The Musician's Studio

Meant to resemble “Inside the Actor’s Studio,” The Musician’s Studio is a television show featuring in-depth interviews of guests that have been successful in the field of music. Aside from the guest and host, this is an entirely student run production. This collaborative project had students from the Television department offering their services as camera operators, sound operators and grips, the Arts/Entertainment Media Management department was represented by the stage management team, and the students in the Music department made up most of the audience. The stage was set like it was prepared for a concert, littered with instruments, a grand piano, a stand-up bass, a drum set, a xylophone.

For anyone who’s ever been part of a “live” studio audience for the taping of a television show, you know that it is rarely shot in order from start to finish. The stage manager began the evening with a short introduction, followed by a request for the audience to be taped “performing” some reaction shots to use in the post production process. He wanted chuckling, laughter, thoughtful interested looks, polite clapping, and finally louder clapping. Where those shots end up in the finished product is completely up to the editor.

The host of the show then introduced the guest; Fred Wesley Jr. Among many other musical achievements, Wesley was music director, arranger, trombonist and a primary composer for James Brown from 1968-1975. When Wesley walked onto the stage carrying his blue-belled trombone, I expected Columbia music students to take their places at the many instruments carefully placed on the stage. Unfortunately, that did not happen. It became obvious that the instruments on stage were merely set pieces when Wesley began playing one of his songs by himself. He is obviously a very skilled trombonist, but I could not help but be disappointed by his performance with no accompaniment. The trombone is just not meant to be played by itself. While he played his four song set, I found myself wondering if all the Musician’s Studios were like this one, where the guest performs by him/herself. If so, that is really disappointing. To have a group of Columbia students involved with the performance would really have added a much needed dynamic to the show, and would have been a unique experience for those students.

After the short performance, the stage manager instructed the crew to set up for the interview. Two plush chairs, a small in-table and two red coffee mugs appeared on the stage within a few minutes. The interview began with the host explaining the goal of the interview, which was to explore the life, art and business of being a musician. For the most part, the interview followed that formula. It came across as a nice conversation between two music lovers. About halfway into the interview, I found myself fidgeting in my seat. This was really not much of an interview, more of an opportunity for Fred to recite his career’s story from start to finish.

I would like to see the finished product of this show, mainly to see how all the post-production elements come together, but I left with one question on my mind: What was the motivation in producing this show? Is it meant to entertain? Then the producers need to rethink the format. The interview is nice and casual, but will get very dull very quickly to anyone who isn’t a huge fan of jazz or funk music. Is it to educate music students? This is probably the case, but I have a hard time imagining what the students could have gotten out of this particular experience. They might be able to extract a few morsels of wisdom from the interview, but not much else. The Musician’s studio will premiere on a Friday night in the near future (the stage manager wasn’t specific) on channel 20 WYCC.