...Erskine and the Jam Music Lab All-Stars demonstrate virtuosity, versatility and a keen attention to detail...creating a fitting tribute to the most influential figures in 20th-century music.
Peter Erskine and Vienna's JAM Music Lab All-Stars celebrate the music of two iconic Viennese composers who, after moving to Hollywood in 1929 & 1934, transformed the dynamics of film as they set the standards for movie scoring. Through their work on Gone With the Wind, King Kong, and many dozens more, their role in shaping popular culture since is legion. First exposed to the music in the late '70s as he was touring with Weather Report, Erskine heard Joe Zawinul playing a beautiful melody and learned it was by Korngold, a fellow Viennese composer. He was moved to search out transcripts and recordings ever since. With his artist-in-residency at Vienna's cutting-edge JAM Music Lab University, his desire to reimagine this music in an improvised jazz setting finally became a reality.
Track Listing:
1 March of the Merry Men 7:09
2 Sterbelied (from Lieder des Abschieds, Op. 14) 6:12
3 Old Spanish Song 5:32
4 The Boys Go to Play 5:04
5 Concerto Miniature (theme from Violin Concerto 2nd mvt.) 1:09
6 Romance (Violin Concerto, 2nd mvt.) 5:13
7 Tara's Theme 4:48
8 Belle Watling 6:27
9 Johnny Belinda 3:33
10 String Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 26 (Larghetto) 9:53
11 A Summer Place 4:54
12 Ghost Coda (theme from Violin Concerto, 2nd mvt.) 1:09
Composed by:
E.W. Korngold (1,2,3,4,5,6,10)
Max Steiner (7,8,9,11)
Arranged by:
Peter Erskine (1,4,5,7,9,11)
Danny Grissett (2,3,6,8,10)
Performers:
Herwig Gradischnig - saxophone (1,3,6,9)
Thomas Gansch - trumpet (1,3)
Bertl Mayer - harmonica (1,3,11)
Bob Sheppard - flute (4)
Judd Miller - EVI (5,11); sound design (12)
Andreas Varady - guitar (1,3,4,6,7,8,9,11)
Danny Grissett - piano
Thatiana Gomes - double bass (4,6,9,10)
Fabricio Pereira - double bass (1,2,3,7,8,11)
Peter Erskine - drums; percussion (7,9)
Flip Phillip - vibraphone (4,5,8,9); percussion (9)
Brian Kilgore - percussion (1)
Alyssa Park - violin (12)
String Quartet (5,10):
Kristina Šuklar - 1st violin
Anastasia Lindberg - 2nd violin
Mario Gheorghiu - viola
Julia Schreyvogel - cello
(courtesy of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra)
Production Info:
Produced by Peter Erskine, Jeff Levenson & Marcus Ratka
Engineered by Andreas Rathammer & Martin Klebahn
at 4tune audio productions, Vienna, Austria
January 24-26, 2024
Mixed by Aaron Walk at Puck Productions, Santa Monica, CA
Mastered by Jon D'Uva, Brooklyn, NY
Band Photographs by Martin Zaunschirm & Peter Erskine
Cover design & layout by John Bishop
Reviews of Vienna to Hollywood: Impressions of E.W. Korngold & Max Steiner
Paris Move (Thierry De Clemensat)
When one receives an album from a jazz titan such as Peter Erskine, one cannot help but rejoice, knowing that Peter Erskine, like so many others of his caliber, has shaped the history of contemporary jazz through his collaborations with the best of the best: Maynard Ferguson, followed by his groundbreaking work with Jaco Pastorius in Weather Report ...
Jazz Weekly (George W Harris)
Drum mastermind Peter Erskine gives a salute to two Austrian music film composers that dominated the Golden Age of movies, namely Max Steiner and E.W. Korngold on this album that mixes jazz with string. A rich mid sized combo of Herwig Gradischnig/sax, Thomas Gansch/tp, Bertl Mayer/harm, Bob Sheppard/fl, Judd Miller/EVI, Andreas Vardy/g, Danny Gris ...
DownBeat (Bill Milkowski)
Erskine's second collaboration with an all-star ensemble from the Vienna-based JAM Music Lab pays tribute to two Austrian composers who escaped Nazi terror, fled west and ended up creating the template for Hollywood film scoring. Principal arrangers Erskine and pianist Danny Grissett have taken some liberties with these old-school film cues, like a ...
All About Jazz (Jack Bowers)
From Vienna to Hollywood is versatile drummer Peter Erskine's ardent homage to the (mostly) film music of the renowned Academy Award-winning Viennese composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Steiner, who wrote some of filmdom's most memorable themes during Hollywood's Golden Age in the decades from 1930 to 1960. To transpose their film scores to t ...
All About Jazz - Liner Notes (Peter Erskine)
Hollywood called...
...and Max Steiner was the first of this dynamic duo to answer, arriving there in 1929, initially working for the RKO Studios as an orchestrator and then as a composer. This was not his first affiliation with Hollywood, however; he functioned as Fox Studio's musical director, adding live music to silent films presented in New Y ...
Modern Drummer (Mark Griffith)
Hopefully you have already read Peter Eskine's column this month on the making of his new record, so I'll skip the backstory, and just say that this is the best recording that Erskine has done as a leader since 3 Nights in LA. But it this a very different type of record, 3 Nights in LA was a freewheeling blowing date, Vienna to Hollywood is a caref ...
Jazz'N'More (Switzerland) (Luca D'Alessandro)
4-STARS The film music composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Steiner left their hometown of Vienna in the early 1930s to seek their fortunes in California. Many years later, in the late 1970s, Weather Report drummer Peter Erskine encountered Korngold's work for the first time when Joe Zawinul suddenly played a Korngold melody on tour. This spa ...
Take Effect (Tom Haugen)
Peter Erskine and his crew tip their hat to the work of two Viennese composers, E.W. Korngold and Max Steiner, and it makes for a diverse and intricate 12 songs.
The energetic "March Of The Merry Men" starts the listen with Erskine's marching band style drumming alongside Thomas Gansch's vibrant trumpet, and "Sterbelied" follows with Danny Gris ...
