Legendary Jazz Drummer Peter Erskine Makes La La Land Sing

Peter Erskine, legendary jazz drummer, and other L.A. session musicians poured their own experiences of trying to make a living playing jazz into the work they did on La La Land’s soundtrack. Randall Roberts of the L.A. Times writes:

Don’t judge, says Erskine.

Asked what advice he’d give Seb, who in a defining scene is shown lazily playing rote versions of Christmas carols in a restaurant instead of the Thelonius Monk-inspired music that drives him, Erskine says, “Every playing opportunity informs the next one. You might learn something profound about just how to work with other musicians, or what to do when a song starts to fall apart on the bandstand.”

This from a man who, while best known for his work with Weather Report and Steps Ahead, has earned paychecks from jobs on such cinematic gems as “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” “Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous” and “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.”

“La La Land” composer Hurwitz says that he had to pound the pavement like most who make it in Hollywood, with a caveat: “I can’t really say I was a struggling musician because I realized early on that I should just not be a musician.”

Speaking on the phone while on a break from shooting the HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” where he is a writer, Hurwitz adds that he and Chazelle once did make a go of it as pop stars — while attending Harvard.

Both were members of Chester French, a band that ultimately provoked a bidding war in the early ’00s between Kanye West and Pharrell Williams. By then, though, Hurwitz had quit the band and set his sights on Los Angeles. (Former Chester French vocalist D.A. Wallach plays a new wave singer in “La La Land.”)

“When I first moved out to L.A., I was expecting things to pick up quickly,” says Hurwitz. “But I decided in those first few years to not pursue other movies and just focus really, really hard on Damien’s movies — and I’m very glad I did, obviously.”

For “La La Land,” Hurwitz and his team recorded the orchestra on the Sony lot but moved to the modest Conway Studios on Melrose Avenue for the jazz and small-band work with Erskine, Kerber and fellow session experts including trumpeter Wayne Bergeron, bassist Kevin Axt, trombonist Andy Martin, guitarist Graham Dechter and others.

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E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.