Actor and musician Jason Schwartzman pulled a cassette tape out of his pocket onstage at the Los Angeles Philharmonic's tribute to Wes Anderson. Schwartzman was just a teenager when he was cast as the unconsciously ambitious Max Fischer in Anderson's 1998 film “Rushmore,” and on Friday he recalled the night Anderson played the film's entire soundtrack in his car.
“He said, 'This is the soundtrack to the movie, this is the order it's going to be in,' and he walked me through the whole movie narrating it,” Schwartzman said, still excited by the integrity of Anderson's vision before a frame was shot.
More recently, Schwartzman said, “I was at my mom's house tying my shoe and I saw a cassette tape on the floor titled 'Songs from Rushmore.'” He then tossed the tape into the audience, a piece of movie history that hopefully someone caught unscathed.
Anderson's use of distant needle drops and the enchanting original score is, like everything in his cinematic universe, planned down to the smallest detail. But this start to a three-night stand, with a stellar roster of guest vocalists, an exceptional backing band and a light touch from Phil, was more in the spirit of how fans review Anderson's films. Like old friends returning to your life, affection only deepens over time, just when you need them.
Led by the cool riffs of the night's MC, Bill Murray (an Anderson regular from “Rushmore” onward), the show made the case that Anderson's skill with soundtrack curation and his delicate, evocative scores are at the heart of his films, along with his meticulous visual style and arch, brooding tone.
The director, recently freed from a broken elevator in a pithy Andersonian incident, made a brief appearance onstage with Murray in his regal white suit. But the focus was on the music itself on Friday and the motley list of artists who evoked it in its entirety.
For starters, huge credit to the show's musical director, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and the killer band of Roger Joseph Manning Jr., Jason Falkner, Joey Waronker and Gus Seyffert. The sheer amount of music they arranged and put together for this was huge and demanding, and they got to play it all, from 1996's “Bottle Rocket” to the present.
Beck performs Friday at the LA Phil's Music of Wes Anderson show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
(Ariana Drehsler/for The Times)
The Phil took on a more modest role, performing soulful, rigorous fragments of scores by Anderson's favorite composers, Alexandre Desplat (“Canto at Gabelmeister's Peak” from 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' and “Mr. Fox in The Fields” from “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”) or his frequent collaborator, Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh (the propulsive “Ping Island” from “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”).
Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet animatedly performed “Moses Rosenthaler” from “The French Dispatch”; Rajib Karmakar and Aakash Pujara played aching sitars and flutes on “The Darjeeling Limited,” and taiko drummer Kaoru Watanabe nearly blew up the Bowl’s speakers on “Shinto Shrine” from “Isle of Dogs.”
The surprises came from the rock acts brought in to reimagine the most evocative needle drops of Anderson's work.
Jackson Browne, first in an incredible career, finally managed to perform “Fairest of the Seasons” and “These Days”, songs he wrote as a teenager and which were eventually covered by the German art-rock singer Nico, and which were sadly used in “The Royal Tenenbaums”.
Beck overlooked the late Elliott Smith's ghostly “Needle in The Hay,” used to heartbreaking effect in the same film, and later Love's “Alone Again, Or.” Karen Elson beautifully covered Françoise Hardy's “Les Temps De L'amour” from “Moonrise Kingdom,” while Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O simmered to the Rolling Stones' “Play With Fire” in “Darjeeling.”
Actor and host Billy Murray speaks at the LA Phil's Music of Wes Anderson show on Friday at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
(Ariana Drehsler/for The Times)
However, the haunted gang element that unites Anderson's regular cast was embodied in an endearingly shaggy run of “Zorro Is Back” with Jenny Lewis and Rogê. Toward the end of the night, just before closing with the Faces’ “Ooh La La,” Murray brought out a one-of-a-kind instrument for a big flourish. A nine-dollar desk bell, apparently purchased at Staples hours before the show, specifically requested by Anderson.
“In front of the house, make sure Bill's bell is ringing,” Beck implored the sound technicians at the Bowl. In fact, while the band, including My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Lewis and Schwartzman, performed the Bobby Fuller Four single “Let Her Dance,” Murray really beat the crap out of that thing.
