Amanda Gardier – Auteur: Music Inspired by the Films of Wes Anderson (released January 26, 2024)
Amanda Gardier – Alto Saxophone and compositions
Charlie Ballantine – Guitar
Jesse Wittman – Bass
Dave King – Drums
Purchase on Bandcamp
Stream at Apple Music
Stream at Spotify
Wes Anderson may have been snubbed by the Motion Picture Academy this past week, but his fans can find solace in the release of Amanda Gardier’s Auteur: Music Inspired by the Films of Wes Anderson, a heartfelt and winning album inspired by the aesthetic of the great director. When I saw the album cover for Auteur, which channels the visual style of Wes Anderson, I was immediately excited about the concept of making music inspired by film. Although musical tributes to film directors are much less common than for musicians or albums, a few examples come to mind. Enrico Pieranunazi did a stylish album dedicated to Federico Fellini, William Parker devoted one disc out of his ten-volume opus Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World to Fellini and other Italian filmmakers, and Tim Hagans & The NDR Big Band did an album inspired by John Cassavetes. Ken Vandermark named a band after avant-garde filmmaker Chris Marker. I’m sure there are others, but I think tributes to film directors may be less common because directing is an inherently visual activity with no obvious musical analogue. Making an album inspired by Wes Anderson is a particularly interesting choice. Anderson’s aesthetic and stylized dialogue are distinctive and evocative, and translating this world into sound is an enticing project that attracts sympathetic minds.
Amanda Gardier’s writing is terrific on Auteur, and I think you can hear the connection to Anderson in the music. Gardier’s talent for portraying a slightly melancholy, melodically attractive sound world can be traced to the first track of her discography as a leader, “Giants,” from the 2018 album Empathy. “Giants” uses an arrangement of reeds, bass, and guitar lines to create a luminous effect that is simultaneously downcast and hopeful. The rest of Gardier’s debut and her 2020 follow-up, Flyover Country, contain more of this fine writing and are highly recommended. The compositions on the new Auteur expand on this emotional landscape and feel of a piece with the world of Wes Anderson. Gardier achieves a variety of moods, starting with the opening track, “Coping with the Very Troubled Child,” which conveys a frantic sense of displacement. Other tunes are distinctive, such as “The Incarcerated Artist and His Muse,” which features a wistful sax melody over tremolo guitar, or the joyful calypso line of album closer “Green Line.” Gardier seems to like creating intros and outros that use repetition drawn from minimalist techniques, such as at the end of “The Cycling Reporter” or “Order for Yourself.” Then there’s “Let’s Hope It’s Got a Happy Ending,” which feels like the album’s centerpiece, a thoughtful arranged, long-form composition that conveys the mixture of feelings suggested by the song’s title. However, for me, the highlight is “The Blue of Winter,” which is built around a plaintive alto melody that Gardier repeats, developing increasingly intense, forceful ideas. The last 3 minutes of this tune are cathartic, with incredible drumming from Dave King – “The Blue of Winter” is the most moving music I’ve heard so far this year.
Auteur also features strong playing from all the members of this quartet. Gardier brings back two players from Empathy, guitarist Charlie Ballantine and bassist Jesse Wittman. Ballantine, who is also Gardier’s husband, has a great sound and interesting ideas. He knows how to play in many contexts, whether rock, blues, or jazz, and has the restraint to serve the song as well as the chops to play attractive, melodic solos, which he does on “Electroshock Therapy” and “Green Line.” Bassist Jesse Wittman is much more prominently featured on Auteur than on Empathy, and his playing, especially in quick tempos such as the opening track, is impressive. Dave King, who plays in The Bad Plus, with Julian Lage and his own Dave King Trucking Company, hardly needs any introduction – he’s one of the top drummers anywhere. His playing is a delight throughout Auteur, always full of energy regardless of tempo and pulling an astounding array of textures and ideas out of his kit. But the star is Gardier herself, and while I think her writing is the primary attraction of this album, her playing is excellent, too. Her alto sax playing has a buoyant sound and a full, rich tone. On this album, Gardier displays new dimensions of her playing, such as pushing expressive tonality with the intensity of “The Blue of Winter” that I describe above or playing “off the horn” techniques with her solo on “The Cycling Reporter.” Her playing is melodic, energetic, and has a bite when the music needs it.
Auteur: Music Inspired by the Films of Wes Anderson has a great concept and is well executed. You don’t need to be a Wes Anderson fan to hear what is happening in this album. The music is quite varied, and there is a lot of beauty and a convincing rendering of a sonic and emotional space. With Auteur, Gardier has joined the small but distinguished group of musicians that use the visual medium of film as an inspiration to make music. More artists should give it a try.
Related links:
Catch up with Gardier
To prepare for this review, I listened to two good interviews with Gardier, here and here. She’s a very amiable interviewee who freely shares her debt to Miguel Zenón, and her interest in composing based on characters and themes from TV and film.
More Ballantine!
Gardier’s husband, Charlie Ballantine, is one of the top guitar players today. If you like his playing here, you’ll also enjoy checking out his records. I recommend Vonnegut, Life is Brief: The Music of Bob Dylan, or Where Is My Mind? which all feature Gardier.
More King!
King’s drumming lifts up Auteur – well, King’s drumming is always a wonderful. Hearing him here made me jump back and listen to his drumming on the recent 2023 Chris Speed album, and also watch and listen to my favorite drum break in recent memory. (Go to 3:30 in). I also listened to two favorites, Adopted Highway and Surrounded By The Night by Dave King Trucking Company. And that’s just scratching the surface. Also, I need to mention Rational Funk, a deep resource of drum knowledge and good humor.
Here’s where I fess up
One of the reasons I didn’t try and make direct connections between these tunes and Anderson movies, is that . . . I’ve seen very few of them. I enjoyed Asteroid City, but bizarrely, it’s the first Anderson movie I’ve seen. I did see Bottle Rocket after that (I loved it), so now I need to take in all the films in between. I’ve been inspired by this album, and I ordered a giant stack of DVD’s from the New York Public Library. So, now I’ll be watching Wes Anderson with Amanda Gardier as my guide!