"We'll find a way regardless . . . to make some sense out of this mess" RIP Jay Bennett

I was starting a new band and a drummer musician friend from Kansas City by the name of Bill Belzer came over to talk about playing together and recording his new solo project. Bill brought over Wilco’s new record, Summer Teeth. We played a few songs and I was blown away. I’d always liked Wilco, but in that alt-country way. This album was different. It was just more. I looked at the liner notes and saw a name I recognized; Jay Bennett.

Jay Bennett in the studio

I knew Jay from Titanic Love Affair, a band I loved because they were so Replacementsesque. I’d met Jay in Lawrence after a TLA show and really liked the guy. He was part of that mid-90s alternative millieu but avoided all the pose and bullshit so many of that crop of indie-rock guys put on. So little pretense, it was obvious music was no “shot” for him. It was his thing, it was what he immersed himself in. Music clearly made Jay Bennett enjoy life.

Jay’s work on the Wilco stuff was remarkable for what he brought to a band that had previously made pretty good songs, clever lyrics, but the arrangements and instrumentation wasn’t there yet. Jay Bennett changed all that. He made Wilco into the band I grew to love, immitate, admire, and emulate. Summer Teeth continues to be a record I go to whenever I start a new recording project. Jeff Tweedy’s clearly a great songwriter, but what Jay brought to the band in terms of instrumentation, arrangement, is what really made Wilco the amazing band they are today.

Jay died last week while I was on a motorcycle trip and incommunicado. I came back to town and found a message from a freind mourning the death of Jay. We don’t know the cause of his death, and clearly Jay was much too young to leave us. I’d been really enjoying his solo work of late and following a legal fight over the royalties to some music from his Wilco days. Jay Bennett was a loving man, the night I met him he was so kind and I half-wonder if the idea of suing his old friend and collaborator Jeff Tweedy didn’t really crush him in ways few of us will ever understand.

In the end, Jay Bennett was one of my musical heroes. He met his end in his studio, Pieholden Suites. Fitting, I suppose.

We’ll miss you, Jay.

Love, John

Mac McCaughan the film composer’s sage

“One good minute could last me a whole year.”
– Mac McCaughan

When Mac McCaughan, one of my favorite song writers, wrote those lyrics, I don’t think he realized he was describing the plight of a film composer.

Fifteen minutes into scoring The Next American Dream and one thing is certain, one good minute really can last me the whole year. Without getting too much into the minutia of the process, it’s amazing how far many different directions one minute of music composition can carry you. A few well-chosen chords, and the right melody can lead you in so many different directions.

The key to the whole thing is finding that one good minute. Finding the minute in the film, and hearing what it sounds like. What song it’s singing. Then, you let that one good minute lead you through the film musically.

I’m not trying to make this sound like it’s rocket science, because it’s not. It’s not “easy” per se, it’s just that you have to listen.