Soundtrack

PRODUCTION NOTES

The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD features original music from the film plus improvised quartet versions of the main themes.

The score to Remembering Phil is acoustic jazz, recorded in a small group setting. The instrumentation (featuring Bob Sheppard on tenor sax, flute and in an unusual role on Bass Clarinet) reflects the small ensemble cast of the film. While recurring themes do accent the narrative, there is also a strong improvisational aspect to this score. The main leitmotif is traded back and forth between John B. Williams' bass and the bass clarinet. This opens up space on the main themes (the first 5 selections on the CD) for Todd Cochran and Michael Wolff's explorations on piano, as well as Bob Sheppard's Tenor Sax.

Nic. ten Broek - Composer

A Juilliard educated composer, Nic. tenBroek has created accomplished scores for feature films, network television and documentaries. Along with REMEMBERING PHIL, his most recent film scores include The Amateurs starring Jeff Bridges, Ted Danson and Joe Pantoliano; and The Dukes starring Chazz Palminteri, Robert Davi and Peter Bogdanovich.

Nic. has also composed works for the Kronos String Quartet, Turtle Island String Quartet, Metropol Orchestra, and a full-length ballet based on Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. As a producer and arranger, Nic. has worked with such artists as jazz singer Nancy Wilson, Bobby McFerrin, Les McCann, and Warner Bros. artists Reel Big Fish.

Bob Sheppard - Tenor Sax, Bass Clarinet, Flute

Bob is one the most in demand saxophone players on the scene today. His discography includes: Chick Corea, Freddy Hubbard, Dianne Reeves, Steely Dan, Billy Childs, Patrick Williams, MAnhattan Transfer, Michael Franks, Ricky Lee Jones, Elvis Costello and countless others.

TODD COCHRAN - Piano, KEYBOARD

A born and bred San Franciscan, Todd has performed on stage with Dizzy Gillespie, John Handy, Roland Kirk and Peter Gabriel; his recording studio experiences (as keyboard-player, composer-arranger-conductor or producer-director) range from Santana through Phil Collins, Jeff Beck, Quincy Jones, Aretha Franklin, George Benson and Freddie Hubbard.

Roy McCurdy - Jazz drummer

Roy joined Cannonball Adderley's Quintet in 1965 and stayed with the band until Adderley's death in 1975. He has played with Chuck Mangione, Betty Carter, Sonny Rollins, Roy Eldridge, Count Basie, Wes Montgomery, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Joe Williams, Herbie Hancock and Oscar Peterson. Roy is also a Professor in the Jazz Studies Department of the Thornton School of Music at USC.

John B. Williams - Bass

A student of Ron Carter in New York, John's vast recording expeience includes: The Tonight Show band, Horace Silver, Billy Cobham, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Nancy Wilson, The Arsenio Hall Show, Roy Ayers, Bobby Hutcherson, Harold Land, Louie Bellson,The Manhattan Transfer and Les McCann.

Michael Wolff - piano

A Native of Berkeley, CA, Michael played with Cal Tjader's band. He then joined Cannonball Adderley before becoming musical director for esteemed vocalist Nancy Wilson. This was followed up by his musical director stint on The Arsenio Hall TV show. Since that time Wolff, has led his own groups, The Michael Wolff Trio and Impure Thoughts. As a band leader, he has recorded several highly rated CDs, as well as composing for film and television.

For more information, please contact:

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AVAILABLE NOW

Acoustic jazz score featuring world class jazz artists Bob Sheppard, Todd Cochran, John B. Williams, Roy McCurdy and Michael Wolff.

“The music has a life of its own.” - Don Heckman, The International Review of Music.

Film Review: “Remembering Phil”

By Don Heckman

The International Review of Music

The tease line for the film Remembering Phil is “Even in Hollywood, you never know how your own script will end.” And that’s pretty much on target for a picture about a screenwriter who unexpectedly finds himself in a real life version of a story he may well have written. Except for the fact that he has no idea where it’s going or how it’s going to end.

Phil Winters, played with utter believability by Nicholas Turturro, returns from a vacation to discover that there doesn’t appear to be any prior record of his existence. His suitcase has disappeared from the luggage pick up at LAX. He has no email or voice messages. There’s no one he recognizes – or who recognizes him – at the production studio he’s been working at for years.

It’s not until he makes a stop in a bar for a recuperative drink that someone actually calls his name. It’s a young, attractive woman named Debbie, perfectly played by Christina Murphy, who claims that she is Phil’s daughter by a college romance. Phil knows it’s both impossible and absurd. But, lacking options, desperately aware that Debbie is the only person who seems – for whatever reason – to recognize his existence, he sticks with her.

And that’s where things become even more complicated. Phil hangs on for dear life as he follows Debbie into the dark corners of L.A. on a journey that brings him more self revelation than he thinks he can handle.

It’s a compelling story, atmospherically directed by Brian Smith to a well-paced screenplay by Michael Katz, filled with unexpected twists and turns before its startlingly revelatory ending. And it derives a good portion of its dramatic pacing from the musical score by Nic tenBroek.

Jazz-driven film scores have had their day over the years, especially in the ‘50s and ‘60s. But beyond exceptions such as Terence Blanchard’s scores for Spike Lee’s films, they haven’t been showing up much lately. So it’s a distinct pleasure to hear how effectively tenBroek has used written and improvised passages to underscore both the picture’s intimate character interaction and its full range of Los Angeles settings.

Played by the stellar ensemble of pianist Todd Chochran, saxophonist/flutist Bob Sheppard, drummer Roy McCurdy and bassist John B. Williams (with pianist Michael Wolff present on one of the most significant cues), the music has a life of its own. So much of a life, that — heard on the film’s soundtrack album — it surfaces as an appealing jazz recording, completely apart from its excellence as a film score.