ricsim88

https://bit.ly/3oroUZz
 
Dan needs no introduction. He's truly one of the greatest session musicians on the planet and he kindly shared a lot of insight on this episode about his work on Catch Me If You Can and many other things. Enjoy!

Thanks for posting those videos, @Erik Woods. I was trying to inform as many people as possible, and forgot the most important place!
 
Here is background on these videos: I hosted a virtual roundtable for 18 John Williams fans, all of whom cohosted "The Baton" with me. We talked for two hours about a lot of topics, including John Williams' legacy and the state of film scoring in the 21st century. There was also some lengthy debate about the music for two Indiana Jones films. But the highlight (at least for me) was a WORLD PREMIERE of a trombone overdub by Jim Nova of "Wide Receiver," the composition Williams wrote for NBC's football coverage.
 
I hope everyone enjoys this special bonus episode of "The Baton."

My plan is to go back to work as an orchestral musician, with an audience....I guess we’ll see...
 
Here’s some Leroy Anderson to celebrate, performed and arranged by yours truly 
 

 
since we’re on a JW forum, here’s another little arrangement I did.
 
 

Of course.  What else would it follow?

Well said! Still crossing my fingers we get a Hal Leonard Sig Edition of this magnificent piece!

Selling 100k physical copies of anything in this day and age is kind of a miniature miracle. Kudos to DG for creating momentum among fans about this, but the success is not only due to marketing strategy—it speaks about the value of JW’s music and its place among a great amount of people across the globe. It’s one of the defining signs that JW’s music transcends the boundaries of soundtrack or even just movie fans. It’s just great music, plain and simple, that will live for centuries to come, just like the works of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Prokofiev...
 
It may be look like I’m preaching to the choir here saying such things, but I honestly think we’ve been witnessing an historical moment in terms of change of perception of JW’s music.

Anything I ever said about Norman Lebrect... 
(he is a moron) 
 
 
 
I don't take back. 

Amazing, JW taking over the classical world. I always thought it would happen someday

I finally listened to that Tim Morrison episode. Wonderful stuff. There might be trumpet players who can play louder or higher than Mr. Morrison but not many who can play so beautifully, with heart and soul those singing melodies. And that legato!! Well, he started with a french horn! 😎😎😎

I definitely plan to talk with LSO members too, yes, especially some of the former ones from the 77-83 era who are still around.
 
I already have a roster of guests scheduled, including composers and other very interesting people
 

Absolutely incredible interview. It brought me back in time quite a few years, about 31, when I first saw BOT4OJ in theatres,  and reminded me why I play trumpet today. 

@TownerFan Sorry if this has already been asked, but are you planning to interview members of the LSO during or after the LA series as well? I would love to hear all the questions you would ask them.

.

According to the feature in this month's BBC Music Magazine:
 
 

Solo for me, but HTTYD is close!

If the rumour is true that an Orville season 2 set is coming out on Friday, I’ll be pretty happy.  

If the rumour is true that an Orville season 2 set is coming out on Friday, I’ll be pretty happy.  

Superman. But the march from Midway isn’t too shabby. 

This forum has  a "report post" feature and this is now the most reported post we've ever had in the entire history of this forum.
 
This post is a reply to one short sentence: "Seems like 2015 is when the BF slate started having really high profile releases"
 
I am shock and dismayed that a label representative, let alone a label owner, would choose to sign in to our forum to post a reply like this to what is a very innocuous post.
 
The post never read to me as "Boy, LLL sure sucked in the past, 2015 was the year they FINALLY got good!", it read as "Boy, 2015 is when they kicked things up a notch!"
 
There are many "score collectors" who don't happen to like Star Trek music, or don't happen to like Lethal Weapon music, or don't happen to like Home Alone music.  Why would you want to bully and shame them when all they did was express positivity towards different titles?
 
This forum is full of film score fans who are constantly praising and purchasing from all the specialty labels, and LLL gets more attention than any label for a number of factors, such as the sheer amount of John Williams releases you've put out, and the fact that we skew younger than a forum like FSM so there is more discussion of 80-00s scores and you've also released more of those than the other labels.

Day after day our forum members are constantly say positive things about LLL and we as a collective are always looking forward to seeing what's next, and I have spent lots of my free time doing what I can to promote LLL releases in the forums as well as via main page articles, which gets shared all over social media, providing more exposure to the great work you do.

I can't believe you'd decide to come here and pick apart a post that you perceived as a negative one, when there is an ocean of positivity on this site about LLL across too many different threads to ever count.  I also can't believe that you'd go beyond disagreeing with the opinion shared, but also elect to call his statement "stupid" and a "dumb ass comment".

I think you should apologize to Richard, who has provided two followup posts that detail what it was he was actually trying to say:
 
 
 
And I hope in the future you don't plan to attack your paying costumers on our forums, even if they do express a dislike of something you've released.  Every single score collector on planet earth has different opinions of which scores they like and which they don't.  You should know that as a whole, we appreciate and admire everything you do, and can't wait to see what's next.

Who am I to argue with the Maestro?

The Raiders March is in 4/4. The main title from Star Wars, often called a march, is also in 4/4. As is the Imperial March. As is this:
 
 
 

Actually a march could also be in 4/4, 6/8 or 12/8
😃🎺🎶
Forgot to add smiley emoji, so it doesn’t sound arrogant, which it wasn’t intended to.

Having to use a theme written by JW and not having any choice about it beside doing the movie or not could be very intimidating, it's easy to imagine some composer treating it as an immutable sacred artifact, only copypasting the same renditions all over and making it the only highlight, some other composer resenting the obligation and treating it contemptuously, burying it or making it sound bad - but Powell's better than that, and also as evidenced by some JW-written variants, these two spry lads were absolutely on the same wavelength. JW wrote lovely but very moldable themes, and Powell really made them his own here, they blend in perfectly with his ones - which again are not only fun as heck but impressively malleable and multifaceted, something he takes full advantage of, like always, and like JW. Not that there wouldn't be any place to take them in a potential sequel that will never happen!

The sound is great, moments and subtleties are much more noticeable, the action is impressive but not as overwhelming, the choirs are clear but blend in well.

The program is fantastic - going through clear phases, but all of them have much more connecting tissue, breathing space, lead-ins and playoffs than on the OST, making the bombastic highlights stand out that much more - and that is not to say the connective tissue is purely fluff or padding, oh no, far far far from it, it's interesting and engaging, theme renditions and harp pieces galore, his edition adds many many additional highlights to an already impressive number.

Adventures of Han kicks ass, Meet Han follows it so well. Bunk/Proxima helps Corellia Chase have that much more impact and presence, Spaceport plays it off and builds to a new kind of mood and tension nicely and builds to a great climax. The Empire Recruitment ad is a terrific exploration of the familiar theme in a specific recogniseable style, even more impressive when compared to Kiner's feeble effort.

I'm Gonna Be A Pilot is a fun buildup to the phenomenal highlight that is Mimban Battle - starting with one of the most inspired recent settings of Imperial March on glorious low churning brass, leading to a hurried Han A, all over great busy string writing, a perfect grand introduction to the Crew motif that immediately after gets its more usual lower sneaky settings in a fun little march. Blackmail starts off the cheeky playing with Luke's Theme and leads well to The Beast, a fun collection of styles and a great introduction to Chewie's theme.

These new cues add a much needed break before Chewie Untamed, still the absolute highlight and varied theme exploration that it is. Surveying Conveyex again provides some more breathing time between highlights but also plants the Enfys Nest idea. Train Heist is a wonderful propulsive action piece that never gets boring and even packs a surprise or two even if you know the OST tracks. Thankfully after it completely goes crazy at the end, we get Walk to Dryden to help us catch our breath, and also connecting better to Chicken in the Pot... which I heavily dislike in this film version. Thankfully a new batch of great Love theme renditions help lead us to another, fun bit of source music - you can feel how much fun Powell had writing all these source pieces (hint: A LOT). Compare them to the generic pap they mixed under JW's cameo.

A wonderful tense batch of new cues follow, a lighter turn brings us to a new texture, electric guitar at the forefront in the Card Room. Sabacc Game, the fun interlude cheekily hiding the Rebel Fanfare, thus has a more natural introduction now. L3's comedic theme still gives way to the glorious new Luke reading and funny Rebel Fanfare playoff, a major highlight in the score.

Family Stories builds to convey Han's wonder at the size of the universe and opening possibilities gloriously, Lando' Closet is still the lush passionate Love Theme reading (though already not being able to exist wihout Crimson Dawn sneaking in), Trust No One scores the beautiful but dangerous tiptoe through the safe route in the Maw. Oksana Floren, with the occasional lovely burst of brass figures, returns to the guitar and an overall tense hushed sneaky texture, with another cheeky Luke peeking its head out to finish a more orchestral interlude perfectly naturally. After this other extended break, we're ready for 20 minutes of close to nonstop action! Nothing new to speak of but still a showstopper section with inspired motif reprises, renditions, new segments, dripping with energy.

Savareen Tent helps our pulse recover from that insanity, and even Enfys' Stand-off has a worse bark than bite, after which we return to comfortable ground again, but only to go big and tense once more for the climax, now that we had minutes to rest on the previous one. Double-Double criss builds more creatively voiced tension, and Dryden's Long Long Fight wisely doesn't even try to outdo that mammoth block or even Train Heist, it goes instead for a relative minimalism and heavy percussion - it then follows the end of the fight with an aching solo piano love theme that slowly turns sour and morphs into Crimson Dawn.

The Duel of the Fates cue is longer than I thought, and not only is just a fun reference but orchestrated very nicely. Funnily enough it's followed by an orchestral wave not unlike JW's Prequel Planet wipe transitions! Parting Ways reprises multiple themes, including a clever close mirroring of the opening of Meet Han. A fun source and a fun score cue then lead to the finale which, after so long, once again pulls out all stops and briefly gives in to absolute bombasticity, transitioning to a high octane Main On End and a not great, not terrible credits medley.
 
I used to really really like this score. I adore it now.

Here’s my version of With malice toward none. Recorded about a month ago.