Screenplay (BFM Jazz)

Screenplay (BFM Jazz)

The Tierney Sutton Band

Released May 17, 2019

Grammy Nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album 2020

YouTube:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nmRw9659B7ie0evg9X54wpkI4ZnpHKC3k

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/5oRb7CLeAHWLepRCBK5KhA?si=_2nGTiPNRLmsmun_0LsPtA

About:

After 20-plus years, 8 Grammy nominations and countless performances throughout the world, L.A.-based Tierney Sutton Band has set their sights on the wide-ranging panorama of film music by releasing an ambitious 19-track collection of songs in five parts — “ScreenPlay.” “ScreenPlay” spans the first century of American film music. The band gained firsthand experience in this idiom in 2016 when they were tapped by legendary director Clint Eastwood to score his box office hit “Sully”. The arrangements and Sutton’s readings of the songs comprising “ScreenPlay” are pure Tierney Sutton Band at the height of its powers, subtly illuminating and revolutionizing each classic, as well as introducing a few lesser-known gems. Wanting to dig ever deeper into the material, the band has chosen to present this creative, new music in a creative, new way. 5 acts, each including 3 to 5 songs, will be released as a digital EP, once a month, beginning in February of 2019. A podcast and other behind-the-scenes material that explore the songs and the films that made them so iconic will accompany each of these acts. In June of 2019, a compilation ScreenPlay CD will be released worldwide.

ACT 1 “THE BERGMAN SUITE”

Welcome to The Bergman Suite, the opening Act of “ScreenPlay”, the new project by the Tierney Sutton Band. We thought it fitting to begin our journey into the first century of American film song by sharing 5 songs by perhaps the most influential film lyricists of all time, Alan and Marilyn Bergman.

Track Listing:

The Windmills of your Mind (The Thomas Crowne Affair 1968, 99)

What Are You Doing The Rest Of your Life? (The Happy Ending, 1969)

How Do You Keep The Music Playing? (Best Friends, 1982)

It Might Be You (Tootsie, 1982)

Every Now And Then (Mullholland Falls, 1996)

ACT 2 “TECHNICOLOR”

Songs from the 1930s and 1940s

Welcome to “Technicolor” — The four songs featured here were penned from 1939–1945 and are full of fantasy, imagination and optimism, which offered a stark contrast to the state of the world at that time. Creating magical lands, they became some of the most indelible and enduring pieces in music history.

Track Listing:

I’ve Got No Strings (Pinocchio, 1940)

If I Only Had A Brain (The Wizard Of Oz, 1939)

The Trolley Song (Meet Me In St Louis, 1944)

It Might As Well Be Spring (State Fair, 1945)

ACT 3 “GOLDEN AGE”

Songs from the 1950s and 1960s

Welcome to the third chapter from the TSB ScreenPlay collection. This time around we bring you four songs from the Golden Age. They possess many of the same characteristics as Broadway show songs from this period, although none of them actually appeared in a Broadway show. Powerful, emotional content combined with plot and character development, which many film directors of the same era wished to convey in their movies were the hallmarks of these songs. In this chapter, we explore the music of Paul Simon, Henry Mancini and Bob Telson including a Mancini/Telson mashup.

Track Listing:

The Sound Of Silence (The Graduate, 1967)

Moon River/Calling You (Breakfast At Tiffany’s, 1961/Bagdad Cafe, 1987)

Two For The Road (Two For The Road, 1967)

Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1953)

ACT 4 “MONTAGE”

Songs from the 1970s and 1980s

This Act features classic film tunes from Lane/Lerner and Sondheim, and tosses in a couple surprise arrangements of tunes from the hit musical Grease!

Track Listing:

On A Clear Day (On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, 1970)

Hopelessly Devoted To You (Grease, 1978)

You’re The One That I Want (Grease, 1978)

Goodbye For Now (Reds, 1981)

ACT 5 “THE SULLY VARIATIONS”

All Music composed and arranged by Christian Jacob, Tierney Sutton and The Tierney Sutton Band for Clint Eastwood’s “Sully”

Track Listing:

Arrow

Sully Suite   

Flying Home: Sully’s Theme

Track Listing:

ScreenPlay compilation

1. The Windmills Of Your Mind (Michel LeGrand / Alan Bergman / Marilyn Bergman) 5:31

2. Moon River/Calling You (Henry Mancini / Johnny Mercer / Bob Telson) 4:40

3. On A Clear Day (You Can See Forever) (Burton Lane / Alan Jay Lerner) 4:05

4. What Are You Doing For The Rest Of Your Life? (Michel LeGrand / Alan Bergman / Marilyn Bergman) 5:48

5. I’ve Got No Strings (Leigh Harline / Ned Washington) 4:29

6. If I Only Had A Brain (Harold Arlen / Yip Harburg) 5:59

7. The Sound Of Silence (Paul Simon) 5:31

8. Goodbye For Now (Stephen Sondheim) 2:27

9. Diamond’s Are A Girl’s Best Friend (Jule Styne / Leo Robbin) 3:23

10. Hopelessly Devoted To You (John Farrar) 4:11

11. You’re The One That I Want (John Farrar) 5:01

12. How Do You Keep The Music Playing? (Michel LeGrand / Alan Bergman / Marilyn Bergman) 4:20

13. Ev’ry Now And Then (Dave Grusin / Alan Bergman / Marilyn Bergman) 2:58

14. It Might Be You (Dave Grusin / Alan Bergman / Marilyn Bergman) (6:24)

15. Arrow (Christian Jacob / Tierney Sutton / The Tierney Sutton Band) 2:55

Personnel:

Tierney Sutton: vocals

Christian Jacob: piano

Kevin Axt: bass

Trey Henry: bass

Ray Brinker: drums/percussion

Serge Merlaud: guitar (5, 12, 14)

Alan Bergman: vocals (12)

Recorded March 10, 2018, at Capital Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA, by Al Schmitt and Steve Genewick

Recorded June 2018, at Dragonfly Creek Recording, Malibu, CA, by Charley Pollard

Mixed by Charley Pollard

Mastered by Dominic Camardella, Santa Barbara, CA

Review:

Cinema-related “standards” have been fertile territory for musicians to harvest ever since Al Jolson walked miles for smiles. With Screenplay, 8-time Grammy-nominated vocalist Tierney Sutton—here as the Tierney Sutton Band—takes a fascinating retrospective, delivering fifteen tunes we have often heard— but never this creatively. The result is a showcase that is unique, engaging, and—in terms of how Sutton, pianist Christian Jacob, bassists Trey Henry and Kevin Axt and drummer Ray Brinker collectively speak—brilliant.
“The Windmills of Your Mind” spins slowly with a Brinker cymbal “drone,” Jacob’s keys sparkling, and Sutton poetic. “Moon River” is paired with the lesser-known “Calling You” in which Sutton’s lyric and dynamic delivery is Siren-seductive, drawing us in to both rainbow’s end and desert zephyrs. “On a Clear Day” is a swinger with Sutton and Henry whipping up a tempest before a torrid Jacob trip and Brinker burning. Sutton inquires “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life” fairly straightforwardly in a stunningly beautiful duo with Jacob. The rarely heard “I’ve Got No Strings,” here a ballad, adds those of guitarist Serge Merlaud to Sutton’s truth-telling. With “If I Only Had a Brain” Sutton cooks soulful with funkster Kevin Axt’s electric bass and Henry’s arco working a savvy complement.
Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” plays like a Medieval chanson with Sutton the trobairitz. Stephen Sondheim’s “Goodbye for Now” is a dark, deep farewell. “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” dazzles with Sutton scat-singing over Brinker’s Fred Astaire-like brushes. “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” taken slower than usual, and the rhythmically- driving “You’re the One That I Want” are interesting no-ham cuts. Alan Bergman makes a cameo appearance with Sutton on “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?” and it is a touching entendre. Sutton and Jacob haunt on “Ev’ry Now and Then” and “It Might Be You.” Both those tracks are gems. “Arrow,” which Sutton and Jacob wrote for Clint Eastwood’s Sully (Warner Bros. 2016) soundtrack closes the session dream-like.
Sutton’s vocal chops and her phrasing are impeccable. Not only is she dead-on pitch, but, her instrument—and the way she handles it across the dynamic spectrum—enables her to derive new imagery from the vintage material. The effect is so stunningly beautiful and emotionally profound that it seems as if we are hearing these classics come prima. As expected, the support work of Jacob, Henry, Axt and Brinker is superb. Additionally, the arrangements are so creative, so colorfully savvy, that the ensemble takes on the dimension of a “vocalized orchestra.”

The Tierney Sutton Band does much more than revive memories. Through the creative efforts of these masterful musicians, glorious melodies and their poetic lyrics are elevated and brilliantly honored. It is an aural Oscar. With Screenplay the play is indeed the thing.

Nicholas F. Mondello (All About Jazz)