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Animal World is 2nd most profitable film in the world

The Chinese film Animal World from Ruyi Films, which I orchestrated with Penka Kouneva for composer Neal Acree, has become the 2nd most profitable film in the world this year, and the soundtrack is #1 in Asia. It was a huge honor to work with the world-class team on this film.

Starring Michael Douglas, the film’s story and visuals are both a fantastic collision of Hollywood style cinema and video game style graphics, seamlessly merging the two from start to finish. To facilitate that contrast producer Fei Yu made the very unusual decision to hire two composers. Neal Acree was in charge of the orchestral elements, which I worked on, and Michael Tuller from Nine Inch Nails was in charge of all the electronic elements.

The story is a unique blend of drama, strategy game, and pure fantasy, and I highly recommend it.

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New album from Ric Wilson and Mandrill

This is Ric Wilson, the leader of Mandrill and a lion of music who has been influencing the world for 50 years. I spent yesterday afternoon at his home, he shared his newest album with me, and we talked at length about how his music is connected to the social/political/cultural movements of today. Mandrill is the most sampled band in history, and their music is ever-relevant with Eminem, Kanye, Snoop Dogg, Black Eyes Peas, and many others. This legend has played with Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and Michael Jackson among others. Some “smaller” artists that opened for Mandrill are Earth Wind & Fire, Tito Puente, Lionel Ritchie, and Curtis Mayfield. I was a small part of his latest album (orchestration for brass and orchestra recording sessions) and it’s truly an honor to work with this man.

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Beauty and the Beast at Hollywood Bowl – Adam Gubman

I feel extremely honored to work with some of the greatest musicians and composers around.

Legendary composer Alan Menken has created some of the most beloved songs and musical scores of our time, with his unique voice as a composer capturing the imagination of audiences for over 35 years. He was the composer for Enchanted, for which I did some incidental work, Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and MANY others. He has more Oscars than any other living person.

Tonight the Hollywood Bowl did a live to picture concert of Beauty and the Beast, where the audience of 20,000 people watches the orchestra play along with the film in perfect sync.

Shows of that nature always require a considerable amount of arranging and re-orchestrating, because the orchestra used in the original recordings is never exactly the same as the live performance orchestra. Adam Gubman did some of that work, and I did a bit of orchestration consulting for him to make sure the arrangement was as refined and elegant as possible.

My role was small, but it’s my first direct contribution to a Hollywood Bowl concert so I’m quite happy to be a part of the team.

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Ensign Broderick drops five albums in 2018

Canadian glam rock artist Ensign Broderick has dropped five albums in 2018, and I have small contributions on three of them. He’s based in Toronto and largely recorded there, but we recorded some string orchestrations for a handful of songs at Capitol Records. He has been slowly building his catalogue since we first collaborated in 2015, and now he’s putting it all out at once to make a big splash. All of the albums are on the Toronto-based label Six Shooter Records. Amritha Vaz was the lead orchestrator. I did some additional orchestration and was the music copyist for the recording sessions. Peter Rotter, the head of Encompass Music Partners, was our music contractor for the sessions.

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Robert Davi Sings Sinatra: A Tribute to the Great American Songbook

Robert Davi is a famous Bond villain who is now on a mission to perform every Sinatra song that was ever recorded, and last night he performed at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. Wearing a black tux and tie, Davi took the appreciative audience on a whirlwind tour of the Great American Songbook (or what Davi called “Shakespeare for America”) and Sinatra–associated standards.

He was backed by a 22-piece, piping hot swing band led by Grammy Award-winning pianist, arranger, composer and conductor Randy Waldman, who played with Sinatra and has been leading bands ever since. Brian Benison and I have done work for Randy many times in the past, and it’s always a pleasure to work with such amazing talent.

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Mark Abel short film featuring Hila Plitmann

Forget everything you think you know about Medusa, because she is yet another victim who could say #MeToo.

First raped by Poseidon and then cursed by Athena for being raped, Medusa is now remembered mostly for the curse and not its origin. Mark Abel‘s timely piece “Those Who Loved Medusa” tells the whole story, including Medusa’s softer sensual side towards the end.

It was an honor to engrave the sheet music for this extremely relevant work of art, which was sung by the brilliant Hila Plitmann and just released by Delos Music.

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Wé McDonald concert produced by Gregg Field

Wé McDonald was a contestant on Season 11 of The Voice. Her blind audition of the Nina Simone song “Feeling Good” turned all four chairs, and her career has been going full blast ever since, including shows at New York’s Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Apollo Theater.

Last night she gave a sold-out concert at the Napa Valley Opera House as part of the Festival Napa Valley. Gregg Field, who has played with Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and many others, produced the show. My role with Brian Benison was to transcribe the chosen songs and arrange them for the specific live instrumentation they had in the show. It’s always a pleasure to arrange for such powerhouse talent! I did the music copyist work also.

McDonald has shows coming up at the Iridium Jazz Club and the Gramercy Theatre in New York, where I presume she will continue to use much of the repertoire we just worked on together.

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LA Times compliments my orchestration (indirectly)

This is probably the best orchestration compliment I could ever hope for from the LA Times’ recent review of The Invention of Morel:

“Scored for a 16-piece band that often sounds as if ballooned into something 10 times its size, the music hectored the audience persistently, often at odds with the contours of the vocal lines.”

I worked on this for two years with Stewart Copeland to get that big sound out of a little orchestra, and the shows at the Chicago Opera Theater and the Long Beach Opera have been close to sold out. SUCCESS!!