Photo: Billy Hess
Exclusive Q&A by Brad Balfour
After a successful summer show in The Appel Room of Jazz at Lincoln Center, composer/pianist Randy Edelman returns to New York for a series of fall concerts. A while back he conducted the following interview with me. Well, it was time to bring forth his words as well.
When Edelman celebrated his 76th birthday at the trendy hot spot Chelsea Table + Stage in New York City, he also hailed the release of his latest album, “Around The World in World in 80 Minutes.” This culmination of several years’ work reflecting his 40+ years career, the CD is drawn from his intense live performances. Its 20 tracks demonstrate why he continues to get an audience for his many musical compositions.
Prior to this — at a show held on March 16th, 2024 — the celebrated music impresario/hitmaker Clive Davis came to the venue with his cool entourage to see Edelman perform. Looking debonair and stylish, the then 91-year-old carefully chose his seat, slightly right of the piano, to enjoy a show of the New Jersey native’s material. Davis sat there to watch and listen as the award-winning creator took command of the stage and mesmerized the audience from the moment he sat down at the piano and played.
The crowded room was noticeably touched as Randy paid tribute to Davis with the story of his quintessential song, “A Weekend In New England” (recorded by Barry Manilow). While in the UK, Edelman received a long distance call from Davis requesting that very song for Manilow, and the rest became musical history.
Through his music and stories, Edelman shared the many turns of his career. His set included several of songs covered by many stars such as “Isn’t It A Shame”(recorded by Patti LaBelle and Hip Hop artist Nelly), “If Love Is Real” (recorded by Olivia Newton- John), “You” (as recorded by The Carpenters), as well as Randy’s own charted hits, “Uptown, Uptempo Woman” and “Pretty Girls” (used in the film “The Possession of Anne”).
After nearly two hours, his impactful lyrics told many tales, while the instrumental medleys of his comedies and serious film soundscapes reflected Edelman’s classical training at the University of Cincinnati. In fact, Edelman was given an honorary fine arts doctorate by the University of Cincinnati in 2004.
Edelman has themed the soundtracks for over 100 movies and television shows. His medleys include excerpts from “My Cousin Vinny”, “Ghostbusters ll”, “While You Were Sleeping”, “The Bruce Lee Story”, “Gettysburg”, “Dragonheart”, “The Mask”, “Kindergarten Cop”, “Last of the Mohicans” (for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination), the theme from the hit TV series “MacGyver”, and a range of others.
Born June 10, 1947, Edelman began his career as a member of Broadway’s pit orchestras. Later he produced solo albums for songs that were picked up by leading music performers. He has been awarded many prestigious awards along with two nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and 12 BMI Awards.
Q: What is it about New York that works so well for you that you come here often and have an ongoing audience. You keep expanding it. What do you think is the secret of your appeal in New York?
Randy Edelman: I have no idea. I’m not sure really what the appeal is, to be very honest with you. I’m playing these little places. I don’t want to belittle what I’m doing but I’m just having fun. That’s it. I write music. That’s the only thing I care about. Coming to New York and doing that bullshit, is whatever it is.
Q: You don’t find that performing live compels you or inspires you to write the next song?
Randy Edelman: The next song? No, I hardly write songs anymore.
Q: When I say write. I mean write music. I don’t mean songs specifically.
Randy Edelman: No, not at all. Not one bit. On a scale of 1 to 100, it’s a zero. Why would that turn me on to write music? You got me, something just happened. Okay? That puts me in a certain mood right now. I’m very serious about what I’m saying to you but I’m going to answer you honestly, instead of thinking something and not saying it. I’ll tell you the way I feel right now. So no, performing is not inspiring but that’s a great question.
Q: Your main focus lately has been writing more expanded compositional pieces. You were talking about your having ideas in your mind that were independent of soundtracks for you to compose. You do film scores but you were also talking at one point [on stage] about work independent of a film and creating your own orchestral score.
Randy Edelman: I wasn’t talking to you about that. I never mentioned that right now. The answer is that, yeah, when I do a film, the film is what inspires me. Nothing else. I look at the film and that’s what inspires me.
Q: Well, you have your curmudgeonly moments and your congenial moments. Do you give audiences what they expect of you? Are you really into it?
Randy Edelman: I don’t give [anything to] the audiences. I’m not a performer. I do that once in a while. You’re focusing on this thing. It’s such a little part of my life. It’s a fun goof. I’m going to New York. I look over from my five star hotel room at the TV, or at New Jersey where I was from. I’ll never go over the bridge and I laugh — that’s part of the charm.
Q: When you’re given a film project to do, are there certain things you focus on when you’re watching a film? Or do you find other inspiration? How does the film inspire you?
Randy Edelman: You look at the goddamn thing, you better come up with something fast or they’re on to the next person.
Q: You do tell stories of your life and when you tell them…
Randy Edelman: If you’re talking about the stories I tell, then I’m doing the show. They’re in relationship to the music. That’s what it is. I’m telling stories about the music — that’s what I’m telling you. Once in a while, I’ll say something funny but, to the music.
Q: I’m talking to you based on things I’ve experienced of you at these shows. I’m following the path of what I’ve experienced of you. I’ve seen you at least four times; at the Cutting Room and Chelsea Table.
Randy Edelman: There you go — you’ve got a problem, buddy. Why would you go see me four times?
Q: You have a point but first of all, you don’t exactly repeat what you’ve done before. You respond to the audience that you have. And depending on their level of enthusiasm or yours, you do different bits. I give you support because I like what you do. So in light of that, I was getting into your catalog.
Randy Edelman: My stuff is a little snippet. It’s like you’re going to dinner, and me doing that stuff. I’m serious about it. But, my thing is making and writing music – whether it’s a score, a song, a theme, whatever it is. That’s what my thing is. I just get up there; I don’t do it a lot.
I’m not a performer, per se. Anyway, it’s a little thing I’m tossing it off. It’s not a serious thing to sit up there at a piano for an hour and a half or two hours. I just do that.
Q: You’re in your mid 70s, like 74 or 75. You’ve been doing it for a long time. It’s not easy making music. You have a long history of making music. I could get into it more but I’ll just ask, how has your music evolved?
Randy Edelman: How has my music evolved? Come on, what are you talking about? I’m not going to explain over the phone to you.
Q: I’m talking to you about who you are, and what you do when you have a performance. But how did the “Ghostbusters 2” soundtrack differ from any of the other soundtracks you did? I’m not going to ask about why you wrote a certain phrase in a certain way or why did you chose one song from another? But why did you choose to stop writing songs and move into soundtracks and scores?
Randy Edelman: OK. That again, is a long thing [to explain]. You can’t decide, “Oh, I want to score films,” because you don’t have [the skills] for it. It’s not that easy. I didn’t [at first] — it’s a musically evolving thing. That’s what that was. I didn’t just decide if you look at my thing, you’ll see that. I did a film in 1972 or ‘73 and then all of a sudden, you’ll see that for 15 years, I never did another film. Why is an interesting question to ask but I’m not answering it. But obviously, I didn’t just decide to score films.
Certain things happened and having a background over the years musically [developing] in different areas allows you to be able to work in the very pressured, intense environment of film composing. That was a good question that I made up and answered myself.
Q: The other thing is, when you’re challenged by a score, do you listen to other musical references and influences?
Randy Edelman: Well, that’s not always the case but no, I don’t listen to scores. I don’t listen to music, to be honest with you at all. I do it when I do it but I don’t listen to it.
Q: You describe it in your show, where a film director or producer said to you, “We want to go in this direction or that direction.” Sometimes you’ve hit it perfectly. Other times you said you chose. And that is scoring is not an exact thing.
Randy Edelman: It’s a collaboration. The music is written. But if you’re bouncing off a director, that’s part of the whole style and situation. When you score a film, you can’t just lock yourself in a room. Everything you write, you’re going to eventually have to play it for a director and they’re going to sometimes give you a reaction that’s negative.
Then, you have to figure out how you’re going to twist it in their way around your way of thinking, which of course you never can do. You just go with them, and say, “OK.” Then maybe it sways in the direction of whatever the scene or the emotions are — whatever their intention may have been. But usually, it’s pretty close.
Q: Do you find in composing a score, it inspires you to compose something of your own without needing it to be a score or an assignment per se?
Randy Edelman: I do the score and I’m very focused on it. I live it for the amount of weeks or days or months that I’m on that score, and then I’m on to something else. I’ll have a clip from the New England Music Hall of Fame sent to you. You’ll see it and it’ll reflect exactly what we’re talking about.
Q: You take the film scores as an assignment, but where do you see yourself going musically? Are there people you want to collaborate with? When you take on a score that you write is built around, you start with the piano and then expand it in various ways. How do you conceive of it for an orchestra? Where does it go from there?
Randy Edelman: It’s all done at one time when I look at it. I know exactly what it will be. I may be sitting at the piano but of course, with technology and stuff, the equipment now, that I was never into, but I got into it because the electronic stuff is fantastic, so magically what it could do now [I couldn’t before].
I see a piece and I know that it’s going to be for a solo piano. or that will be for a full orchestra. Doodling around with the piano thematically because it’s naturally by instrument, I’ve already conceived it and orchestrated it at the same time.
Basically, I don’t finish a cue like for a ready score. I wrote the whole score. There’s 50 cues in the movie and they’ve all been done. Then, am I going to have someone else orchestrate it? No, it doesn’t work like that. I fully do each cue myself. I move on to the next or won’t go on to the next unless it’s fully done. Obviously, with the equipment available now, like the sampler and everything, I can pretty much know the idea of what it’s going to be, even when it’s with the orchestra flow. My stuff is fully orchestrated without anybody else.
Q: Do you have specific musicians or specific orchestras that you enjoy working with or that you request as the orchestra?
Randy Edelman: Yes. Seriously. there’s lots of good orchestras out there. I love going to Abbey Road. I love working here. I go to Salt Lake and use the University. That really has no importance in my music. It all will be the same no matter where I do it. It’s all done, 99.9% of it, a few steps from where I’m standing here talking to you — outside while people repair the roof of my house.
Q: Do you have any specific musicians that you enjoy working with?
Randy Edelman: In recent years, I do so much of it myself, to be very honest with you. There are great musicians. When I used to do albums, I used to work with just great people. I loved working with them and with orchestras. But with this work, with everything the way it is now, I’m back there in my backyard, in my studio all day, just by myself. That’s really what it is. And then they bring it to solo people or something like that — if I need them. But right now, I’m being honest with you, it’s pretty much myself.
Q: Are you happy with all the recordings of your scores that you’ve heard? Are most of them pretty much on the money?
Randy Edelman: Well, I’m only happy with them because I do them and don’t let it go down unless it’s exactly right. I work in a precise way, even when I work with a big orchestra. I do my stuff like I told you and it’s all laid down perfectly. Every orchestra just comes and plays over it. Sometimes I take my stuff out and sometimes I don’t — but it’s all done right.
It’s not like, “Oh, I didn’t like the recording that someone made in my score.” No, I’m the one that writes, composes, orchestrates and produces the score. I’m the only one I have to blame. But normally, I’m like – probably most composers would say this – I don’t listen to my stuff. Now it turns out, to be honest with you, years later after doing all those songs and albums, it’s OK.
When I listen to songs I did 25 years ago, I’m really surprised, pleasantly, at what they sound like because all I can do now is score. When I get there, I will hear them late, like at three in the morning, if I can’t sleep and something’s going on in my mind. There’s a movie of mine on, so I always say “Hey, that’s pretty good.” But as far as sitting down and listening, when I’m done, I just move on. I’m doing well, it amazes me the amount that I’ve done and the wide range of it.
Q: I find it fascinating when I come to your shows because when I looked at the number of things you’ve done, it’s just overwhelming. It would take me days to listen to it all, to prepare for this interview.
Randy Edelman: You can but no, no, no. What I meant is that I’m not telling you what to do. It’s just a safety because most people, to be honest with you, if they have a certain score and say that’s a score [I love], then I will love to discuss it because they’re zeroing in on it. You’re not just saying things like “Ghostbusters.” It’s not that it’s not a good score, but with about 30 years of soundtracks, that’s beside the point.
There’s other things that are interesting; I won’t say what they are. Certain people will ask, “Hey, I love that one. What was that thing?” If you’re asking me about a certain score and about something that you picked up on then that’s what I’m talking about.
Q: Clive Davis showed up for your show. I thought that was incredible. It was a great compliment to you. Were you in touch with him?
Randy Edelman: I never talked to him. I would never ask him. Tell me how Clive Davis, especially at his age, is going out at night to go to some shitty little place. Although I love that place [for people] to see me, I’m the only guy in the history of the music business who went to Clive Davis when I hadn’t sold any records and said, “Clive, I want off your label, give me a release.” He did that and I never made another record, that’s that. [One might] say, “Oh, that cemented your relationship.” It’s nothing like that.
I made a nice little transition. The point is, it’s not like, “Oh, now they’re friends, they’ve been friends for 40 or 50 years.” No, not at all. I don’t see him at all. We got a call from Sony Music. Clive Davis is coming down, and we said, “Oh God, the show is sold out. We’ll find a table at that little place. But the point is, okay, he was there for one simple reason. He wanted to come down and see me do this. That’s it.
I said there’s no other explanation and nothing in it. He’s not trying to find a song. He’s not trying to sign me. What is he doing, going to the place to see Randy Edelman? It’s crazy.
That’s it. No other reason not at all. He knows an old friend of mine who called him a year ago. I ran into him at Ralph Lauren’s Polo Bar, that restaurant, with my wife about a year ago. And we had a nice chat. He was with his boyfriend, his dog and everything. He said, “Tell me the next time [you come to town]” because he knew I was doing something. Yes.
Did I ever call him? Of course not. I’d never call him to come down. That was about a year ago. It certainly wasn’t because of that. I’m just saying, yes, it was incredible and very generous and kind. When he was coming down I told him and [my manager/ publicist] Eileen said, “Oh, we’ll seat him over here.”
I said, “No, you’re not. He has to sit over there because I don’t think he can walk up those steps and he ain’t staying for two hours. If he comes down, he’ll stay for an hour and that’s fine.”
In the end, he came early and stayed. I had a great talk with him and yeah, I was very knocked out and turned on, that he came down because let me tell you, I’m going to be honest with you. There’s no reason that he came down. Not one in the world. I’ll tell you something: [nobody] twisted Clive’s arm to come down here to see me. That’s it. It’s that simple.
Q: Even though you downplay your live shows, there’s a community of people that I’ve found now that I’ve gone to several shows where we all see each other. There’s a kind of a camaraderie that’s built around seeing you perform. So you may find that odd.
Randy Edelman: It’s great. I’m coming back soon. I said it’s a goof but if I didn’t enjoy doing it, I wouldn’t. Now, why would I fly from my beautiful house in Beverly Hills at great expense to come to New York to do this at this point in my life? I could be sitting here [in the backyard], but I like to do it, and it’s changing a little.
There’s a whole other road that I could go down with this. I said I have to raise the stakes but, without a record or something, it’s a funny area. I went up to Boston last week after the NY show. It’s funny, it’s evolving but it is what it is. It’s inspiring and fun, but it doesn’t inspire me musically.
Q: The other thing you could be doing is maybe a large orchestral event of some kind or another. But no, well, you can, because of funding. You’d have to do a lot of organizing.
Randy Edelman: [What I do] is easy. Why? I go there and I sit at a piano — one person. That’s why I do it, can do it and control it. I’m doing my album, and what I need to do is record this show that you’ve seen. They’re always recorded, and I need to get this particular thing before it changes to what’s down because it has a certain feeling about it. I will do it now, I can fake it also, to be honest with you.
I can go in and do the stuff, get some recorded and then use some crowd from the concerts, whether I do it there or in London and make it sound very much like it’s a live concert. It doesn’t have to be, but I want to get it down properly.
Q: I mentioned in a review of an earlier show, that you, Paul Williams and Randy Newman are all part of this group of songwriters that aren’t just writing pop music, but you have this unique, eccentric way of viewing the world. Do you have any idea why you view the world the way you do?
Randy Edelman: No, I’m just a nice Jewish kid from New Jersey. I know those people you mentioned, of course. I love Randy Newman and he’s one of those who I liked when I said at the beginning, But no one has done what I’ve done. And it’s funny, Randy’s the only other person, although his background is completely different. We’ve got not only the same first name but we sound the same.
Paul is a different story. I love Paul and know him personally. But he’s different, from either me or Randy Newman because I’m a traditional, serious conservatory graduate.
Randy Newman is not. But he’s got a different way since every goddamn person in his family was a composer except the only one – his father – who was a doctor. By the way, two doors down from me is where he was brought up. I was brought up in the concrete jungle in New Jersey. Anyway, as far as my view of the world, I think I’m just a normal guy. Once in a while, I have these funny ideas and they get funnier as I get older.
And so now my friend, your interview is over. You are great.
Here are Randy Edelman’s upcoming New York area dates:
1) September 5 at 6:00 pm
The Jazz Club NY
9 west 56th Street
Manhattan
2) September 6 at 8:00 pm
Ridgefield Playhouse
80 E. Ridge Street
Ridgefield CT
3) GLR Books at 7;00 pm
303 Wythe Street
Brooklyn, NY