Influences

Though I work primarily in theater, most of my influences are musicians and filmmakers. It’s not that surprising when you consider that my early training and experience was in music – I was a pianist, a concert percussionist and marching band drummer, and a singer long before I was an actor or a director. And the entire time I was studying acting, I was making music. At University of Michigan I played carillon (the big bells in the belltower – very fun but difficult to master), was a vocalist in the free improv group Creative Arts Orchestra, and sang in a band (believe it or not!) called Zooru.

I’m a firm believer that experience and training in music feeds into theater and vice versa. The musicians below certainly have influenced my directing and acting; a lot of the same values come into play. The aesthetic vision a film director can completely control in his medium also has been a goal I would like to realize in the theater.

Shirley Horn

This buddha-like jazz pianist and singer has been my biggest artistic influence, and you can read more about her and access my on-line discography of her work here.

Geoffrey Holder

Dancer, actor, painter, director, choreographer, designer, author…Geoffrey Holder is a huge inspiration to me. Born in Trinidad in 1930, Holder is a true renaissance man and a beautiful free spirit. Get the DVD Carmen & Geoffrey on Netflix, a documentary about Holder and his dancer wife, Carmen de Lavallade, to learn about him. Always classy, always curious, always creating, Geoffrey Holder exudes a love of life and all that is beautiful, sexy, and fun.

Geoffrey Holder and Carmen de Lavallade.

Paintings by Geoffrey Holder.

Mikhail Pletnev

The recordings of Russian pianist/conductor Mikhail Pletnev were introduced to me during my years working at The Juilliard School. His philosophy on making music is very interesting to me – by “observing” the music from the outside, focusing on density, intensity, contrast, and range of color rather than internalizing, his approach to music is a parallel to the “outside to inside” acting technique used by many Brits. For me, this approach allows me to really listen and to be affected by the music – the art – rather than the emotions of the player(s). This makes the music totally captivating and exciting.

The collapse of the Soviet system gave Pletnev the historic opportunity to realize his long-held dream of forming an orchestra independent of the government. Attracted by Pletnev’s reputation and his vision of a new model for the performing arts in Russia, many of the finest musicians in the country joined him in launching the Russian National Orchestra in 1990, which I consider to be the Rolls-Royce of orchestras.

There are many stupendous recordings of Pletnev. Among my favorites are:

I attended the concert captured on this recording. It was Pletnev’s solo piano concert debut at Carnegie Hall and it was thrilling! Electricity was in the air as he fearlessly performed a program which included the Bach/Busoni Chaconne, Beethoven’s piano sonata opus 111 (last sonata), and all four of the Chopin Scherzos. The encores were unbelievable, showcasing Pletnev’s total mastery of every style. The audience gasped when he finished the evening by tearing into Balakirev’s notorious Islamey, considered to be one of the most difficult piano pieces ever. Needless to say, it was riveting and all this is captured on these 2 discs.

The Russian National Orchestra’s recording of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 was an instant classic when it was released in the mid-1990s. It’s the perfect antidote to the over-emotional, syrupy versions that had become the norm, revealing the true power of the music without sacrificing any of the inherent lyrical beauty in the score.

I could listen to this for hours. Scarlatti’s miniatures are given their ultimate performances by Pletnev.

Pletnev plays Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Rachmaninoff on Rachmaninoff’s own piano.

Pletnev and the RNO recorded the entire Tchaikovsky symphony cycle and the other major orchestral works, but one of standouts is the tone poem Francesca di Rimini which is riveting from beginning to end. Wait for the wild gong smashes in the final bars!

Pletnev is famous for devising brilliant solo piano arrangements of Tchaikovsky’s ballets, but his two-piano arrangement of Prokofieff’s Cinderella is even more amazing. This recording has Pletnev duetting with legendary pianist Martha Argerich.

Listen to Pletnev’s recordings of great classical music! Visit the Unofficial Pletnev website.

Jacques Demy and Michel Legrand

French filmmaker Jacques Demy teamed with composer Michel Legrand on three musical movies, each of which I consider to be among my favorite films. All three also happen to star the beautiful Catherine Deneuve. The first was Les parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, 1964; pictured above). Next was my personal favorite, Les demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Girls of Rochefort, 1967; pictured below).

The third was Peau d’ane (Donkey Skin, 1970), which is a version of the Perrault fairy tale.

All three feature stunningly beautiful production and costume designs, with Demy’s famous saturated colors front and center. Legrand’s music is a combination of folk music-like simplicity and jazzy chords. Unabashed romanticism is the trademark of the series. I love it!

The Marx Brothers

I came to The Marx Brothers relatively late – it wasn’t until my first year in New York that I “discovered” them through their brilliant movie A Night at the Opera, which I checked out of the library on a whim. Of course I’d always heard people talk about The Marx Brothers, but I never sought their movies out. Watching scene after scene of brilliant wit and totally original comedy in A Night at the Opera, my jaw was hanging open in shock! How could I have not known about these geniuses?!

I then had to see every Marx movie and devoured them all. Some are better than others, but each one contains at least a few brilliant examples of their comedy. The early films – The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feather, and especially Duck Soup are my favorites, and A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races are really wonderful as well. Of the late films A Night in Casablanca comes the closest to matching the inspiration of the early films.

Like their comic “grandchildren” The Kids in the Hall (see below), part of the magic of The Marx Brothers team for me is that each of their individual comic styles is so completely different from the others. Groucho’s rapid-fire witticisms and comebacks, Chico’s deadpan not-as-dumb-as-he-seems “Italian” act, and Harpo’s mute clown; I love them all, thought I do have a fondness for Chico in particular. When Chico sat down to do his trick piano act and Harpo stopped everything to play a gorgeous harp solo in the midst of all the madness, I thought I was going to die!

And you can’t forget the “4th Marx Brother”: no, not Zeppo – Margaret Dumont. The long-suffering society lady who was the Marx’s comic punching bag. She seemed clueless to the fact that she was the butt of every joke, and it just made her more endearing.

Betty Carter

Betty Carter was the Picasso of jazz, one of the most original jazz vocal artists of all time. She started out with the Lionel Hampton big band as a “girl singer” who was trotted out to scat along with the band as a novelty. There was no indication at that point, however, of the truly unique career ahead of her as a solo artist. Betty Carter had a tone and a style all her own.

BetCar was making ’sounds’, as Coltrane made sounds, Ornette Coleman made sounds, etc. etc. Not all of these sounds were conventionally ‘in tune’, but, I do believe they were the sounds
she intended on making. Like all genius artists, she had an entirely individual aesthetic, and she remained truthful to this to the end. Ugly-beauty, etc.

I really really fell for BetCar’s music once and for all when I heard the recording of her original “30 Years” on her Verve CD “Droppin’ Things”. It’s absolutely gorgeous. My ears opened to her and I’ve been hooked ever since. It’s an acquired taste, YES, but so rewarding if you take the time and effort to really open yourself to it. It is jazz – it’s deep listening.

She also was a great educator of musicians. She challenged the young people she chose to play in her band to be the most virtuosic, flexible musicians they could be, and many of them have gone on to prominent careers. Amongst others, the list of ‘University of Betty Carter’ graduates includes:

piano: Benny Green, Cyrus Chestnut, Stephen Scott, John Hicks,
Mulgrew Miller, Jacky Terrasson

bass: Buster Williams, Dave Holland, Curtis Lundy

drums: Jack deJohnette, Lewis Nash, Eric Harland, Kenny Washington,
Clarence Penn

Ms. Carter was recipient of the 1997 National Medal of Arts Award from President Clinton and received an honorary doctorate (music) from Williams College. She founded the Kennedy Center’s ‘Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead’ program, an annual showcase for young jazz musicians

Standards Trio (Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette)

Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Gary Peacock, and drummer Jack DeJohnette each were known for their work in the world of free improvisation and experimental music. But when ECM Records brought them together for a recording date in the early 1980s, Jarrett suggested that they do something revolutionary – play standards!

Peacock and DeJohnette were dumbfounded; each assumed that they would do what they and Jarrett were known for doing: “out there” improvised jazz. But Jarrett convinced them that the most “out there”, unexpected thing they could do for their recording session would be to improvise on old popular songs. They played…and played…and played…and were so inspired by the results of their simpatico and the unusual repertoire (for them) that they ended up recording two records’ worth of material that session!

They’ve been playing standards together ever since. The results are achingly beautiful; very moment is totally focused and inspired. The first track of theirs I ever heard was a rendition of “When I Fall In Love” and it was so amazing I stopped dead in my tracks and couldn’t breathe. Dramatic, I know, but when music is good, it has that kind of effect on me!

All of their recordings are superb, but I’ll recommend just a couple that are particularly wonderful. Standards in Norway captures absolute perfection in terms of improvisation, acoustics, and recording. Still Live and Tokyo ‘96 also are flawless. Inside Out is a recording mostly of free improvisation (since that record, they’ve done a couple more free records, all wonderful), but the encore is the rendition of “When I Fall In Love” that I fell in love with. All their recordings are on the ECM label.

Not everyone can listen past Keith Jarrett’s signature moans, groans, and singing as he plays. I urge you to try! If you can get past that, you will be rewarded. The music is deep and it’s as if the three men are in a trance as they play. Jarrett’s explanation of his “vocal accompaniment” is that the moans are involuntary – he’s in “the zone” and the singing is part of getting the music out of his body. When the music is this intense, I believe what he says.

Finally, there’s something touching about these three musicians that have played together for so many years, finding totally new inspiration and discovering each other every time they play. I heard them play at Carnegie Hall a few years ago; the room was electric and it was hard to remember to breathe.

Blake Edwards

Film director Blake Edwards has been a huge influence on me. Among his well-known films are Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the Pink Panther series, The Days of Wine and Roses, “10″, SOB, and Victor/Victoria. His directing style includes a frequent use of the film frame as a “proscenium” and he loves slapstick.

Edwards’ influences include the Laurel and Hardy films, and one of the things I love best about his movies is the combination of old-fashioned humor styles and contemporary subjects. His movie “10″ brings together both influences brilliantly.

The Pink Panther and the subsequent Panther sequels marry sophisticated visuals with low humor.

In 2004, Blake Edwards was presented with a “Lifetime Achievement” Oscar. Well deserved, I think.

Carlos Kleiber

Reclusive conductor Carlos Kleiber died in 2004, and I unfortunately never had the opportunity to hear him live. Not many did; he was famous for cancelling performances. Kleiber was an eccentric genius who was considered one of the greatest conductors of all time, but, like Shirley Horn, was so particular about the conditions and circumstances required for him to perform, didn’t take many engagements. He also was a perfectionist and just didn’t like to perform. So we have a few records and videos to measure his greatness, and these recordings are incredible.

A conductor guides and inspires an orchestra, and Kleiber was truly inspiring and had a very individual style. His values seem to lie primarily in clarity, rhythmic articulation, and precise phrasing, all values shared by Mikhail Pletnev (see above). To listen to his recordings of Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 (“Unfinished”) or Verdi’s opera La Traviata is to hear them as if you’ve never heard them before – the rhythm is so crisp and the contrast so intense it burns.

I think my favorite recording of Kleiber’s is a live recording of the opera La bohème at La Scala in Milan. Luciano Pavarotti sings like a dream as Rodolfo, and, as usual, Kleiber makes this very familiar music sound totally fresh.

There are video recordings of Kleiber conducting symphonies by Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart, as well as waltzes by Strauss, two productions of Der Rosenkavalier, Die Fledermaus, Otello, and Carmen.

Kids in the Hall

The Canadian comedy troupe Kids in the Hall was a big influence on me in college. Their humor and sketch writing was totally off the wall and absurd, much like the Marx Brothers, but the fact that they played all of their female characters as well gave them a style and flavor all their own. Also like the Marxes, each member of the troupe had a completely individual comic style, and part of the pleasure of their work is the combining of these contrasting sensibilities.

Bruce McCollough, the shortest of the group, has a super-dry, stylized manner in all of his characters, and his writing often seems to be an expression of a kind of “Napoleon complex”. Mark McKinney is the most versatile of the Kids, morphing into whatever character he’s doing while retaining his own witty personality. David Foley often seemed to be the unofficial leader of the group, grounding everyone with his often condescending take on characters. Scott Thompson, the gay Kid, like Mark, was very versatile, and though his most famous character was the flamingly gay “Buddy”, I think he was the Kid who most brilliantly portrayed uptight straight men! Kevin McDonald, the skinny, gawky one, had an over-the-top, ridiculous style which knew no boundaries. Love these guys.