FEATURE:
All the World’s a Stage
IN THIS PHOTO: Jeff Goldblum (who has just released an album with The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra called The Capitol Studios Sessions)/PHOTO CREDIT: Pari Dukovic/Getty Images
The Great (and Rather Misjudged) Examples of Actors Turning to Music
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A certain Jeff Goldblum is on my mind…
IMAGE CREDIT: Getty Images
and it is impossible to ignore his charm and pure allure! The man, as tall and imposing as he can seem, is that lovable figure that we cannot get over and ignore. I am not a huge buff regarding his films but have, of course, seen him in the Jurassic Park films and Independence Day. The man, rather unexpectedly, is a skilled musician (the piano especially) and has just released, with The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, The Capitol Studios Sessions. NME, in this hot interview they conducted with him, talked to the man himself about the L.P. The interviewer tries to drill down to the nub of ‘Jeff Goldblum’ and what he encapsulates:
“I’ve been trying to put my finger on exactly what Jeff Goldbluminess is ever since I listened to his debut album, ‘The Capitol Studios Sessions’. It’s a collection of jazz standards, some of which you’ll know – ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’, ‘I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free)’ – and some you probably won’t. For the last few decades, Goldblum has been playing low-key jazz nights in Los Angeles with his band, the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. Then, in October last year, he happened to be booked on The Graham Norton Show on the same day as Gregory Porter. Goldblum volunteered to accompany Porter on piano, someone at Decca Records saw it, flew to LA to see Goldblum play his regular Wednesday night gig at the Rockwell in Los Feliz, and just like that Goldblum found himself with a record deal. “I never thought of making an album, really,” he says, sincerely. “It’s all taken me by surprise.”
IN THIS PHOTO: Sarah Silverman (who appears on Jeff Golblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra’s album, The Capitol Studios Sessions)/PHOTO CREDIT: Glamour
The collection does see interjections/vocals from Goldblum but, in terms of the vocals/singers; control and spotlight is handed over to people as wide-ranging as Sarah Silverman and Imelda May. With The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra; the songs through the album are accomplished and pleasant. NME described it perfectly:
“It’s the kind of album you want to play at a dinner party, which, for me, means I’ll first have to become the sort of person who organises dinner parties. It makes me want to cook for people, just so that I can do that sort of half-dance around the kitchen when you’re cooking and listening to music and sliding drawers closed with a nudge of your bum. What I’m trying to say is that listening to Jeff Goldblum’s album makes me want to be a better man. It makes me want to be suaver, more sophisticated, more like, well, Jeff Goldblum.
At the age of 14 he did something so wildly precocious that it looks now like an early example of nascent Jeff Goldbluminess. He locked himself in the family study with a copy of the Yellow Pages, and he rang up every local cocktail lounge he could find. When they answered, he would announce, in the most adult voice he could muster: “I understand you’re looking for a piano player.”
“Most of them said: ‘Who is this? We don’t even have a piano!’” he remembers. “But some of them said: ‘Not really, but we do have a piano. Do you want to come down and play it?’ So I got a couple of jobs. I was too young to be in a bar, of course, but I stuck to my task. My parents drove me to one place, and then there was a girl singer or two that I remember latching on to – without being yet, as you know ‘active’ – but just magically in proximity...
These were showbusiness girls! They said: ‘Sure, you play and I’ll drive us to the gig.’ So I accompanied some singers, much like today.”
That was the first seed of what would become the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. Snitzer herself was a friend of Goldblum’s mother, whose name he remembered fondly years later when he came to form his band. On YouTube you can see an interview with the sprightly centenarian in which she recalls young Jeff being “very upset” that he wasn’t accepted into the local drama school, Carnegie Mellon. She credits her brother-in-law, a talent agent named Lou Snitzer, with suggesting to Goldblum that he chase his dream to New York”.
Although a lot of people will turn their noses up at an actor recording an album and calling it a vanity project; you can tell this is pure passion and something Goldblum is not doing for the sake of it. Music runs in his blood and the man took to the piano before he was ever known as an actor. The disciplines and skills he has acquired from acting – modifying himself to tackle different roles and being able to inhabit someone else – are brought into the music and bring the songs alive. I have heard the album and think it is a great thing.
It is great fun to hear Goldblum and the musicians have a ball and bring something magical out. Reviews have been largely positive and Riff Magazine have provided their impressions:
“On The Capitol Studios Sessions, Goldblum turns the studio into a sophisticated club. He captures the warmness and personality of a live big band jazz performance while maintaining studio quality instrumental and vocal performances.
Much in the way Steve Martin has warmed up his audience to the world of bluegrass, Jeff Goldblum has built a not-so-secret second career of making jazz digestible to film fans.
What he and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra have made here can be appreciated by jazz veterans and casual listeners alike. Much of that has to do with the credibility of performers like singer-songwriter Imelda May and jazz trumpeter Till Brönner.
Goldblum remains in the spotlight, singing from behind the piano. Listeners will get a taste of an authentic concert experience—from the compelling banter he includes with the entertainers he features, such as comedian Sarah Silverman.
After sitting with the hour-long album, listeners can walk away feeling as if they just received a crash course in the essential jazz Real Book—made accessible by that curious quirky attractiveness that can only be supplied by Jeff Goldblum himself”.
Jeff Goldblum is not the only actor/successful figure who has taken traditional standards and existing songs and made them their own. One could be rather snobbish regarding an actor making an album but Goldblum’s knowledge, passion and natural flair brings everything vividly into life.
Hugh Laurie, one would have thought, could not step from the acting stage to the musical one but, as he showed with Let Them Talk and Didn’t It Rain; he can take older Blues cuts and make them sound fresh and personal. Reviews for both albums (in 2011 and 2013 respectively) ranged from positive to mixed but, as a fan of Laurie’s work, I found the albums accessible and easy to understand. I am not a big Blues fan but was able to get behind Laurie’s performances and dive into that world. I would argue that, in the case of Goldblum and Laurie, they have managed to make certain styles of music more accessible to those who would overlook them normally. Each performer has their own approach to the piano and compositions but each leaves a lasting impression. I would argue Goldblum is a more charismatic performer whilst Laurie is more studied pianist and a better singer. In each case, people have been dismissive because they feel acting is where they should be – do we need actors getting into music?! Someone else who has managed to take classic songs and make them his own is Seth MacFarlane. The Family Guy creator has recorded four albums: his last, In Full Swing (2017), took songs written by the likes of Irvine Berlin and George and Ira Gershwin and MacFarlane gave them his inimitable style and sense of swagger! A wonderful vocalist and performer – a cross between Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and the legends of Swing – it was natural he would step into music.
We know MacFarlane for his comedy and directing but, as a performer, he excels and has that natural gravitas and talent. It is always the way actors get a hard ride when they bring out albums but I have listed a few actors/comedians who have stepped into specific worlds and could have fallen flat – instead, they have triumphed and impressed critics and fans. I guess, like I said, aspects of acting and comedy is involved in music. There is that natural link between performance worlds and being able to bring something physical, character-based and chameleon-like into music. Maybe there is a science behind it but actors like Goldblum, Laurie and MacFarlane can easily transport themselves into music and sound completely in the zone. Not all attempts at actors transforming into music are a raging success. This article from The Guardian focuses on Ben Stiller’s band, Capital Punishment, and why, as he says, the 1980s group were weirdos.
“Ben Stiller erupts in laughter. No, he says, down the phone from New York, he really didn’t expect to be giving an interview on this subject in 2018. It wasn’t that he forgot about the album he made with a band called Capital Punishment while at high school in 1981. He had a box of unsold vinyl copies in his house, and he would occasionally fish one out and play it to his kids. “They would really get a kick out of it; they thought it was pretty funny.” He mentioned it during an interview on the Tonight Show a few years back and the host, Jimmy Fallon, played a track, much to the hilarity of the studio audience...
IN THIS PHOTO: Ben Stiller with his band, Capital Punishment, in 2018/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
The band broke up when its members went to college, and Stiller says he never really had any further musical ambitions. The closest he got was while employed as a PA for a film-maker working on a documentary about Foreigner. “I was at a studio, helping with equipment while Lou Gramm was recording the lead vocal for I Want to Know What Love Is. He went to the bathroom, and I got in front of the microphone and started pretending to sing. He walked back in and said: ‘Hey man, you look pretty good there.’ I had a brief moment where I thought: ‘This would be really cool to do.’”
He says he was “sceptical” when he heard about Sniper’s plan to rerelease the album. In fact, it had developed a minor cult following among collectors (an original copy will set you back $200 on Discogs), but was bowled over by his enthusiasm: Sniper told Roebling that his own band, Blank Dogs, had recorded music inspired by the tracks on Roadkill”.
As much as I love Ben Stiller’s work and all he has given to acting; the music on Roadkill is not going to last in the memory and I truly hope the band do not make more material and leave music as a hobby. There have been some disastrous examples of music being somewhat tarnished by an acting entering that world! I will end by naming a couple of actresses who have succeeded in music – and a female musician who has excelled in acting – but there have plenty of faulted and naff attempts at a music career…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kevin Costner on stage as part of Kevin Costner & Modern West/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
Whether you see them as side-projects or fulfilling a passion, there have been many examples of actors bringing their music to the public – one wishes they shouldn’t have done. Since 2007; Kevin Costner has been performing with his own Country-Rock band, Kevin Costner & Modern West. The band have released four albums and, whilst it is interesting to see Costner in a new guise; the music is reserved, I feel, to those who like Country. That is a polite way of saying it is not able to appeal to all and, let’s be fair, Costner is probably better at acting! Although Kevin Bacon is a great actor and has been on the screen for decades; his music work with The Bacon Brothers is pretty average (at best). He has been in the band since the mid-1990s and it is another case of the music not being that striking. I don’t think Bacon feels the music will be loved by everyone and I can appreciate him pursuing a passion. It is, unfortunately, another case of an actor being best suited to the career we all know them for. The same can be said of Bruce Willis. His ‘Soul’ album, The Return of Bruno, is a dreadful thing and I have not managed to get through the whole thing. As guitarist for Hollywood Vampires; Johnny Depp has that music side-line and has been kicking around in music for a while. Alongside Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and Alice Cooper; the songs are not that bad but they are not going to trouble the best out there. Depp is a decent enough guitarist but the band themselves are no as formidable a force as their combined reputations would suggest.
Perhaps the most famous actor-turned-musician is Jared Leto. You might know him from films like Fight Club but this Oscar-winning star has been the lead of Thirty Seconds to Mars since the late-1990s. The band has released a series of albums and their latest, April’s AMERICA, was met with acclaim. The album has a political edge and is more diverse and genre-hopping than their previous albums. They document technology takeover and violence and, whilst there is confidence and standout moments, it is another album that has good moments but does not last that long in the mind. Although Leto is a fine actor; I find his vocals grating and the music of Thirty Seconds to Music has that Arena-Rock feel – it can get crowds chanting but there is not the substance and memorability you’d like. Other rather lamentable attempts at actors launching music career include Russell Crowe releasing music with the band, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, until 2005 (they broke up, thankfully) and Jeff Bridges – although his 2011 album, Jeff Bridges, gained some good reviews and created some excitement. Whilst there have been some tragic actors-turned-musicians, Ryan Gosling, Jamie Foxx; and Michael Cera (who wowed with the solo album, True That, in 2014) show people should not have preconceptions and prejudices. It is not always actors who step into music and can prove a surprise: Lady Gaga, starring alongside Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born, stunned with her acting ability and natural presence. Not only did Lady Gaga stun critics and make a huge impression but Cooper has shown he has quite a musical talent.
IN THIS PHOTO: Lady Gaga attends the SAG-AFTRA Foundation's 3rd Annual Patron of the Artists Awards at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on 8th November, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California/PHOTO CREDIT: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for SAG-AFTRA Foundation
There have been other musicians who have stepped into acting without much trouble but there are few big success stories when the reverse has been true – few long-lasting musical careers from actors, alas. In a lot of cases, actors often tackle other people’s songs and it can be hard for anyone to gain success and traction doing that, let alone an actor. The few that have written original material – like Jared Leto – have had mixed fortunes but it is a shame more actors do not take to music. If you look at Scarlett Johansson and how her music has been received, she is one of those naturals. When she released an album of Tom Waits covers (four songs written by Waits and six by Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan) in 2008, Anywhere I Lay My Head, there were a lot of critics keen to heap praise on the actor. In 2009, she collaborated with Peter Bjorn on Break Up and showed another side. The songs were inspired by Serge Gainsbourg’s duets with Brigitte Bardot and, again, gained some great reviews. Johansson, in 2015, formed a band called the Singles with Este Haim from HAIM; Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris and Julia Haltigan. Johansson’s incredible acting abilities and smoky voice have made her a respectable figure in music and she has a natural ability. Critics will always heap criticism on actors who step into music, as I have said, and that is the case with Johansson.
Although the likes of Jeff Goldblum and Jared Leto have scored better reviews; Johansson has proven herself to be an intriguing, talented and multi-faceted singer who does not need to listen to any criticism. Another famous actor who has succeeded in music is Zooey Deschanel. Formed with M. Ward, She & Him shows Deschanel is a fantastic and compelling singer-songwriter whose music can touch millions. It is hard to categorise the duo but I guess you could call their music Indie-Pop/Indie-Folk. She & Him might be the most successful and enduring case of an actor becoming a musician. She & Him’s first album, Volume One, was a success and gained some great reviews – such as this one from AllMusic:
“The occasional whistle here or slightly unconventional string arrangement there are the only traces of his usual artistry on Volume One. The rest of the time he and the band (which includes the ubiquitous Mike Mogis) create a soft, gentle feel equally inspired by the Brill Building and the Countrypolitan sound of Nashville in the late '50s. The only place the album falters is on the two covers the duo attempts. Deschanel doesn't add much to "You Really Got a Hold on Me," and Ward's backing vocals are just the kind of affected, arch singing she avoids elsewhere. Their take on the Beatles' "I Should Have Known Better" is better, but still awfully close to a novelty. The album would have been more successful without both tracks, but even with them, it stands as a nice coming out party for Deschanel. If you run screaming at the thought of singing actresses, give She & Him a chance and they might calm your fears. You may even forget the origins of the singer and simply be charmed by the singing, the songs, and the sounds found on Volume One”.
IMAGE CREDIT: Getty Images
The duo have released six albums so far – 2016’s Christmas Party is the latest – and I hope there are many more records to come from Ward and Deschanel. Volume 3, released in 2013, had some covers on its but most of the tracks were written by Zooey Deschanel. She is a talented songwriter and lead and, as critics have shown, is that rare occasion when an actor can easily step into music and write their own material. I have highlighted Jeff Goldblum and mentioned actors like Hugh Laurie but Deschanel is keen to write her own stuff and not just do cover versions.
Jenny Lewis, I guess, is the only other actor I can think of who has managed to forge her own identity in music. As part of Rilo Kiley, Jenny & Johnny and Nice As Fuck; she has proven herself to be an exceptional artist whose music differs vastly from that of Zooey Deschanel. I forgot to mention another Lewis, Juliette, who is planning another album with her band, Juliette and the Licks. Jenny Lewis, as a solo artist, shines brightest in my mind. Her 2014 album, The Voyager, gained some great reviews and shows she is able to step into different guises – either solo or as a band – and succeed. Since 1999’s The Initial Friend with Rilo Kiley; Lewis has been able to prove herself as a musician and show that actors can make a successful music career.
IN THIS PHOTO: Jenny Lewis on day two of Governors Ball on 7th June, 2014 on Randall's Island in New York City/PHOTO CREDIT: Eric Ryan Anderson
The Voyager, as AllMusic show, is full of great music and incredible moments:
“Working primarily with producer Ryan Adams -- Beck comes aboard to give "Just One of the Guys" a narcotic sway, while Jenny collaborates with longtime partner Johnathan Rice on "Head Underwater" and "You Can't Outrun 'Em" -- Lewis indulges in the sunnier aspects of vintage yacht rock, occasionally dipping into the Laurel Canyon folk-rock she's specialized in on her own. Guitars roam wide-open spaces, couched in luxurious reverb and draped in strings; the rhythms often follow cool, steady eighth-note pulses; the surfaces always shimmer. It's such a sultry, soothing sound that it's easy to ignore the pain that lies beneath but that's a feature, not a bug: on The Voyager, Lewis' characters live for today without ever thinking that the world might pass them by, and having her music flow so smooth and easy, she illustrates how easy it is to get sucked into that alluring stasis”.
I have only touched the surface of the actor-turned-musician world but, as Jeff Goldblum has an album out there; I felt it prudent to look at the ‘phenomenon’ and the rather mixed results. There have been some awful attempts – Bruce Willis and Ben Stiller – and some promising ones – Jeff Goldblum, Jared Leto and Seth MacFarlane – whilst Zooey Deschanel and Jenny Lewis have managed to showcase incredible songwriting chops and, one hopes, we will see new music from both of them next year. At the worst, an actor getting into music can be cringe-worthy but, in many cases, criticism and snob-like behaviour is premature and needless. I love Jeff Goldblum’s album, The Capitol Studios Sessions, but there are some who feel it is a step too far and a vanity venture. Regardless of what you think about the likes of Jeff Goldblum and Zooey Deschanel making albums and showing their passion for music; you cannot deny there is something wonderful and magical hearing these much-loved screen figures...
IN THIS PHOTO: Jeff Goldblum/PHOTO CREDIT: Pari Dukovic/Getty Images
STEPPING into music.