01.11.2019 Views

BeatRoute Magazine BC Edition - November 2019

BeatRoute Magazine is a music monthly and website that also covers: fashion, film, travel, liquor and cannabis all through the lens of a music fan. Distributed in British Columbia and Alberta, Ontario edition coming Thursday, October 4, 2019. BeatRoute’s Alberta edition is distributed in Calgary, Edmonton, Banff and Canmore. The BC edition is distributed in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo. BeatRoute (AB) Mission PO 23045 Calgary, AB T2S 3A8 E. editor@beatroute.ca BeatRoute (BC) #202 – 2405 E Hastings Vancouver, BC V5K 1Y8 P. 778-888-1120

BeatRoute Magazine is a music monthly and website that also covers: fashion, film, travel, liquor and cannabis all through the lens of a music fan. Distributed in British Columbia and Alberta, Ontario edition coming Thursday, October 4, 2019. BeatRoute’s Alberta edition is distributed in Calgary, Edmonton, Banff and Canmore. The BC edition is distributed in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo. BeatRoute (AB) Mission PO 23045 Calgary, AB T2S 3A8 E. editor@beatroute.ca BeatRoute (BC) #202 – 2405 E Hastings Vancouver, BC V5K 1Y8 P. 778-888-1120

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

MUSiC ARTIST INTERVIEW<br />

JAZZY<br />

JEFF<br />

Jeff Goldblum cut his teeth as a<br />

pianist in Pittsburg before hitting<br />

the silver screen By LAUREN DONNELLY<br />

J<br />

eff Goldblum is calling from<br />

a “luxuriously roomy little<br />

closet” inside his home in<br />

Los Angeles. He only has<br />

15 minutes for an interview,<br />

but he’ll spend at least five<br />

of those minutes singing<br />

jazz songs. Sometimes the music says<br />

it best.<br />

Asked about his first memories of<br />

jazz, he sings the trumpet line from<br />

Herb Alpert’s instrumental 1965 album,<br />

Whipped Cream and Other Delights.<br />

Considering the relevance of jazz in<br />

an era of distrust and corruption, he<br />

reprises a moment from an appearance<br />

on The Colbert Show, talk-singing<br />

Irving Berlin’s “Let’s Face the Music and<br />

Dance” in his velvet voice.<br />

“Soon we’ll be without the moon,<br />

humming a different tune, and then<br />

there may be teardrops to shed,” he<br />

rushy-stop sings. “But while there’s<br />

moonlight, music, and love and romance,<br />

let’s face the music and dance.”<br />

He ends the song doing both vocal<br />

parts in crescendo. He takes a breath,<br />

letting the lyrics sink in.<br />

“I think that has something to do with<br />

our time,” he concludes. “That gives me<br />

a little lift — it gives me a lift and chills<br />

too. It’s a chilling time we live in.”<br />

The father, husband, legendary<br />

charmer, and gregarious character best<br />

known for iconic acting performances<br />

in films like Jurassic Park, The Big Chill,<br />

The Fly, and The Life Aquatic, is also a<br />

passionate jazz pianist. I Shouldn’t Be<br />

Telling You This is Goldblum’s sophomore<br />

album with his band the Mildred<br />

Snitzer Orchestra.<br />

Nostalgic and fun, the album features<br />

Any time<br />

where general<br />

stupidity and<br />

backwardness and<br />

darkness can befall<br />

us, music of all<br />

sorts can lift our<br />

spirits<br />

a mix of renditions of classics like<br />

“Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” and<br />

delightful mashups of standards like<br />

“Sidewinder” with the Sonny and Cher<br />

hit, “The Beat Goes On.”<br />

These aren’t stale covers of the<br />

same classics. Goldblum’s music is<br />

as enigmatic and enthusiastic as his<br />

acting performances. Looking back,<br />

he says that as an actor he sometimes<br />

over-prepared to get to the right emotional<br />

place for the scene. But music<br />

was different.<br />

“As you started to play it, whether it<br />

was a sad song, or a happy song, [the<br />

music] sort of provided,” Goldblum<br />

explains. “Trying to render the song<br />

and the story, and communicating it<br />

somehow gave you all the feeling that<br />

you needed.”<br />

Music came before acting success<br />

did. He cut his teeth as a pianist growing<br />

up in Pittsburgh. Though he wasn’t<br />

educated at a jazz institution, he took<br />

lessons, learning chords and exercising<br />

his improvisational muscles with the<br />

standards in fake books. That set his<br />

course.<br />

After years of playing weekly gigs in<br />

L.A., Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer<br />

Orchestra released their live album<br />

debut in 2018. The Capitol Studio<br />

Sessions topped the charts<br />

in the UK, U.S., Germany and<br />

Australia, and received a<br />

warm critical welcome. It<br />

was only a matter of time<br />

before a sequel was in the<br />

making.<br />

Skills that make Goldblum<br />

a captivating actor—improvisation,<br />

curiosity, and generosity<br />

towards —also serve him well as<br />

a jazz musician.<br />

After making his film debut 45 years<br />

ago, Goldblum has captured Hollywood’s<br />

elusive holy grail: longevity. Duets on I<br />

Shouldn’t Be Telling You This feature<br />

a diverse range of collaborators from<br />

Gregory Porter and Miley Cyrus, to Fiona<br />

Apple and Sharon Van Etten. A contagious<br />

sense of joy is palpable throughout<br />

the record. Transposing songs from<br />

bygone eras, Goldblum’s album serves a<br />

powerful counterpoint to the foreboding<br />

doom of the current political climate.<br />

It’s not surprising that people are still<br />

clamoring to work with him given his joie<br />

de vivre, but where does he draw his<br />

enthusiasm from?<br />

“Any time where general stupidity and<br />

backwardness and darkness can befall<br />

us, music of all sorts can lift our spirits,”<br />

he says. “[It can] be relevant to our healing<br />

and an upliftment toward our better<br />

angels. But on this album specifically...”<br />

He’s mid-sentence when something<br />

strikes him.<br />

“Ooooh,” he rumbles in his excited,<br />

somewhat sinister-sounding baritone.<br />

“Ooooh, wait a minute, wait a minute,<br />

well...”<br />

He starts singing again.<br />

“Make someone happy —make just<br />

one someone happy, then you’ll be<br />

happy too,” that Gregory Porter sings<br />

[on the new album]. “Ooooh, that has<br />

something to do with a nice credo, you<br />

know?”<br />

I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This is released<br />

globally on <strong>November</strong> 1, <strong>2019</strong>. ,<br />

NOVEMBER <strong>2019</strong> BEATROUTE 11<br />

SELA SHELONI

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!