My bonny John was 32 when he and his JWO recorded the music for that Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea which I saw, not because I’m a particular fan of Bobby Darin or even of Kevin Spacey (for all that he is the definitive Jamie Tyrone of our generation and frankly I don’t care about anything else), but because I wanted to find out how cheesy the production could get. Well honestly, it was pretty cheesy—but my God, the music…
By 1:12 of this clip I was completely blown away by the arrangement as well as the razor-sharp playing, and vowed to remember the name of this bright new arranger-conductor—which of course I promptly forgot (There are a lot of John Wilsons in the world, as Anthony Burgess would be the first to tell you) and didn’t remember again until last May. A 2005 Grammy nominee. Available on Rhino Records, that notorious niche label, and I’ve gotta find out what that’s all about.
