Special thanks to Mike Genovese and Charles Ulrich
| Orchestral Favorites (1979) | London Symphony Orchestra Vol. I (1983) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00-0:20 | 0:00-0:22 | |
| 0:22-0:34 | Bob In Dacron, 2nd Movement (3:08-3:20) | |
| 1:12-3:09 | 1:29-3:53 | |
| 3:09-4:59 | 3:53-6:06 | |
| 4:59-7:14 | 6:06-8:34 | |
| 7:14-7:20 | 8:34-10:04 | |
| 7:20-7:29 | 10:04-10:15 | |
| 7:29-7:31 | 10:15-10:18 | The Perfect Stranger (0:00-0:07) |
Frank really liked my arrangement of Pedro's Dowry, enough so that he planned to record it. He had me put together an 8 piece band consisting of: Me, Bob, and M.B. on percussion, [I reduced the original 6 orchestral percussion parts to 3, without leaving anything out (or at least nothing of any consequence). It was really tricky, but it worked.], Leonice Shinneman on drum set, [Leonice was also a percussion major at CalArts when the Repairmen were there. He was also in my band The Mope (...)], Toby Holmes on fretless electric bass and trombone (the trombone joined in on the Lover's Duet melody, with the piano player also on kazoo) [...], Lorna Little (now Lorna Eder, also in the Ear Unit) and Gaylord Mowrey (formerly in the Ear Unit) on pianos, and Lorna's brother Dane Little conducting. So actually a 7 piece with conductor I guess. But 8 people.
[...] So, Frank had me put together this chamber ensemble to play Pedro's Dowry in a version built on the piano reduction. The plan was to record it for release. He asked me how much it would cost to get it together. I made a decision as to how many rehearsals I thought it would take, and I said we would need to get at least $15 per hour. I was probably thinking the project wouldn't happen if it was too expensive, so I bid way low. Frank said "You shouldn't work that cheap". But he didn't offer us more. We were all thrilled just to be working for Frank at all, and for a recording project.
We rehearsed a bunch, and it was coming along. Frank came up to CalArts to hear us rehearse, and even conducted us a bit. He also took us over the coals on some of the rhythms. We were all very nervous.
But Frank was also negotiating with the LSO at the time. He finally decided on Kent Nagano to conduct, and he wanted to have Pedro's Dowry in that project. He asked us if we would rehearse with Kent, and also Chad and Ed, as prep for the LSO recording. So this band had a rehearsal with Kent Nagano conducting, and Ed Mann and Chad sitting in on their respective parts. Frank was tweaking things the whole time. He would have us play certain sections, but have Chad do it reggae style, or some other way. It was a little weird, because this was our project, and we had to just get out of the way for Chad, Ed, and Kent. I don't know how they felt about it, but it was kind of tense.
It turned out that Frank decided against recording this version, because it was already on Orchestral Favorites and now was heading for the LSO album. He told me it just didn't make sense to spend 7 grand recording yet another version. He did like the piano reductions a lot though, and that was gratifying.
After Frank heard the piano reductions for the first time Gail called me and said she thought I'd like to know, since Frank would never tell me himself, that he was blown away by them, and was prancing around the house with glee. She was right, he never said anything to me about them. And a few years ago I met Bob Rice, Frank's engineer, who introduced himself and said that I was the only person he could think of that Frank only had good things to say about. That sort of thing is gratifying to hear once in a while.