|inˈdijənəs| :originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native

Musical Reflections & Collaborations
with "Doctor D" (aka Daniel Raymond Davis)

PLAYFUL

• Legs - Medley (This is My Last Chance) - written to a searing short film titled, "LEGS." A scathing look at what an actor has to do to make it in hollywood - in this case cut off his legs to get the part of a man with no legs (the punch line of the film: "Your part's been changed to a woman!") True fun with sinewy saxophones, electronic drums and a stand-up bass.


• The Big yOdle - written for a documentary called, ":The Big O." This cut is from a scene in the film where women are enjoying the films title.


• Eighteen! (Fuck The Bullet) - I recorded this this rap at Los Angeles Juvenile Hall - the staff psychologists were not able to get through to the girl rapping on this tune (anonymous). She was withdrawn and they thought she might be catatonic. This same psychologist was amazed to see her respond so openly to the musical process that I invited her into. The teen is singing/rapping about an experience that deeply affected her - when a friend and mentor committed suicide at 18 - with a bullet. I worked with her for 3 weeks.
  
  She wrote the lyrics and chose the beat, and I wrote the music around it. When we recorded her vocals on my Apple laptop, it just so happened that the entire LA Justice dept. was spot checking the teen prison system and asked if they could watch. No less than 36 people lined the room (including her psychologist) when she recorded these vocals. I am so proud of her!
  
  
• Speaking in Tongues : Kyrie - I assembled this during the Iraq WMD fiasco - a fun collage of talking heads sound bites (including Bush, Cheyney, Falwell, Limbaugh, O'Riely and a host of others) against a somber electronic Kyrie chorus (a short repeated invocation used in many Christian liturgies, esp. at the beginning of the Eucharist or as a response in a litany) of music written in collaboration with the profoundly creative, Tim Broughton.


• Get On the Train - taken from my very first film scoring project, a documentary narrated by Leonard Nemoy called, "Minyan In Kaifeng," about Jews who emigrated to China centuries ago and where they are now. This is from the scene where the film makers board their train to Kaifeng.


• POP - a beautiful electric pop tune written in collaboration with the crazy & wonderful Tim Broughton (also on guitar). Alas, we never achieved vocal-cality - anyone game?


• Opie Turns To The Dark Side ("Just cause I'm little, nobody cares about me!") - can't explain, just a fun collage of 1950s and 1960s TV show characters, with a few 1970s and 1980s thrown in as well.

HEARTFUL

• Til' Death - title track from a short film about a woman on her way home from her wedding with her new husband and is in a terrible car accident. She wakes up in the totaled car and finds her husband dead - she wanders away from the accident in shock. She finally realizes she is herself dead (ala Twilight Zone), and this cut is from the final scene where her newly dead husband (not in that order) comes to gently take her over to the other side - hence, til' death do us part.


• Mockingbird - a cute use of the song Mockingbird for a fantasy film about children who escape their terrible parents through a magic door underneath their dinning room table.


• Redemption - music to the final scene of the horror film, "Haunted Highway." Fashion photographer Greg Ross's (Rand Gamble) dalliance with a Japanese supermodel (Hinano Yoshikawa) has grave consequences when discovered by his wife, Amanda (Laura Putney). Amanda's accidental death forces Greg on a long drive through the California wilderness to dispose of the body, and as he travels to the lake where he and Amanda were first married, he is plagued by more and more horrific visions. This final scene is where the dead get even.


• Saint Mary's - this is a :30 spot from a regional commercial in Utah for Saint Mary's Hospital - there was voice over originally but this is just the music.


• Minyan In Kaifeng - title track to the documentary of the same name -a documentary narrated by Leonard Nemoy called, "Minyan In Kaifeng," about Jews who emigrated to China centuries ago and where they are now.


• Sound of a Voice - music form the short film based on a 1983 play of the same name, by American playwright David Henry Hwang. An original ghost story inspired by Japanese folk stories, films, and Noh theater.

CHILL

• Thank You - A cool, tender tone poem.


• RIPEN - from the spiritual science fiction film, "RIPEN." This is from the opening scene.


• Orange Music - Synesthesia is a condition in which one sense (for example, hearing) is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses such as sight.


• Heart Molecules - oxygen enters the lungs and is pumped throughout the entire body by the heart through the blood (with molecular guitarologist, Timmy B).


• Superstring Theory - the idea in physics is that all energy and matter is dependent on the "musical" vibrations of infinite, subatomic quantum strings - superstring theory is an attempt to explain all of the particles and fundamental forces of nature in one theory by modelling them as vibrations of tiny supersymmetric strings. I am playing electronic drums on this (with quantum guitar wrangler, Timmy B).


• Intersections - the crucial moment in the short film by filmmaker Varda Hardy, "Mirror-Mirror." Set against the vast New Mexico Wilderness, Mirror-Mirror is a mystical story revealing a young businesswoman's awakening as she liberates herself from her fears.


• My Own Keys - from the Big O, a documentary about woman in search of the perfect Big O.


• Do I Look Fat In This? (Kiss me baby.) - a playfully chill tune based on the basic dialogue of the film "Mirror-Mirror."


• Pachuco - "The other cats livin' down eastside - And there's no place to hide" (with low rider, Timmy B)


• Humble Harry - He was readin' one o his California blankets, and waiting to catch the westbound. (with the humblest, Timmy B.)


• Getting Close? - from the "Big O," the title also tells enough.

FRANTIC

• Cellular - Rampart - from the added features section to the film, "Cellular." A documentary ("Code of Silence")about the LA Police Rampart Scandal - referring to widespread corruption in the CRASH (or Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) anti-gang unit of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Rampart Division in the late 1990s. I play electronic drums on this as well.


• Blue Cross - this was for an anti-smoking campaign by Blue Cross


• Unaccountable - from a short film called, "Unaccountable," the title track and heroic theme of the James Bond type accountant who is unaccountable.


• Night Terror - from the horror film, "Haunted Highway," when the main character Greg begins to lose his wits on his drive to dispose of his wife's body.


• Tonight, at Midnight - an odd piece never used for the commercial it was suggested for (Blue Cross).


• This is a Relationship! - a Painting Over Picasso piece that seemed better in this section.


• Carnegiea Gigantea - Sagurao - After the saguaro cactus dies its woody ribs can be used to build roofs, fences, and parts of furniture. The holes that birds nested in or "saguaro boots" can be found among the dead saguaros. Native Americans used these as water containers long before the canteen was available. (with Timmy B)


• My Mother Is A Bohemian - the title says it all. A very early piece that seemed better in this section.


• Where the River is Bloom! - my two nieces Rachel and Reese (5 and 8 years old) decided they wanted to write and record a song. So they did. I helped them out with the studio/production.

ORCHESTRAL

• Belong - Unfortunately these pieces are all too rare because of the difficulty of getting an orchestra to play and record for you without a lot of moolah. But when you can . . . ah, bitter cost, sweet music! Conducted by yours truly.


• The Silk Road - . . . ah, bitter cost, sweet music! Conducted by yours truly.


• The Great Thaw - Did i mention that when you can get an orchestra . . . ah, bitter cost, sweet music! Conducted by yours truly.

• Truth 1 & 2 - This is a small ensemble piece I wrote for the Berklee awards concert, after proudly receiving the Georges Delerue Scholarship for Film Scoring and the Richard Levy Award for Music Composition. Written for Piano, Flute, Clarinet, Violin and Cello, the ensemble had a difficult time with the performance, but it still works. Conducted by yours truly.


• Truth 3 & 4 - The continuation from above, wrote for the Berklee awards concert. Written for Piano, Flute, Clarinet, Violin and Cello. Conducted by yours truly.







"Well the Weathervane is busted,
And the blackbird laid its curse,
There's a full moon slowly rising,
So bring your swallowtail shirt."




DRUMMING


with THE DISSIDENTS

A mid 1980's band that I cofounded with super funky bassist Ralph Gorodetsky, guitarist and artist Dave (the Butcher) Tourje, and the wonderful vocalist Melinda Mohn.

From Dave Tourje's website: "We grew up in the club scene of L.A. in the late 70s through the mid 80s, seeing all the seminal bands such as X, The Blasters, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Red Hot Chili Peppers et.al. Our band, The Dissidents, was an influential Post-Punk band and we played with bands such as Saccharine Trust and The Minutemen, and we were on the MTV Music Awards in 1985 as one of the best unsigned bands in L.A."


• World Keeps Turning


• Heat of the Moment


• Anywhere


• All I Want


• Gutter Love


• Sister's Eye


• Messing With The Kid
• Blues for the Butcher




with PAINTING OVER PICASSO

I played with this band in the '90's with singer John Linland and a host of wonderful guitarists. They moved to Europe and I chose to go to music school (Berklee College of Music). I don't think they are still around anymore.


• Remember


• Child


• Brother I'm Awake now


• Nothing Completely


• Politicians and Policemen








"Two days before Tijuana,
You sleep in my shoes,
Hiding a wad of tired Kleenex,
Under you vagabond blond curls."




EARLY WORKS


• Ashes - ring around the rosey, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down. This song, sung by yours truly (and wonderfully supported by the singer T.L. McMillan) is a coming of age story.


• Rise or Fall - a song of solidarity with the people of then apartheid South Africa; written with the multi-talented Rico Alviso and performed with the band, "Burning Bridges." Rico is on marimba, piano and lead vocals; I handled the drums and recorder while Ralph Gorodetsky and Mark Allen handled bass and guitar. We managed to create a wonderful music video from this and if I can digitize it I'll post it as well.


• Touch and Withdraw - Fun romp with T. L. McMillian on vocals, Mark Chosak on guitar and Rico Alviso on Keys and Vocals.


• Cool Man - recorded on an old Teac 4-track tape recorder, this is the earliest produced work I have here (c. 1970's), written again with long time friend and collaborator Rico Alviso (who has vocals on this as well), produced in his den at his mothers house in Downey CA.
  
  Originally part of an ambitious rock opera called, "The Passengers Must Be Saved," this song was about how the antihero Berian Darr (an alien who refuses to be the savior that earth wants him to be), saw how men were supposed to be like a cool man (i.e. Clint Eastwood).


• Eve Just Laughed - T. L. McMillian on vocals, Mark Chosak on guitar and Rico Alviso on Keys and Vocals.


• Happiness - Title says it all - T.L. on vocals