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9/12/2016 Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A Conversation With Tierney Sutton | Huffington Post

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Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A ConversationWith Tierney Sutton� 09/09/2016 10:14 am ET | Updated 2 days ago

Mike Ragogna Trafficbeat Entertainment, Music Biz Vet

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TIERNEY SUTTON BAND’S THE STING VARIATIONS ARTWORK

Tierney Sutton Band / The Sting Variations

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A Conversation with Tierney Sutton

Mike Ragogna: Tierney, let’s start with a little bit of your history. Youcollaborated with Clint Eastwood on Sully, you’ve recorded a Joni Mitchellproject, and now The Tierney Sutton Band today has released The StingVariations. What do you think you brought out of Sting’s works that mighteven surprise their composer?

Tierney Sutton: I would have to leave that up to him. When you composesomething, I would imagine you’re inside it in a way that the listeners aren’t. Ithink, in a strange way, when something becomes iconic or a big hit like somany of Sting’s songs have become, we have a specific association with thesong. I think the best example on The Sting Variations record that I can pointto is our cover of “Every Breath You Take.” Over the years, people have saidto me, “I love that song, but it kind of gives me the creeps,” because theperspective is kind of like a stalker. It might surprise him because we kind ofturned it around and made it a lullaby where a mother is singing to a child. Inmy mind, and actually in the mind of the producer Trey Henry, we werethinking about our children who are leaving the nest now, children who are intheir late teens and early twenties and going off to live their lives. With therelationship that you have as a parent, the lyrics work. “Every breath youtake, I’ll be watching you. Can’t you see you belong to me?” This is what youfeel as a parent, but I’m sure that wasn’t Sting’s perspective when he wrotethis song. So that’s one that I think might even surprise him.

MR: What did you discover as you researched Sting’s solo and Policerecordings?

TS: There were a couple of things. One was that my entrée into being a realSting fanatic is strange, in the same way that my entrée into becoming a realJoni fanatic was strange, because I became a Joni fanatic because of heralbum in 2000, Both Sides Now, which is mostly standards that she recordedwith an orchestra. I’m such a jazz head that it turned me into a Joni fan andthen I went back and listened to her whole catalog—hits and obscure stuff.Other than the big hits, I then educated myself about her deeper catalog.With Sting it was similar. The turning point was the score that he wrote for theBroadway show The Last Ship. I fell in love with that music. I thought it wasliterary. It was beautiful, it was evocative, it was so complete that I justlistened to it obsessively. Right as the Joni record was being completed, I fellin love with that recording. I listened to it a ton and had a conversation withour drummer Ray Brinker and asked him, “Who else is a ‘pop’ artist who hasdeep jazz roots,” that we might look at after Joni. He said, “What aboutSting?” I said, “Well I’ve been obsessed with The Last Ship, and he said, “Metoo.” I think I had the most shallow knowledge of Sting’s music out of anyonein the band. Of course, I knew all the hits. But then I went back, as I did withJoni, and spent a whole bunch of time with Sting’s work beyond The Policeand really fell in love with a lot of things. One thing that didn’t make it ontothe record but that I absolutely love is the Songs From the Labyrinth albumthat he did with John Dowland and this archaic British classical guitar stuff.He’s a really, really deep experimental artist.

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MR: With Sting’s material, because you’re approaching it all very differently,

what was the hardest challenge?

TS: Christian Jacob said years ago, and I always think about this, “When we

arrange something we want to serve the soul of the composition.”

Sometimes when something is very iconic and it has a specific groove to it,

that groove can be considered part of the soul of the composition itself, but I

think when things have enough meat to the actual composition outside of the

arrangement, you can serve the soul of the lyric and of the story of the song

with a very different treatment. That’s basically what we usually try to do as a

rule. If something has a very, very famous arrangement, then that exists. It’s

there. Is there really any purpose to me singing “Every Breath You Take” with

virtually the same treatment as Sting? I’m not going to do it as well as he

does it in that way, so I’ve got to find a perspective that works and that I can

stand inside of as a story. Musically, Trey Henry really was the mastermind on

this one. He did most of the arranging and produced the album. He would

give us a jumping off point and give us a basic template of most of these

things and then I would go in with the lyric and story content and say, “What

if we did this here, add a bar,” or something, because of how this lyric works

and what I need to do in terms of telling the story. So there’s always that give

and take, but in the end, it’s about serving what you think is something of the

essence of the song that is illuminated in a different way than what’s on the

original.

MR: Are there any other songs on the album that you re-contextualized, or

one that affected you differently from when you first heard it?

TS: There are two that I’m thinking of. The first one is the opening track,

“Driven To Tears.” This is a song that I didn’t know well, but I listened to

many, many versions of it. I so love the lyrics, and I think it’s so timely,

because no matter what your personal perspective is, I think we are definitely

living in a time where most people feel like things are crumbling around them,

and we’re more aware of the suffering of humanity than ever before because

of the media and being connected as a world community. At the same time,

we are more inured to it. The merit of Sting’s “Driven To Tears” with Miles

Davis’ “So What?” at first it was just a musical idea that Trey had, and I don’t

know that Trey sat down and thought of the depth of the story context, but I

did. Maybe he did, too, but I think at first, it was just a musical decision he

made because both were basically in the same harmonic modal template, but

it’s pretty deep to sing, “My comfortable existence is reduced to a shallow,

meaningless party.” In these times, to be able to sing that lyric, I can’t

imagine singing anything that feels more real to me. So often when you’re

singing the great American songbook, the songs are timeless, but they’re

timeless in a kind of general way. This really feels very specific to our times.

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SULLY MOVIE POSTER

Sully

MR: You were connected to Clint Eastwood’s film Sully, which ChristianJacob scored as well.

TS: We did it as a band and Christian did too. The credit for this thing is“Christian Jacob & The Tierney Sutton Band.” Clint first approached me as afan of the band and asked me and Christian to come see some of the waysthat he had used tracks from our CDs in the rough cut of the film. We didn’tknow what he was asking at first. We just thought he wanted to maybelicense the music or re-record a few things, but we rapidly came to realizethat he wanted to try having the band score the film. I think he kind of lucked-out because neither he nor the producers knew that Christian is a brilliantorchestral arranger and writer as well. So we went into the studio with theband with literally forty eight hours’ notice in real time with the film, Clintdirecting us, and our twenty-five years of experience collaborating together.� Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A Conversation With Tierney … � � � � (



Clint said what he maybe had in mind for a cue and we said what we had in

mind and we would just do it. We did that over the course of two days, fairly

improvisational and spontaneously. Clint had written a beautiful theme,

Christian had written a few themes, and we jumped off of those. Then

Christian wrote a gorgeous string reinforcement to those things and then later

I wrote a lyric with a writing partner to one of Clint’s themes. I also wrote a

lyric to one of Christian’s themes. It was a really incredible experience and

very much a collaboration from beginning to end, with the band and with

Clint. He was really present in the music every minute.

MR: Although he’s been involved with musicals such as Jersey Boys, the

masses don’t really think of Clint Eastwood as “musical” beyond possibly

Honkytonk Man. Most think of him as an actor and director. It’s wonderful to

discover how he works in the studio.

TS: It’s really incredible. Clint was such a natural collaborator with us and this

process that my band has been doing for twenty-five years. It’s something he

seemed to understand right from the get-go. In my first conversation, he

asked me, because he has many of our records and has listened to us so

deeply, “How do you guys do your arranging?” and I said, “We do it as a

band collaboration.” He said, “Well, maybe you could do something like that

for me.” I didn’t really know what he meant at that time, but he meant, “Yeah,

let’s do this.” The band had done a score for an independent film a few years

before―maybe now it’s been over ten years―so we kind of had an idea of

how we might approach it. But we never dreamed that somebody would be

willing to let us do it that way. He was right there. I think the producers were

kind of shocked. I don’t think they had any idea that he would be sitting there

for ten hours with us, saying, “Now try it this way,” “What if you start with

bass?” It was really, truly a collaboration, from the beginning all the way

through putting the music into the film.

MR: You and the band have been together for twenty-five years? What

brought you all together?

TS: It was lucky circumstances. I think the two main points were that

Christian Jacob and I both made the choice to move to L.A. rather than

moving to New York, and we did it at basically the same time, ‘92 or ‘93. I

think Christian moved here in ‘91 and I moved here the next year. I knew of

him because we both lived in Boston at the same time and he was the best

jazz pianist in Boston, which is really saying something. I had tried to hire him

but it didn’t work out at that time. When I came out here [L.A.], I rapidly met

Trey Henry and Ray Brinker and asked them who they liked to work with on

piano, and they said, “Christian Jacob.” I said, “I know who that is!” We went

into the studio for the first time to record twenty years ago in 1996, but we

met and started working together in ‘92. There are so many great jazz

musicians in New York that people know about. The jazz community here in

L.A. is every bit as deep, but people don’t know about it. Trey Henry,

Christian Jacob, Kevin Axt, and Ray Brinker made the choice to live in L.A. to

do different kinds of projects. If Christian had decided to move to New

York―or if any of the guys in my band had decided to move to New� Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A Conversation With Tierney … � � � � (



York―they would’ve been poached by every great jazz musician known toman and they would have never been available to me. But they were heredoing things in the studios and doing projects for TV, movies, and differentpeople in L.A. That gave me a chance to deepen the relationship with them.

Then I signed with Telarc in ‘96 or ‘97 and we did our first CD. At that time,the great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson and the great jazz bassist Ray Brownwere both Telarc artists and they listened to the first record I made with theband. They said to Telarc, “Let her record with her band. They’re a greatband.” When Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown say, “This is a great band,” therecord label says, “Okay, we’ll do that.” We were able to make seven recordsover the next ten years as a band. That’s kind of the dream that everybodywants, but if you don’t have the opportunity to start a process and do it, youcan’t keep a band together. By 2004, we were getting quite busy, so wedecided to incorporate. This was also the moment when Kevin Axt joined theband—Trey just had too much going on in LA to tour much so we needed twobassists. I also decided it was smart to make them my partners. I was alreadydoing the business that way, but I thought, “I should really make this officialand invest them as full partners in this process,” because I felt they deservedit, and it just made sense. Since that time, The Tierney Sutton Band has doneeverything as a collaboration. We’ve made our business decisions and ourmusical decisions in consultation and with this kind of process. I think that’skept us together.

MR: And also I imagine success helped. Your music was featured in The

Cooler.

TS: Yeah, but that was just me. Members of the band have played on a billiondifferent soundtracks over the years.

MR: People might be surprised to find out you’ve already headlined TheHollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center.What’s left? What are you wanting to do creatively that you still haven’t doneyet?

TS: I’m very, very grateful that I’ve been able to do the things I have. I’m reallyexcited about having had this opportunity with Clint. He mentioned to me atthe beginning of this process that Steven Spielberg listens to my stuff. Thatwas kind of exciting, so I’d say the next one is Spielberg. Come on Steven,make an intimate film where you need some intimate vocals, man, and I’mthere. Or any film. I’ll “Ooh” in the background. I’m here for you.

MR: What advice do you have for new artists?

TS: Wow...

MR: Not easy, is it!

TS: In a way, it’s really easy. I’ve been reading a book that a lot of peoplemight know about called The War Of Art, by Steven Pressfield. It’s a greatbook, and he talks about the difference between being an amateur and being� Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A Conversation With Tierney … � � � � (



a professional, and it’s an interesting thing because if you’re a professional,

your goal is to do the work. You never think about whether you’re going to be

successful or not. Your goal is to do the work. You’re more committed and

you’re less attached. What I’ve said for years to my students and different

young artists is if you find a way to fall in love with the process, you’re going

to have a happy life. I have to say, I love the process. I love the process of

making music with my band; I love the process of making music for Clint’s

film; I love the process for writing the lyrics. I love the process. It can be really

difficult but I love it. If you love the process you’re going to be happy.

MR: What advice would you have given yourself?

TS: I gave myself the same advice and it worked.

MR: Are there any projects that are on the back burner but you’d really love

to get to at some point?

TS: Yes. I’m hoping to do a project with the great opera singer Natalie

Dessay. She’s a good friend and I’m doing some work with her on albums

that she’s doing of great American songbook material. She’s an incredible

artist and we’ve been talking about wanting to do a collaboration, so I really

hope that will come to pass.

MR: Tierney, why do you think there are so few women in film music right

now?

TS: I think the reality of sexism and how deeply entrenched certain things are

is very difficult to see. We have our habits and men and women have such

close relationships and every woman has a father or a brother or a son or

lover and vice-versa. We’re kind of treading this water that is very new. It’s

great that you’re bringing it up because it certainly is true. My dear friend Nan

Schwartz is one of the great composers and arrangers that I know. She’s won

a bunch of Grammys and I do work with her from time to time. I can’t imagine

that she hasn’t gotten a lot of film work because she’s as good as it gets. I

know that there is this barrier there, and it’s very, very difficult, but I think it’s

difficult all around. I think of somebody like Christian Jacob. This is the first

film that he’s orchestrated and he’s brilliant at it. Film work and writing for film

is the goal of so many people. I made up a joke years ago: How many jazz

pianists are there in L.A.? None. They all want to write for film. Virtually every

jazz pianist that I knew in this town―male or female―their real goal was to

write for film. It’s a very difficult thing to get into, so anything that’s difficult to

get into, just add “being a woman,” and it’s going to be even harder. That’s

unfortunately just a fact right now.

MR: But you really do feel it’s a “right now” kind of thing and it’s going to take

a little bit more time but eventually, the atmosphere will change?

TS: I’m sure. I think we just have to learn different ways to respect each other

in this world, between the races, the genders. We’ve got some big work to

do, there’s just no question about it.




Transcribed by Galen Hawthorne

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE TIERNEY SUTTON BAND

The Tierney Sutton Band

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Hannah Burgé · Toronto, Ontario

I'm thrilled that you interviewed Ms. Sutton. She is a unique voice, a true professional and an

inspirational artist!

Like · Reply · Sep 9, 2016 6:44pm

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