[Dixielandjazz] The Not-So-Quiet American

[Don Ingle]

On 4/10/2011 12:16 PM, Robert Ringwald wrote:
> Russ Garcia interviewed
>
> The Not-So-Quiet American
> by Bridget Jones
> Sunday Star Times (Auckland, New Zealand), April 10, 2011
> He has worked with all the greats, from Walt Disney and Judy Garland to Clint Eastwood,
> yet he is almost unknown. As the man behind the music, Russ Garcia might not be a
> household name, but he has had a fantastic career.
> "It's been, I think, the longest career of anyone on earth," says the musician, composer
> and arranger. "I've been writing music since I was about eight years old, so it's
> been quite a while."
> Garcia is 94, so a "while" means more than 85 years.
> And local audiences will have a chance to hear more than a few of the stories he
> has collected along the way when Garcia hits the road late this month to celebrate
> his astounding body of work.
> Born in California, Garcia has lived in Kerikeri since the 1970s after meeting some
> Kiwi musicians in Fiji, who convinced him to come to New Zealand.
> Before leaving Hollywood for the laidback lifestyle of Northland, Garcia worked with
> some of the biggest names in movies and music, as a composer, arranger and conductor
> in both the jazz and movie worlds.
> "I'd done everything in Hollywood -- films, television, radio, recording. I had worked
> with everybody."
> He is full of tales about famous faces, like the time his "workmate" Clint Eastwood
> ran for mayor just so he could change the rules that would let him build a retaining
> wall, or watching Ella Fitzgerald overcome stage-fright.
> "Ella, would you believe she was very shy? She would be in a panic just before she
> got on stage, but the minute she got that mike in her hand and got into that song
> and the meanings of the lyrics, she would forget herself and sing like an angel.
> "And Louis [Armstrong], oh, what a beautiful man. He was just wonderful."
> Garcia, who was awarded a Queen's Service Medal for services to music, says he has
> never regretted leaving Hollywood and he still has fans.
> "I did a score, a film score on The Time Machine that is still popular. I get emails
> every week from people who love that score and write about it."
> Garcia is taking the show on the road one more time, touring New Zealand with a 10-piece
> band, New York vocalists Shaynee Rainbolt and Terese Genecco and Kiwi singer Tim
> Beveridge.
> "I'll be on stage the whole time, conducting and telling stories and trading jokes.
> "It's going to be a joy for me as well as the audience."
>
> --Bob Ringwald
> www.ringwald.com
> Fulton Street Jazz Band
> 530/ 642-9551 Office
> 916/ 806-9551 Cell
> Amateur (Ham) Radio K6YBV
>
> Paddy says "Mick, I'm thinking of buying a German Shepherd."
> "Are you crazy," says Mick, "Have you seen how many of their owners go blind?"
>
>
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I bought a copy of Russ Garcia's book on orchestration many years ago. 
Paperback - and got thumbed and use worn early on; so I took it to 
bookbinders and had them make me a hard cover of it and it has been 
among my best sources of inspiration when I am working on a chart. Sits 
nest to my Rimski-Korsikov (sp?) tome on orchestrtation. Both knew their 
stuff!
Glad to know this master of the craft of making a wide diversity of 
instruments come to gether to create rich sounds if still with us and 
hope that he will be for many years to come to inspire another layer of 
good chart makers.

Thanks for the info, Bob.

Don Ingle