I saw Birdman this afternoon and was enthralled from beginning to end by the movie’s screenplay, cinematography, score, and cast. I’d noticed the name Antonio Sanchez in the composer credits on the IMDB site before arriving at Amherst Cinema but wasn’t sure it was the jazz great until I heard drums (and his voice) in the first frame of the film. As I grew more and more impressed with Sanchez’s score and how perfectly in sync it is with what’s happening on screen, I thought of Max Roach and the innovative role he played in composing pieces for solo drums beginning in the 50’s. Max also did soundtrack work, including a documentary on the artist Ray Johnson entitled How to Draw a Bunny. I can’t find any clips from the film, but here’s a description of it.
Sanchez doesn’t mention Max in the interview below, but he sure gives it up for the kind of “melodic, musical” drumming that Roach pioneered. I presented Max in a solo concert in Worcester in 1979. It takes a click or two to get there, but here’s a link to the Jazz History Database collection that includes several pieces from the concert.
Birdman has received 13 Critics Choice nominations, an early indication that it will lead the pack in Academy Award nominations too. But as it happens, Sanchez won’t be considered for an Oscar because the Academy ruled that the soundtrack is “diluted by tracked themes,” in this case, additional music by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Mahler.
Variety reports on his disqualification here. The film’s director, Alejandro Inarritu, credits Sanchez’s “beats” with guiding him in “find[ing] the tempo to each scene.” Sanchez says, “I’m deeply disappointed that the music branch of the Academy did not recognize my score as eligible, even after receiving a detailed cue sheet, a letter from the president of music at Fox studios, and a description of the process from both Alejandro and myself… Some of the finest composers are members of the Academy, and I’m saddened my score didn’t resonate with the decision makers.”
A petition is circulating requesting that Sanchez’s score be reconsidered by the Academy. Click here to read it and, if you like, to sign it. The petition states that the scores of such recent films as The King’s Speech, The Artist, and Slumdog Millionaire were nominated notwithstanding their use of “sourced” music.
In this fluid 30-minute interview, Sanchez, a Mexico City native, discusses the difference between drumming chops and complete musicianship, how studying at Berklee turned him on to jazz and prepared him for working with Chick Corea, Michael Brecker, and Pat Metheny, and the challenge of developing a melodic conception with a “monochromatic instrument.” He offers an illuminating perspective on Inarritu, who challenged the typically “pristine” drummer to create a score that was “organic, dirty, spur of the moment,” something reflecting scenes that “take place in the bowels of a theater.” He reveals that it’s Nate Smith who’s seen drumming in the film, and that “one of the most challenging parts of the score” was having to “match Nate, who was filmed playing first.”