Uan Rasey (1921-2011). Trumpeter Uan Rasey and I were supposed to talk a week ago. Sadly, Uan died on the very day I was to interview him. When I called him a week earlier and asked if we could chat, he was gratified and said sure. He asked me to call him Uan (pronounced YOU-in). He mentioned he was legally blind and made a point to tell me he wasn't a jazz musician.
"I was a big band player who recorded in the studios," he said. This wasn't a boast on Uan's part or a way to tell me that he was less of a musician than I thought he was. It was simply a distinction he wanted to make. Trumpeters are like that.
When we spoke initially, Uan touched briefly on Billy May and his many recordings for the bandleader and arranger. When I asked him about my favorite recording of his—the theme to the movie Chinatown—Uan didn't recall it specifically. "You have to understand," he said, "I recorded on thousands of records and movies, often several a day."
I'm certainly sorry I didn't push to interview him on the spot. But in such cases, musicians like a little time to gather their thoughts so they're prepared. In most cases, that gap produces a better, more memorable conversation. In this case, I gave him that period of time. In retrospect, it was a mistake. [Photo below—front row, from left: Jack Sheldon, Uan Rasey and Mark Lewis. Back row, from left: Bob Bain, Chuck Berghofer, Rick Baptist, Gary Halopoff, Jeff Bunnell, Chuck Findley, Wayne Bergeron, Bill Peterson, Carl Saunders, Charlie Davis, Bob O'Donnell, Rob Schaer and Arturo Sandoval. Courtesy of Rick Baptist and Gary Anderson]
When I was just out of high school in 1974, I spent a summer working at a movie theater before college began that fall. As a ticket-ripper and usher, I had the pleasure of seeing a single movie upward of 25 times. One of those was Chinatown.
When the General Cinema theater was quiet on afternoons during the week, the ushers and candy salespeople (guys and gals) would sit in the theater in the same row. We all had seen the same movie over and over. As the movie unfolded on the screen, we'd say the lines out loud, just before the actors did. For Chinatown, I was land baron Noah Cross (John Huston), and the great moment for me was bellowing, "The future, Mr. Gittes, the future."
Naturally, after watching a film or parts of it over and over again, you fall in love with the music. That was true with Chinatown, a score arranged by Jerry Goldsmith [pictured]. In the early 80s, when I had a chance to visit a friend who lived in Huntington Beach, Calif., I took a cassette of the Chinatown music and drove around old Los Angeles with the theme playing on my Walkman. You really feel the intent and mood when you do stuff like that.
At any rate, I digress. Uan Rasey was a gorgeous player and brilliant technician. I'm truly sad we didn't get to know each other better. Here's Uan Rasey's robust and steamy noir solo on the Chinatown theme...
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Uan Rasey was one of the reasons that the MGM studio orchestra was the best in Hollywood, and one of the finest ensembles in the world. It produced some of the most gorgeous sounds to be heard in motion pictures, especially when Conrad Salinger and Skip Martin wrote the music. What a pity you didn't get to speak with Rasey at length.
Johnny Winter was very close to Muddy Waters and helped elevate Muddy's career in the 1970s and undoubtedly heard Muddy perform Got My Mojo Workin' often when they toured together.
Marc: Too bad you didn't get a chance to do the interview with Uan. I am sure it would have informative. I found out about his role on the beautiful "Chinatown" theme when I did some research for a a review of trumpeter Nicholas Payton's fine album "Into the Blue" from 2008. He does an equally gorgeous version of the theme and in my mind pays the highest compliment to Uan's work with his own moving perfomance. All the best.
Ralph
Less well known than the "Chinatown" Maintitle is Uan Rasey's solo on the Main Title of "Two For The Seesaw" - an Andre Previn score. That can be seen on youTube ( indeed the whole film can be seen, in umpteen parts there.)
Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Anatomy of 55 More Songs," "Anatomy of a Song," "Rock Concert: An Oral History" and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax has won three Jazz Journalists Association awards.
Uan Rasey was one of the reasons that the MGM studio orchestra was the best in Hollywood, and one of the finest ensembles in the world. It produced some of the most gorgeous sounds to be heard in motion pictures, especially when Conrad Salinger and Skip Martin wrote the music. What a pity you didn't get to speak with Rasey at length.
Posted by: Jeff Sultanof | October 02, 2011 at 10:58 AM
Johnny Winter was very close to Muddy Waters and helped elevate Muddy's career in the 1970s and undoubtedly heard Muddy perform Got My Mojo Workin' often when they toured together.
Posted by: Ron W | October 02, 2011 at 11:48 AM
Marc,
Thanks for the piece on Uan Rasey...I would have liked to have seen the interview. Chinatown is among my favorite films and scores too....
keith
Posted by: keith hedger | October 02, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Marc: Too bad you didn't get a chance to do the interview with Uan. I am sure it would have informative. I found out about his role on the beautiful "Chinatown" theme when I did some research for a a review of trumpeter Nicholas Payton's fine album "Into the Blue" from 2008. He does an equally gorgeous version of the theme and in my mind pays the highest compliment to Uan's work with his own moving perfomance. All the best.
Ralph
Posted by: Ralph A. Miriello | October 03, 2011 at 11:42 AM
Less well known than the "Chinatown" Maintitle is Uan Rasey's solo on the Main Title of "Two For The Seesaw" - an Andre Previn score. That can be seen on youTube ( indeed the whole film can be seen, in umpteen parts there.)
Posted by: Gordon Sapsed | October 04, 2011 at 04:33 AM