Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance. You're going to know my next guest from his many years on your screen. From Jurassic Park to recently playing the Wizard of Oz in Wicked and Wicked for Good, Jeff Goldblum has pretty much done it all.
Well now, Jeff and the Mildred Schnitzer Orchestra bring the Nightblooms World Tour to the Borthgosh Energy Theatre in Dublin next month and I'm delighted to say that Jeff joins me. Jeff, you're so welcome to Ireland in advance of your trip here.
You are so nice, Claire. I'm so thrilled to be here. I can't wait to see it. You know, I've never been to Ireland. We're going to be there May 30th at the, how do you say it, Borgosch Energy Theatre.
That's bang on. Yeah, you've never been to Ireland. That's unbelievable. How did that happen?
I apologize. It's just terrible. My life has been a poor, a much poorer place. But here I come. I can't wait. I'm going to make up for lost time.
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Chapter 2: What musical project is Jeff Goldblum currently promoting?
So tell me about the music career. Everybody knows you for your acting, but the music career has been there for years and years too. I mean, you've launched Mildred Snitzer Orchestra about 30 years ago, I understand. Is it your true passion or am I being unfair to ask you to choose between the two?
Well, I wouldn't want to. You could never be unfair, Claire. But no, I wouldn't want to choose. But, you know, I had my heart set on acting as a career when I was 10 years old. And then in my teens, you know, I obsessed about that.
But at the same time, I started to take piano lessons and get passionate about jazz and even snuck my way into a couple of cocktail lounge gigs in Pittsburgh where I grew up when I was 15 or so.
but then always had a piano in my apartment in New York City after I graduated from high school in Pittsburgh, and then snuck it into a movie or two, and just kept playing because I didn't have a career idea about it.
I wasn't ambitious in that way, but I loved to play, and so I kept playing, and I did a musical or two, and there were real great musicians in the pit, and I'd play with them, and then I snuck it into the fly character, you know, plays the piano, and in Earth Girls Are Easy, my character plays the piano. And then about 30 years ago,
Peter Weller, with whom I had done Buckaroo Banzai, this movie that some people know, we started to play in our houses, go through all the fake books, as they called them, and play all the standards. And then he has a friend. He had a friend, believe it or not, Miles Davis, the great Miles Davis. Incredible. I know. Incredible.
He said, oh, you and Jeff, you should go and get a gig even once a week and play with real musicians and you'll get better and you'll have fun. That's how it started about 30 years ago. And then, you know, I kept it up whenever I wasn't working because I loved it.
doing it, and we played at the Hollywood Bowl for the Playboy Jazz Festival, and that's when we came up with this name, the Mildred Schnitzer Orchestra, and that kind of stuck. And then about 10 years ago, Tom Lewis from Decca, now called Fontana, our label, and Verve in America, saw me on the Graham Norton Show promoting Thor Ragnarok.
because Gregory Porter, the great singer, was on the show doing Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, men have named you. He was doing this Nat King Cole album. And he said, Jeff, can you play piano with me? So the two of us played. And so Tom Lewis said, hey, Jeff, we should do an album together. And now this is our fourth one coming out June 5th, Night Blooms. And we've been all over the world touring.
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Chapter 3: How did Jeff Goldblum's music career begin?
But, boy, what instruments they've got. Yes, you know, I've done a lot. I've been lucky to be in a lot of good movies, and I've enjoyed them. But it's true what you say. This mashup of music and movies has been particularly thrilling and wicked. Now that you mention it, it was a delight. John M. Chu was a great director, but the two of them... Unbelievable.
And we would just, just for the fun of it, be singing everything in between takes that I could think of. And that's how it happened that Ariana heard me singing, I don't know why I love you like I do. I don't know why I just do. She said, my grandfather used to sing that to me all the time. I said, well, we've got this band if you want to ever record with us. She said, yes.
And then Cynthia said, I'd like to too. And we figured out this song for her. We'll meet again. Don't know where, don't know when. that Kubrick used at the end of Dr. Strangelove, and it's an important song in England. And so that's how some of these things happened.
And on this next album, they do some things again, and Scarlett Johansson, with whom I've worked, does something wonderful, I think, and Melody Gardot on this next album, and Dodie and Charlie Puth. We've worked with a lot of good people.
Yeah, Scarlett Johansson, you mentioned there. I don't know if people appreciate her singing voice, Jeff, as much as perhaps we should. She is an incredible singer, isn't she?
incredible and she's as unique musically as she is theatrically uh in her acting she's uh unmistakable and she's fantastic i adore her and i adore what we did we do this bossa nova version of a song she wanted to do which is out of the tree of life i just picked me a plum i like that love us
And Wicked, of course, did huge business at the box office and you've been involved in so many massive box office successes. But the whole business has changed, hasn't it? Like it has evolved. How do you feel about that, about how we watch film now, how we consume it? I mean, somebody who has come through the industry in the era of the blockbuster.
Now we're all sitting at home on our on our sofas and not going to the movie theatres as much. Does that bother you?
Well, it's a volatile time, isn't it, with a lot of things and with entertainment, too, and technology and the way we consume things. I still like to go to the movie theaters, and I was glad to see that Wicked. got people to the movie theaters as much as it did, and I've seen things recently, so I still love doing that, but things are changing. We'll see how things change.
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Chapter 4: What role did Miles Davis play in Jeff's musical journey?
Well, I don't know if you know this about Ireland, but we are considered very good at leaving well-known people alone when they come to visit us that, you know, you'll be able to go and have a pint of Guinness in peace. How do you respond, though, to people coming up and saying, hey, Jeff, would you like to do a selfie with me or will you do the 10th selfie with me?
You know, I generally like it. People are so sweet and they've seen many different things that I've done. You know, I'm always interested in that and interested in who's around. And especially if I've never been to Dublin, I'll be fascinated to see who comes to the show and who I can run into. And then, yeah, they're mostly very sweet. And if I can do anything for them, I'm more than happy to.
That's good to know. So Saturday, the 30th of May in the Borgosch Theatre, what can people expect?
Well, I play with the best musicians in the world. There's a great bass player, Alex Frank, and Ryan Shaw is our great drummer, and Scott Gilman, our saxophone player, Joe Bagg is a great organ player, and Graham Dector, unbelievable guitarist. So they're going to see interesting arrangements of some classic jazz music.
things, some sophisticated songs, some songs that are very enjoyable and accessible, done in a new and fresh way. You'll see our spontaneous solos and our interaction that enlivens me and that turns me on. And then you'll see me get interested in who shows up, like I say, and chat with people and play games with them. And it's usually a one-off kind of unique experience.
Well, it sounds like it might be delightful.
Yeah, there's going to be some surprises given what you have said. Well, Jeff, we really look forward to welcoming you to Ireland in May. And thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us.
Clare, you're so nice. I can't tell you how warmly I feel about this. And this means a lot to me. I'll see you soon. Tap me on the shoulder if you're there. We will. I'll see you in person.
Thanks so much. Thank you, Jeff.
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