that I'm not conducting 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:31.960 all the time, so I have to get my chops 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.560 up before I returned to the podium, and I have 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.559 to practice, and I have to practice and get it's 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:39.840 And mainly the practice is wrapping my brain around it. 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:43.360 Then the physical movement, it's the visualization. Do you like it? 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.040 I love it now, But when I first was doing it, 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:49.520 it was so terrifying that I just would pray that 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:51.960 I would get through it. And now I love it 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:54.760 because it's the ultimate to cut. Okay, you know where 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:58.880 you can program anything you want. And I, because of 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.680 who I am, collected music and orchestrations for decades, and 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.360 now I have charts that I never dreamt I would 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:07.560 have the opportunity to conduct. I mean, charts for for 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:09.600 ladies that are not in my key vocally and things 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.920 that I would just find and now I can play them. 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.360 And the amazing thing is that the response of the 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:20.600 audience is so over the top for this music, which 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:25.720 is so gratifying because most other orchestras are skewing younger. 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:28.839 They're doing Elton John and Billy Joel and a lot 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:31.720 of pop stuff, which is great, but but very few 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:36.400 orchestras are playing classic pop music. So it's it's it 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:38.960 shows that there is an audience out there, Okay for 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:40.959 that at audience. You know, let's assume you go to 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:43.800 see one of the classic rock acts. They have their hits, 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:47.040 they know there's going to get a huge response. Okay, 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.439 do you have your tricks? Do you had to make 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:52.480 up the so called set list the program and say, oh, 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.440 I know this will get a big response or this won't, 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:58.920 or how do you deal with that putting a setlence 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:01.080 together for an orchestra as just the same as what 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:03.680 I did when I started playing in piano bars. It's 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.760 all about thinking of an opening number. It's sort of 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.800 like like a musical, where you program each piece of 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:13.559 music that tells a story. That's a musical journey. There's 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:15.920 a fast paced thing, there's an overture, there's a ballad, 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.880 there's a medium tempo thing. Uh, different styles of music. 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:25.120 Uh so Uh. It's very carefully programmed. And I probably 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:29.200 agonized more over the order of the pieces than choosing them, 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:32.240 because once I've chosen them, I have to to project 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:36.120 what kind of response it's going to get, and partially 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:39.120 that response is predicated on how I introduced the piece 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:41.440 of music, telling people what they're going to be hearing. 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:43.560 Like when I played over the Rainbow, I told the 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:45.480 story of this piece and it hadn't been heard in 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:47.640 eighty years, and it got a huge hand at the end. 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.200 If I if they just were listening to Over the Rainbow, 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.280 they would say that's nice, but they wouldn't know that 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:56.040 this was something special. So that's part of it. Okay, 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:58.640 you got the Palm Beach gig as a result of 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:02.080 the Pasadena gig. Yes, and so we you see more 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:06.400 of these in your future. Well, yes, the short answers, yes, 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.440 even though the economics are such that it doesn't pay 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:14.120 what what I make as a singer. So I'm doing 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:16.040 it out of passion. And the money that I've spent 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.160 restoring these orchestrations has has been much more than I've 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:23.880 than my salary has supplied. So okay. So when the 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:27.240 players in these various orchestra like in Pasadena, you're nearer 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.240 or Arcadia, literally you're near a big city. Who are 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:34.680 the players in the orchestra, it's an incredible orchestra. They 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:39.840 are uh players who often do Hollywood scoring sessions, like 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:44.160 Jim Thatcher, who's our principal French horn player. He is 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:47.760 John Williams favorite. He does all the John Williams sessions. 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:52.400 These are players that that play all kinds of music 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.840 because they work in Hollywood. So it is a dedicated 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:58.800 orchestra that it is usually the same faces, not always 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.000 because there always are subs, but they are, but they 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:07.200 are they are a savvy group. And yet with every orchestra, 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:11.000 the goal is to bring the music that will be 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:15.560 fun and challenging, and pops concerts are often so dumbed 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:19.040 down for the orchestra that they're bored, and so my 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:23.080 goal is to bring arrangements that are exciting, that are 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:26.600 fresh and will be challenging for the orchestra, so they're 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:30.040 not just what they call sawing footballs, you know, playing 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:34.640 whole notes that our company with someone singing yesterday, you know. 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.200 I mean, there could be a great arrangement yesterday by 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:39.640 Johnny Mandel or Henry Mancini, or there could be one 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.240 that's just boring as I'll get out. So I have 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:44.800 to make sure that every chart is something that has 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.320 some kind of substance. And how much rehearsal is there. 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:51.000 We have two two and a half hour rehearsals, which 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:54.640 isn't enough. But they're so great that that they always 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.720 write to the occasion and it always is amazing to 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:00.360 me how they do it. Okay, can you just find 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:04.760 the Great American Sound Great American song Book? From my audience, 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:08.560 to me, the Great American Songbook is a body of 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:12.040 work that essentially begins in the teens of the twentieth century, 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:16.200 and it has no cut off point. Perhaps the golden 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:19.240 age of the Great American Songbook was the nineties, thirties 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:21.960 and forties, and that it was a period when we 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:26.080 had an amazing group of songwriters including George Gershwin, called Porter, 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:28.679 Jogi Carmichael, Duke Gallington, Fats Waller. I mean, you go 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:31.800 down the list that wrote classic songs that have survived. 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.720 But I think we had another amazing influx of amazing 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:38.760 of great writers in the sixties and seventies, you know, 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:43.080 with with Carol King and Jimmy Webb and Paul Williams 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:50.320 and Joni Mitchell and and uh Harry Nilsen, And I 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:54.199 mean they are to me just as significant, but to 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:56.960 me the great. For a song to qualify being part 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.359 of the Great American Songbook, it has to be a 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:01.520 piece of music that transcends the time in which it 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:06.600 was written, that it survives through the decades, and it 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:10.240 is known to everybody and survives from various recordings. And 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.639 so to me, uh, it's a song like over the 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:16.000 Rainbow or Singing in the Rain or God Bless America, 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:18.280 or There's No Business like Show Business, or maybe it's 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:19.800 We Will Rock You. You You know what I mean. There's 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.199 songs that are universe universally known, that that survived the 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.359 test of time and continually are reinvented and rerecorded and 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:30.040 are known. And so I think there are songs written 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:33.400 today that that will become part of the American songbook 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:35.680 because I think it's ever evolving. There's no cut off 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:37.800 for me, however we live, you know, in terms of 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.480 a lot of these songs made their fame or got 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:42.960 their fame as a result of being in films or 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:45.359 being on the hit so called hip parade. But in 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.720 the Internet era, where everything is so dispersed and h 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:53.159 the popular chart is dominated by hip hop music, you 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:55.880 still think that there are songs being written that will 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:59.760 be part of the song book. I do only because 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:03.240 history has shown that songs from every era somehow survive, 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:05.440 even though to me I couldn't tell you what they are. 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:10.240 And uh, I think I think Frozen from Let It 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:11.960 Go It's probably gonna be around for a long time, 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:16.880 unfortunately because the songwrives me crazy. But that's not the point, yeh. 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:19.920 And it's true that many songs from the Golden Era 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:26.080 came from films and came from uh other places. So 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.120 I don't really know the answer, but just looking at history, 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:30.800 I have to believe that there have to be things 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:33.520 that that will survive. Name the two songs that are 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:37.600 your favorites from the Great American Songbook. Oh well, that's 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.600 that's almost like Sophie's choice, you know, but look the name. 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:45.280 More than that, name a handful that you just your 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:47.399 top tier. Well, things that pop into my brain. Love 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:51.080 is Here to Stay is a song that I never 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.760 get tired of singing, And for me, songs that constantly 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:59.880 stay fresh are ones that that our favorites. So I'm 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:01.639 king one Gershwin song. It would be Love is Here 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:06.240 to Stay. If it's a Manstine, it's two for the Road. Uh, 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:10.639 Jerome kern Um, probably the way you look tonight. I 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:14.560 mean there are obscure songs that I love that nobody 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:18.360 knows that our favorites of mine, like, uh, the theme 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:20.119 from The Bad and the Beautiful, which has a beautiful 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.320 lyric by Dorry Prevn. It's one of my favorite pieces, 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:25.080 but it's completely obscure. Yeah yeah, but I was asking 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:28.199 answer the question appropriately. We're not reading the bell of 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:32.200 the audience today. It's all about you. Oh well, thanks, Okay, 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:34.760 I'm Jewish. I'm not used to that unless it's my 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:36.679 mother scolding me. But at least your Jewish you have 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:38.800 something to say. I remember going to college the first 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:40.760 time I was involved when I went to a melting 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.200 about high school. But you know, when I went to college, 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:45.680 there were very few Jews, and I encounter people who 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:49.119 didn't talk. Whereas you know the scene in uh, the 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:51.080 Woody Allen movie where they're sitting around the table and 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.320 everybody's talking over each other radio days. That's certainly how 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:57.200 I grew up. But you talk about being let me 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:00.399 go before that. You're obviously both an ex spred in 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:05.160 this field and very knowledgeable. Is there anybody on your 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:09.440 level that you're aware of? Everybody has their niche, if 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:13.600 you will, Uh, I don't know that there's anybody that 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:21.199 knows as much about certain aspects of of orchestrations, of 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.439 pop orchestrations, and there are people out there, but I 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:27.520 think the conflagration of all the different things I know 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:32.840