– News –
by Charlie Barnett | Oct 30, 2019 | Charlie's Blog, News
Diane Rehm, the well-known NPR radio host, is featured in a new documentary I’m scoring. The film, called When My Time Comes, is about Rehm’s efforts to legalize medical aid in dying for people who are terminally ill. She took up the cause after watching her late husband suffer needlessly for the lack of this option. Rehm is a terrific interviewer, and some of the scenes with patients and survivors are just gutting. My challenge has been to enhance the film’s natural emotions without getting in the way of them. Alto sax features prominently in the score, but there are some spots where the director, Joe Fab, wanted just piano. Joe has directed this thoughtful and important film with a real sensitivity, and I am honored to have been included in the production.
by Charlie Barnett | Oct 6, 2019 | Charlie's Blog, News
There are certain things that make me feel my age. The very idea of running is one of them; I fear that these knees have probably taken their last long stride. Another is the thought that my oldest daughter will soon turn forty. How dare she? A recent third: my 50th high school reunion. It was horrible and it was wonderful. Amid the surf and turf dinner and the Motown covers, I was faced with the reality that these old-timers were my classmates, and that I was one of them. Denial was impossible. I found myself swimming in a genial acceptance, laughing and marveling over where life has brought each of us. I didn’t come away with any big life lessons, but I did get a sense, at least for one night, that the world is turning at the same pace for everybody, and that there is no reason not to dance to The Temptations whenever you get the chance.
by Charlie Barnett | Oct 1, 2019 | Charlie's Blog, News
I don’t usually use this website for calls to action, but a friend of mine is in trouble, so I am making an exception. I met Richard Dean (everyone calls him Dean) nearly 30 years ago when he was a young hip-hop producer in the Washington DC area. He later resurfaced in my world as a self-taught and self-employed film editor of tremendous industry and talent. We’ve worked together on many films, and I have always been blown away by what he brings to these projects. Unfortunately, Dean has recently had some health challenges that have kept him from working, and in order to get back to work he needs a specially adapted vehicle that he can’t afford. I’ve started a GoFundMe campaign to help. If you are able to donate or to spread the word about Dean’s situation, especially to any film editors you may know, I would be very grateful. Here is a link for more information: Richard Dean GoFundMe Page
by Charlie Barnett | Sep 24, 2019 | Charlie's Blog, News
Who uses four pianists for one show? My friend Dick Kaufmann does! I recently played at the crooner’s spectacular 80th birthday concert, at which he performed with an impressive array of musicians and singers he has worked with over the years. I played guitar and tenor banjo, along with one piece on piano. The other pianists were bandleader Glenn Pearson; Rich Dworsky of A Prairie Home Companion; and Lee Muziker, who has been the music director for both Barbara Cook and Tony Bennett, among many other credits. Everyone played great, but as a pianist I can tell you that Muziker’s musicianship is not to be believed. His accompaniment sounds like a combination of Igor Stravinsky, Fats Waller, and Frederic Chopin. The moment from the concert I will always remember — well, along with the audience’s delight when Kaufmann brought out his friend and surprise guest Garrison Keillor for a duet — was when I stood in the wings with Pearson and Dworsky, all of us amazed at the fluid genius of Muziker. Sometimes your role as a musician, and a person, is simple appreciation.
by Modern Songbook Records | Aug 31, 2019 | Charlie's Blog, News
We live in an amazing time. You can see something you want online, press a button, and receive it in the mail in a day or two. Some things, like Chinese food, arrive even more quickly. And now I have found that high-quality adult education can be instantaneous: You can sign up for an online course and start taking it right away. I might be one of the last people in America to find this out.
A few weeks ago, I was having a conversation about the musical Gypsy (yes, this is related) and I tossed out a showy thought that Mama Rose was something like a modern-day Clytemnestra. The person I was talking with was moderately impressed with my reference, but I realized, in a rare moment of self-awareness, that I just barely knew who Clytemnestra was, and that my attempt at erudition was largely BS.
I became determined to fix this. After poking around the all-knowing internet, I found a class on Coursera.org called Greek and Roman Mythology taught by professor Peter Struck from the University of Pennsylvania—an all-star classicist. It is amazing and, unbelievably, it is free. I’m about halfway through and thoroughly obsessed. For the first time in my life, I really read The Odyssey. In two translations! And I am forming my own thoughts about the meaning of myth in modern life. This all has no bearing on my music career, at least for now. But if you see me at a cocktail party, look out. I’m on the long, slow path to becoming a modern-day Coeus (the Titan of intellect).
by Modern Songbook Records | Jul 15, 2019 | Charlie's Blog, News
I was recently commissioned to write a choral work for the Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Maryland. This church is in the forefront of the sanctuary movement in our area, and the piece honors that impulse to protect the vulnerable. The libretto for Sanctuary, by Sandy Shaw, is a direct and heartfelt appeal to the best of our natures. It’s scored for choir, oboe, horn in F, bassoon and piano and will be performed at the church on November 3rd. Here is a link to the score.
