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Coming off my second year as musical director and arranger for the Kennedy Center Honors and a year where I was asked to produce two back
to back records for Vanessa Williams and musically direct her National Tour, this year has been a year to reacquaint myself with a few collaborators from the past and to open up one long dreamed of and exciting new
chapter in my life creatively.
1. NATALIE COLE RECORDS OLD SCHOOL RnB PROJECT
A number of years ago I got the chance to play and arrange half of a Natalie
Cole record and it was a joy. She has an extraordinary presence and though her fame is based on the iconic Unforgettable record, she can sing the heck out of old school Rhythm and Blues. it has been a number of
years but I was called to play and arrange a bunch of new tracks for a soul project she is doing for Verve records. The sessions were in Los Angeles and gave me a chance to collaborate with a few of my favorite
players out there, the magnificent drummer Kurt Bisquera and legendary bassist Nathan East, of Eric Clapton and Phil Collin, not to mention Babyface and a million others.
2. RENEE FLEMING WITH THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC
I was called by Decca Records in London to do three new arrangements for the now legendary soprano Renee Fleming and The
Royal Philharmonic. This is for a record to be released in 2006. I had worked with Renee before and as usual she was a gem to work with and e mailed a few times to say how much she loved the orchestrations which is
rare.
3. STRING ARRANGEMENT FOR TUPAC SHAKUR, BIGGIE, MARY J. BLIGE AND NAS AND WORK FOR NEW HIP HOP ARTIST EDRO IN THE UK
Because much of my work,
being an arranger/composer, is in the field of lush and somewhat traditional genres, it has been my wish to be involved in music making that is edgier and where I can use a String orchestra or a Horn section in a
way that is not like plush musical carpeting or Horn punches at the back of a rhythm track. I got a chance to work again with hot Hip-Hop producer of the moment Just Blaze. I had done remixes of Mariah Carey, Jay-Z
and Lenny Kravitz with Justin before. He called me to do a big string arrangement on a track with Notorious B.I.G, Tupac Shakur, Mary J. Blige and Nas. To work on a record that will be as important to that culture
as any this year was a trip and I am looking forward to more.
The man who introduced my work to Just Blaze is an incredibly talented Hip-Hop engineer names Ken Lewis and he has been producing a Rapper from
Washington D.C. named Edro for a label in the UK. I went over to London to work with my beloved brothers and sisters of the London Session Orchestra for this project. This is a group of people that play on almost
every great record made in the UK that uses orchestra from Peter Gabriel to Sting, from XTC to Joni Mitchell. I have grown to love these people and they treat me like gold. My time with them was wondrous and
Edro's music is also in that category or rough and occasionally incendiary Hip-Hop music.
4. ARETHA FRANKLIN CALLS MY HOME ANSWERING MACHINE----WHAT?????????????
While leaving for vacation with my wife and family and after a number of weeks working my tail off on a bunch of different projects, I set out for Maine promising my wife I would NOT
check the phone machine. Well, one hour from the Maine border I did, just to clean the messages up like a good workaholic. Here is the only new message I got: "Hello Mr. Mathes, this is Aretha Franklin calling.
Clive Davis gave me your name. I need some arrangements for my opening at the MGM grand in Las Vegas and I also need help re working my book. Call me at your earliest convenience."
WHAT!!!!!!??????????? This obviously must be a joke.
No, indeed, it was the Queen Of Soul. I spoke with her on the phone NEVER referring to her as Aretha, (Ms. Franklin) and she asked me to do new charts for
her on a few wonderful Angela Bofill songs. Extraordinary. Nevertheless I have kept the message on my machine and probably will for a good long time.
5. MORE ROD STEWART WITH CLIVE DAVIS
My work on the Rod Stewart standards records has been silly in a way. For the first one I did a few arrangements but because my style on these kind of things is more MIles
Davis-Gil Evans meets Claus Ogerman rather than Johnny Mathis meets Roger Williams, I no longer do any arrangements. This being said, Clive Davis became very attached to having me in the studio helping to massage
the tracks and singing ALL of Rod Stewart's scratch vocals. Some of you probably don't know what this means but here goes.
Rod likes to have a guide vocal done by a vocalist so he can hear the
conception of the track and if he needs a reference melodically, he has it. At the same time, Clive absolutely needs a vocalist to sing these things through because he needs to hear it as a record and not just as a
musical track. He hated the professional demo singers who came in and sang. In fact, he did not even want to record unless I could be there which is remarkably flattering. The funny thing is that while we are doing
it, he is producing me as if it were a Rob Mathes project and pushing me to give him what he will eventually want from Rod. This is almost surreal at times.
"No Rob, I want it more Romantic, less lush,
less 3AM, give me Fred and Ginger. Make it flow." Clive never uses musically descriptions to let you know what he wants but still............. he knows EXACTLY what he wants. Although I much prefer to be
working on a Hip Hop track with Just Blaze or conducting a full orchestra at the Kennedy Center, it is a honor to work for such a legend and Clive is as elegant and refined as the day is long. He is tough when he
needs to be but entered every session and left every session by giving me a warm hug and a pat on the back. Though the process is sometimes seemingly strange, you can't beat that I must say. This is the man that
brought back Santana and discovered Whitney Houston. not to mention Bruce Springsteen and Janis Joplin.
6. DAVE KOZ WITH PHIL RAMONE-MOVIE PROJECT WITH ORCHESTRA
In a more traditional idiom, I wrote full orchestrations and played and arranged the Rhythm Section dates for a new Dave Koz project based on legendary Movie Themes. I am not a Smooth
Jazz fan. I prefer Miles Davis and Keith Jarrett to Boney James and Kenny G. Dave is often the poster child for this format.
That being said, he absolutely blew me away in the studio. He decided to do
"Schindler's List" on Soprano Saxophone which scared the living daylights out of me. This piece by John Williams is now one of the treasured pieces of music of the past 1/2 century and is certainly a
masterpiece. How can a Soprano Sax even dare to play what Itzhak Perlman did. WELL............... it was an amazing session. I conducted the orchestra at Right Track A509 recording studios in Manhattan (the closest
studio to the legendary big room at Abbey Road where all the Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings soundtracks are recorded) and Dave played live. Not a note was was falsely played and his intonation, phrasing, and
emotional commitment far surpassed any supposed Smooth Jazz musician I have ever heard. I know this sounds like I am blowing smoke up Dave's and the reader's tail but trust me, it was beautiful. I have to
imagine even John Williams would say so. Add to that the fact that Dave is the kindest and most considerate musician I have worked with other than Tony Bennett and that adds up to a wonderful project. It was also
great to be back in the studio with legendary producer Phil Ramone who has literally been my personal career booster, hiring me for hundreds of gigs in the past decade. Love you Phil.
7. RAY CHARLES GRAMMY AWARD WINNING DISC AND TONY BENNETT
Speaking of Phil Ramone and Tony Bennett, Phil won the Grammy for the Ray Charles "Genius Loves
Company" disc last year at the Grammy Awards and I was grateful to have been a part of that project, arranging and performing on the Van Morrison duet "Crazy Love" with Ray and Van. Thanks again Phil.
Tony Bennett is one of this years Kennedy Center honorees and I will be arranging and musically directing that again in early December. In addition, I have been put on hold for Tony's 80th birthday year to
arrange some music for his next project. Tony is a legend and an absolute prince, or should I say king. Working with him has been an honor and his band featuring Lee Musiker (insanely phenomenal Piano Player who can
play anything I can play with two hands with one hand) are now friends and hopefully life long colleagues.
8. JOHN MELLENCAMP. JOHN FOGERTY, SMOKEY ROBINSON AND THE SOULFUL......................................
One of the great experiences this year for me was arranging and
directing the Songwriter's Hall Of Fame Awards in Manhattan. This year had its' share of legends I had the privilege to play and work with, including John Mellencamp, John Fogerty, Smokey Robinson, and Les
Paul. BUT.............. the truly moving part of the evening for me, what made it unforgettable, was my chance to work with three African American Divas who, in their own way, just wiped the stage clean.
Anyone that knows me knows that I place "Songs In The Key Of Life" by Stevie Wonder above many of the other choices for Record Of The Century. I place it over Sgt. Pepper, over Revolver, over Joshua Tree.
Yeah, I know, maybe I am crazy but............truly great American Rhythm and Blues and Soul is a peerless art-form. There is no Rolling Stones or Beatles without Black music and Stevie's masterpiece is one of
the landmarks of that genre, if not THE landmark.
The three singers I speak of, Faith Evans, Angie Stone, and Lelah Hathaway, are not necessarily in Stevie's league from a commercial and historic
perspective (who is????) BUT... their performances on this night were all extraordinary. Faith sang "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby" in tribute to Isaac Hayes and turned it into a burning torch song,
kind of a Mary J. Blige meets Billie Holiday thing. It killed me and I was playing Rhodes on the whole damn thing. Angie Stone sang "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", the evening's legendary
song honoree, and turned it into a Church thing, breaking it down and treating the Marriott Marquis ballroom as if it was the Brooklyn Tabernacle. It was also extraordinary. I told Angie Stone that her album
"Black Diamonds" was one of my all time faves and she kissed me on the cheek. ANGIE STONE KISSED ME ON THE CHEEK!!!! And last but not least, Donny Hathaway's criminally under-appreciated daughter Lelah
Hathaway came up and did Smokey Robinson's "Cruisin" as a kind of D'Angelo, Hip-Hop meets old soul groove late night jam. It also killed me. Forgive my hyperbole and my rambling but it was, indeed,
a great night.
9. ORCHESTRAL COMMISSIONS FOR THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC AND THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY
The great new development I mentioned above was
that Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony and the BBC Philharmonic in London, loved my work at the Kennedy Center and told me he had to work with me. I remembered that years ago, being extremely
impressed with Slatkin's dedication to promoting modern American composers, I had decided to try to write him a piece dreaming that one day he might play it with one of the orchestras he was working with. At the
time I had no way of contacting him being a total unknown in music circles. I eventually gave up the idea, knowing that most likely my score would collect dust of a secretary's desk somewhere.
This year,
that dream came to fruition. Leonard Slatkin, one of the great American Conductors, commissioned two pieces by little Robbie Mathes. I wrote him a 12 minute Overture based on themes of George Gershwin for the Los
Angeles Philharmonic's opening concert of its Summer Season at the Hollywood Bowl. In addition, Maestro Slatkin commissioned me to write a new arrangement that would become the official National Anthem for the
National Symphony in Washington to open their 75th season. I asked Leonard if I could write a prologue to the Anthem in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that would be purely original music of mine based loosely on the
themes of the Anthem. He agreed. He was so taken with my prologue and the Anthem which I cast in a Hymn-like mode that he performed it as the Encore and not the opening and apparently it got a standing ovation. I
could not be there because I was away but I got an e mail from George Stevens, founder of the American Film Institute and producer and creator of the Kennedy Center Honors. He said he was proud of his boy and that
the audience flipped and was talking about it at the Black tie event afterwards. Great news.
I sincerely hope that this is the future for me in many ways. I live everyday with the scores of Elgar, Barber,
Mahler, Stravinsky, Copland, and Britten in my travel bag. I have a language, a searching harmonic and orchestral approach, that I think is somewhat my own. I do want to do more orchestral writing and receive
commissions in the future. The great contemporary American composers like Elliot Carter, John Corigliano, Tobias Picker, Richard Danielpour, and others are huge heroes of mine and I do not even put myself in that
league but I am anxious to quietly add my little additions to the musical landscape in hopes that they might offer something. The existence of the work of Gerald Finzi and Daniel Pinkham comforts me greatly. Neither
composer burned in the heavenly firmament like Stravinsky but both made music that is conservative in idiom perhaps, but undeniably beautiful and exquisitely crafted.
10. NEW GIGS IN MANHATTAN-MORE TO COME
I played two non-Christmas gigs with my super band featuring Will Lee, Shawn Pelton, Vaneese Thomas, Chris Coogan, Ian Cron, and
the six piece horn section including Jeff Kievit, David Mann, Mike Davis, George Flynn, Tony Kadleck, and Andy Snitzer. These were both at the up and coming music club Satalla, which along with Joe's Pub, is
becoming one of the best places in the city to hear Singer Songwriters, World Music, Jazz, Blues, and Folk. It is run by my buddy Steve Lurie, who used to run my home away from home, Al Franklin's Musical World
on Greenwich Avenue in Connecticut. This was one of the great record stores in history. They had EVERYTHING and Steve had heard EVERYTHING. I still mourn its demise. Though I admit that itunes is a good thing, I
miss my local record store BADLY.
I am preparing a recording of the very best of the almost 100 songs I have written for various churches over the past 15 years. This contains some of my predictable rants
against modern fundamentalism as well as basic Gospel songs. Extremely strong stuff though and we played a bunch of it at Satalla. The project will be called "Steeple Songs" and will be two discs, one
intimate and grainy with some solo acoustic and voice things along with some stripped down kind of unplugged band things. The other disc will be the true sequel to Evening Train and have all the cats albeit even
more live in the studio than that one was. Enough of this modern music making thing, where every note is tuned or made to be exactly in time on a computer. 'Tis not music making I am afraid and we will look back
on this time as ridiculous from a performance perspective. If you tune every note and place every snare drum hit on 2 and 4 EXACTLY, what then are we listening to??? We are certainly NOT listening to music
performance but rather an approximation of it perfected in a computer. THAT ......... is why these records date so quickly. Often they are CRAP!!! This is also why Hip Hop still is so immediate and inspiring because
even if the rhythm track behind the DJ's is timed perfectly, the stuff coming out of the rapper's mouth is REAL!!!!
11. MULTI TONY NOMINEE BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL RECORDS NEW PROJECT
Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell is doing a heavily Jazz inflected debut record and he asked me to arrange two of the tracks for band and small orchestra. One of the tracks
is Adam Guettel's masterpiece "How Glory Goes", from his musical Floyd Collins. I do not know Adam but we have many mutual acquaintances including my best friend from high school Jeb Brown who went to
Yale with him. Adam won the Tony Award for best score for the show "Light In The Piazza". I think he is the real hope of the theatre to get some truly timeless scores in this new age. I have heard the work
of many of the other bright lights of the new post Sondheim era like Michael John LaChiusa, Ricky Ian Gordon, and Jason Robert Drown who I worked with. They are all brilliant but Adam is something else. "How
Glory Goes" is as beautiful a song and lyric as one could possibly imagine and it was a treat to arrange it anew. Brian sings his tail off and is a joy to work with.
12. CONDUCTING THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
Another dream come true this year was conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. I arranged an evening for Vanessa Williams of
standards and her songs for the orchestra and conducted. I went into the rehearsal somewhat tense and nervous. However, as is usual with me, when we started making music, I could hear what I wanted, became bossy and
opinionated and apparently won a traditionally very skeptical orchestra over. They were so kind and loved the charts apparently. The highlight by far was the playing of the cellist Efe Balticigil. He is a new find
in Philly and is up for Principal Cello with the orchestra. A number of years ago, I had been commissioned by Vanessa to write two charts for her and Yo Yo Ma. They were to be performed by the Dallas Symphony
Orchestra and their Centennial celebration. It was a great night and working with Yo Yo Ma was an incredible thing BUT......... I never knew whether those scores, which I spent a summer on and which are certainly
among my best, would ever be played again.
I went back to them, revised them (I am a much more experienced orchestrator now) and Vanessa agreed to do them again. This was good of her because they feature
Cello as much as the lead vocal since they were written to be equal duets with Yo Yo. The two charts were of a Harold Arlen song "I Never Has Seen Snow" and a Stephen Sondheim song "There Won't Be
Trumpets". Efe played the solo Cello parts and, forgive me Yo Yo Ma, played them with the same emotional commitment and astonishing agility that Yo Yo did. To get to conduct, as well, this world famous
orchestra was an amazing experience I will not soon forget.
13. PAUL SIMON TRIBUTE
I musically directed the tribute to Paul Simon at the BMI Awards in Los Angeles with Paul himself, Josh Stone, Brian Wilson, Yolanda Adams, and
Maroon 5. Again, I got to work with some of my L.A. posse: Kurt
Bisquera on Drums, Reggie Hamilton on Bass, and Michael Thompson on Drums were among the guys. It was great and Paul, who can be prickly according to some, was a great gentleman. What a genius!
14. GOSPEL STAR YOLANDA ADAMS AND THE BOSTON POPS
The Boston Pops asked me to do an arrangement of "America The Beautiful" for Yolanda Adams and I did it. They
then changed the key because they couldn't get in touch with Yolanda until the last minute. I think the orchestra sounds a bit mushy and out of their element on this partially because of the key change but it is
always an honor when they call. The Boston Pops have done well by me and I love Dennis Alves, their Artistic Director.
This reminds me of the tricky and often questionable genre of crossover music,
especially from Classical to faux Pop or Broadway. I have had the privilege of being paid very well to do work on this kind of a project and often with brilliant people. The result is often neither fish nor fowl,
neither great Popular music making in the grandest use of that term nor Classically legitimate. Records like this will always be made though and they often pay my mortgage. When I do them, I take it very seriously
and try to write a burning arrangement. Often when I get the record back I am saddened and want to hide my head in the sand though.
Two great exceptions to this are Renee Fleming's version of
"You'll Never Walk Alone" which is on her By Request album and The Boston Pops performance of my version of "Do You Hear What I Hear" on their most recent Holiday Pops record. Renee's
singing on the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic is wonderful and I am so proud of that arrangement. Yes, it is conservative and clearly what it is but it also is, if I must say so myself, pretty stunning stuff in
part. The Boston Pops recording is also not for the 15 to 30 set but is pretty great and Renese King, a Gospel singer from Boston, sings her tail off. The orchestra and the Tanglewood Chorus sound GREAT!!! I think
sometimes I lose work in the Pop field because when they see I have done supposedly stodgy stuff like this, they assume I can't do Lou Reed, Jay Z and Tupac Shakur, all of which I have done by the way. They are
of course sadly mistaken and it is their loss. Forgive the brief petulance.
15. CARLY SIMON-THE MORE I LOOK INSIDE
When I had the chance to co-produce
a project with Carly Simon for Disney, I jumped at it. She is one of the great singer songwriters of that hallowed era of the 70's when Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Carly's then husband James Taylor, and
others were in their prime. She is still writing her tail off. She had written a song for the Disney children's film "Piglet's Big Movie" called "The More I Look Inside". Disney's
executive Matt Walker was tremendously moved by it and wanted to have Carly do an adult version of it with orchestra. We never got around to it because of time constraints. We did recently though and I sure hope the
recording sees the light of day sometime. It is an absolutely beautiful song and Carly let me have my way with the full orchestra. What a gem of a recording session. Matt and the rest of us were in tears at the end.
Carly is something else.
There you go everyone. A brief update (NOT!!!)
-Rob Mathes
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Rod Stewart's recordings of standards, partially due to Clive Davis's extraordinary ability to pick concepts and
drive hits, the records have sold millions. Rob worked as arranger, scratch vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist again on this most recent record, working extremely closely with
producers Clive Davis, Phil Ramone, and Richard Perry. Clive can be a real task master but was fascinating to watch and was dignified and dedicated at all times, taking
calls at 2 in the morning to hear mixes over the phone. Rob is credited as producer on one particular track Clive called Rob in at the last minute to "fix" so to speak. Rob
thought the original fine but replayed and arranged some new tracks and was generously credited as co-producer.