2 posts tagged “randy newman”
Blogged by Cal State graduate music student and EXPO attendee, Ince Kosasih...
After sitting in on the "TV Composers Confessions" panel Thursday afternoon, I cruised over to the Grand Ballroom to attend Randy Newman's session. It was packed!! But no worries, everybody got to see Randy Newman and didn't miss a thing because the room was equipped with these two gigantic projector screens (bigger than those screens that many young composers dream of hanging on their studio’s wall just to watch Sanjaya’s hair).
The audience was really excited when Randy Newman walked out to the stage and started singing and playing some cool chords on Steinway Grand piano. The whole session was filled with his performance of his songs that are already familiar to our ears, accompanied by his jokes that cracked up the ballroom. He performed many songs, from “I Love L.A.” to “You’ve Got A Friend in Me.” He also had the audience singing with him. I think the phrase was “He’s dead.” That brought a lot of excitement to the audience. Some probably found it as a tension and stress release moment because you got to shout as loud as you want (you had to be in pitch though).
To put it into one sentence, it was an unforgettable yet casual one-man concert. Randy Newman was a true entertainer and performer - very talented and witty. What a great session to end our evening!
The first day of the 2007 ASCAP "I Create Music" EXPO closed with an amazing session in the Grand Ballroom - a conversation with / performance by a truly unique and gifted songwriter, Randy Newman. There was a huge crowd in attendance to hear the Q&A between Randy and moderator Paul Zollo, a noted music journalist and author of such books as Songwriters on Songwriting. As they talked about how Randy approaches his craft - particularly his tendency to write songs with the voice and point of view of eclectic and sometimes very "skewed" characters - Randy treated the audiences to performances of many of his songs (including many from his studio album "Bad Love").
Earlier in the day, the Grand Ballroom saw another packed house for a Master Session with legendary songwriters, producers and musicians - Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. (Jimmy is also an ASCAP Board member). The session was moderated by Gail Mitchell, senior correspondent for R&B/Hip-Hop at Billboard magazine. It was originally going to be in a smaller ballroom near the EXPO exhibitions area - but the overwhelming crowds made for a quick decision to move everyone to the largest room available. Everyone who sat in for the session was glad they made room for the overflow! [Posted by Anne]
