Saturday, August 23, 2008

Rakatá!

So I've been playing trombone with a new band for two or three weeks now- a local latin pop band called Rakatá. The two percussionist/singers who run it really know their stuff. They do pop songs with a latin flavor (Colombian, Brazilian, salsa, merengue, timba, etc.), and traditional latin songs with a more soulful crossover sound. If you've heard modern pop music from Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil- it's that kind of thing. Phoenix is full of salsa bands, but these guys are doing something unique here, as far as I know. Very fun, very danceable, and a great situation for a trombonist.

I haven't been able to invite people out to the gigs yet because I'm not a member of the band- they just hire me when they can afford an extra person- and so far I haven't known about the gigs until a few days before- but I definitely recommend seeing them (for you Phoenix folks). They (we?) play every Tuesday at the Asia de Cuba (in the Hotel Mondrian in Scottsdale), every Friday at Trader Vic's (by the Valley Ho in Scottsdale), and I think they have a Saturday gig starting soon, somewhere on the west side.

Here's their myspace page, if you're interested.

Monday, August 18, 2008

At Best, Derivative


I'm scoring my first independent feature film! Woo-hoo!

"At Best Derivative" is a comedy/farce about a gang of would-be criminals who are planning to sell the movie rights to a crime they have yet to commit. It's the first full-length feature by director Ryan Pierson, and the cast and crew are all local Arizona folks. They've been working on it for over a year, and it's now officially in post-production. We're hoping to be able to release it this fall, maybe in October. Anyway, I'm totally psyched to have the opportunity to score a feature film. But no music to show you yet- just this poster, their myspace page and their imdb page.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

The Mating Game

Two weeks ago, I composed music for the romantic comedy "The Mating Game", the Phoenix Independent Film Makers Group's entry in the IFP-Phoenix 48-hr film challenge. Friday at 7:00 PM we were given a prop (a spatula), a line ("How did that get in there?"), and a genre (we got comedy). Our completed 3-minute film was due Sunday evening at 7:00 PM. There were 30 or so teams that participated- the screening this Thursday involved more spatula-related homicides than most of my evenings out.

I didn't get to score to picture, just to the script, because of the time contraint, but I think the music ended up working fairly well anyway, and it was fun to do. Here's the 5-minute "director's cut":

 

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