Matt Johnson & The New Jet Set will perform their jazz versions of many classic Disney songs at the Sierra Madre Playhouse beginning Friday, March 22nd and continuing through Sunday, March 24th. Johnson has created a multi-media show that includes stories, anecdotes from his many years as being a Cast Member at Disneyland and many of the classic songs we all know and love.

Last week I spoke with Johnson (who drums for multiple artists including Jane Lynch) about his lengthy relationship with all things Disney and the songwriters and songs that make us all light up when we hear them. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview with Johnson, please go to our YouTube channel (where you can also see an interview with Alan Menken).

Q: Duke Ellington famously sings in one of his compositions, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” What does the Disney songbook mean with and without swing? [The lyrics were by Irving Mills]

Listen, the Disney songbook doesn’t need my interpretation to stand alone in the annals of memorable music. We just happen to interpret it in our chosen vehicle. We take those memorable melodies and just put them in the jazz machine and crank them up and what comes out is usually very swinging. A lot of the music lends itself to swing. There’s lots of lullabies and happy children’s songs and some marches and some of them naturally lend themselves to swing. Then others we choose to have a little more fun with them. In one instance the beautiful ballad A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes from Cinderella. We’ll do it as a samba and play almost a double time rhythm underneath it. So sometimes the swing just happens. And other times we consciously choose to put it in a style that makes us even more happy.

Some of those films had great opportunities for swing. They did have Louis Prima as a voice in The Jungle Book, and they had Peggy Lee write songs and perform them for Lady and the Tramp. But those were exceptions. Do you think that there was a conscious decision in the history of Disney songs not to go into a swing mode? Or do you think that the films didn’t necessarily lend themselves to that style?

I know from being a long time Disney cast member that story is the most important thing. So whoever was in charge whenever a production was in the making, they thought about what would be the best way to convey the story. So conscious decision – definitely. But just crowbar in swing music? No.

By the time you get to Toy Story with someone like Randy Newman, you have a composer who has jazz in his bloodstream.

He does. You’ve Got a Friend in Me has very much a swingy bounce to it. I think it’s definitely a conscious decision to play jazz and or any other style. I’m thinking now Ratatouille – all Parisian. Michael Giacchino’s orchestration with lots of accordion and clarinet. Very Parisian, almost a gypsy jazz appropriate for the setting in the story it tells.

How do you see the Disney songbook having evolved over the years? What do you like most about the way it was, and what do you like most about the way it is today? 

I have had the wonderful experience of seeing it in the audience’s faces as we’ve performed the show a few times now. You can’t separate the music from the time when you experienced it in the movie theater. For those of us of a certain age, that means a really grand occasion. Back before you could stream a movie on your watch, it was a really big deal to go to a theater. We always looked forward to the Disney movies. Growing up in Southern California we had the opportunity to go to Disneyland. So we saw all the the tie-ins with the attractions and all the visuals. And, of course, we saw the characters. We also had the Wonderful World of Color and the Wonderful World of Disney. The music is just one of many, many emotional touchstones that are layered in us.

If there was any one team of composers or songwriters for whom the Disney catalog is best represented, it’s going to be the Sherman Brothers: Richard and Robert Sherman. What do you think makes their songs more beloved, or given them the ability to stand the test of time above perhaps any other songwriter’s songs who have appeared in Disney movies? 

First of all, we have to agree to the premise of your question are they, in fact, the greatest? And I think the reason both of us initially say yes, without a doubt, is because of the volume of work that they did when the studio was young or in their heyday. There was a period of time when Disney wasn’t making great movies, but everything before 1975 rocked. Maybe even earlier than that. Aristocats came out in 1970 and certainly everything that preceded it was just fantastic.

Walt referred to them as the boys. He’d storyboard with some of his artists and he said, let me get the boys in here, and then we’ll figure out where we’re going from here. The stories that I know, and even the documentary footage that I’ve seen, there was such a collaboration [with] the brothers. To see one at the piano and the other one scratching down something and changing and getting stuck on a word and seeing that collaboration was personally very inspiring. 

Doesn’t it feel like Alan Menken is the heir to what the Sherman Brothers were able to accomplish?

In and through the collaboration with his lyricists…Yes. All of those contemporary things from Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. I’m no different than most. I’m really affected emotionally performing this music and having the responsibility of giving a little insight through my narration. Instead of saying, “Now we’re going to play I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” I give a little background on the music and the production or something that I’ve read that’s interesting that maybe we don’t know. I have to be careful that I don’t trigger an emotional little thing in me that becomes distracting or, even worse, makes me emotional. 

Don’t you feel like this music allows us to revisit our childhood in some way, shape or form?

Every single time. My friend Charles Phoenix put it so perfectly, “Every time I go there, I feel all the ages I’ve ever been.” Because he remembers encountering the Disney magic at all these different points in his life. And also remembering the people in your life that are no longer with us. When you think about going there with your grandparents, I mean, that’s a powerful memory, you know? It’s just part of who I am. 

You can’t walk through the park without hearing music everywhere. A lot of it’s piped in now, but walk Main Street. You know better than anyone, that’s where you often hear live music.

Right. Straw Hatters are still out there. From season to season, sometimes they bring back a couple of what we call the break down groups: The Firehouse Hook and Ladder Gang. It’s been a while. The sax quintet who dressed in that Keystone Cops? We say Keystone Cops, but, the police uniforms from the previous century. The pre-recorded music there is all early, sort of parlor music. It’s not exactly ragtime yet. It predates ragtime. It’s happy family music from the turn of the century.

A lot of the music that that you and I know and that people probably have at least half a generation below us embrace as well, is stuff that kids today don’t necessarily have any relationship to unless their parents held on to old DVDs or they would catch the films on Disney Plus. What do you see in in terms of young people who come to these concerts and their response to these songs that they didn’t grow up with the same way you and I did?

There’s one thing that happens in general. I’m reminded of my friend Tony Guerrero, who says, “Even if you don’t think you’re familiar with jazz, if you witness a live performance, you can’t help but like it.” There’s just something about live musical performance that’s very powerful. Something you and I would take for granted because we sat through innumerable concerts, but young people wouldn’t necessarily. We try to have a couple of the contemporary Disney songs in there.

My indoctrination into the world of Disney took place when my aunt took me at three years old to go see Mary Poppins. That was the first time I became aware of movies. It was the first time I became aware of musicals in any way, shape or form. Obviously, the first time that I became aware of Disney in any in any measurable way. It is my understanding that you have worked with Dame Julie Andrews.

I was performing with a group called the Palm Springs Yacht Club in the early 90s. It was a musical comedy group, but we worked for maybe 3 or 4 years as a warm-up act for a handful of touring celebrities at the time, including Julie Andrews, but also the Smothers Brothers and comedian Rich Little.

We traveled one whole summer with Julie Andrews. It was my personal experience that she was wonderful and had a wonderful sense of humor. She was appreciative of the small supporting role that we played in her show. She traveled with an ensemble as well. We were traveling separately. Her band was on a standard tour bus at the time. She drove in a limousine and had a driver. This was the caravan. It wasn’t uncommon that the band, while on the road, their wives would come out sometimes and join the tour for the weekend and fly home. I overheard a conversation where she offered one of the guys the limo so he and his wife could travel from one venue to the next together to have some time together. She road on the bus. That said a lot about who she was. She was always very, very good humored and always made us feel as though our role was valued.

In Richard Sherman’s book, Pursuing Happiness, he tells a story about giving a lecture at USC. As he described it, some smartalec shouted out, “How much money did you make from Winnie the Pooh?” He goes on to tell this story about a girl in Texas who had fallen down a well. As they were trying to rescue her the girl apparently told her mother that she wanted her to sing Winnie the Pooh, because “Winnie the Pooh was in great tightness and he got out and I’m going to get out.” Richard Sherman said, “That moment made me the richest man in the world.” How does music in general, and these Disney songs in particular, make you the richest man in the world?

We just performed our show a couple nights ago. After the show a gentleman came up to me and said, “My dad has Alzheimer’s.” Out of the blue. I never met this guy before. I said I’m very sorry, not knowing where he was going with this. And he said, “He’s been living with us. When I was leaving the house, I said, I’m going to see a Disney show tonight. They’re playing Disney music.” His father, with Alzheimer’s, brightened up and said, “Do you remember when we took you to see The Aristocats?” Now, The Aristocats is not one of the most memorable movies, but it’s a fabulous movie released in 1970, and it happened to be the very last animated feature that Walt Disney would be able to approve for production in 1965. 

He went on to say that his little brother was born and stayed in the ICU for six weeks. [He continued] “When my little brother was able to finally come home my dad took my sister and I out to see The Aristocats.” This person who was suffering from Alzheimer’s was able to tap into that because of his connection to the Disney music. You can’t put a price on that; that I was part of a performance that reminded both those individuals of that story and that he chose to relate it to me.

Knowing how it affects people, how deeply connected people are to this music, it’s a great responsibility. Whether I’m playing at the park or whether I’m playing on the outside with my own band and present this music at the highest level, because I know how people relate to it. It is a gift that I cherish and I don’t take it for granted.

To watch the full interview with Matt Johnson, please go here.

Main Photo: Matt Johnson (Courtesy Matt Johnson)

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On October 25th of last year it was announced that Matt Cook would be the new Artistic and Executive Director of the Sierra Madre Playhouse. This as the company’s home, once a furniture store and movie theater, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this weekend. What better way to bring much-needed exposure to the venue.

The scheduled events large revolve around great films by Harold Lloyd. His granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, is joining the celebrations. There is also a sold-out gala, The Bees Knees, which includes a 20s-themed party and access to all the films being shown. And if you haven’t seen Safety Last! you owe it to yourself to see one of the most exciting films ever made.

Cook joins the Sierra Madre Playhouse having been the Executive Director of Blue 13 Dance company and previously holding positions with Pacific Opera Project and Wild Up. Amongst the companies with which he has collaborated are Heidi Duckler Dance, Martha Graham Dance Company and Akron Khan company. He’s also a Grammy Award-winning performer.

Perhaps his biggest challenge is to find a way of making sure the Sierra Madre Playhouse makes it another 100 years and that people who live in Southern California who’ve never been to the playhouse, myself included, find out what they’re all about. Which is precisely where I started my conversation earlier this week with Cook.

What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: When you came to the Sierra Madre Playhouse beginning September 1st of last year, had the 100th celebration already been in the works, or is this something that you came up with as a way of reintroducing the Sierra Madre Playhouse to people maybe like me, who had never been? 

The board is full of stakeholders that have been in the community for a very long time, some of them 30 years. So they had it on their radar to celebrate it in some way, but it hadn’t been formalized. So this is step one, this weekend, but then we’ll hope to have a big birthday party in the summer; try to celebrate all year. So I’m just a piece of the puzzle. 

This weekend is centered primarily on Harold Lloyd’s films. What made Harold Lloyd the right person to anchor this first leg of this centennial celebration? 

He was one of the biggest stars of 1924. This whole weekend are comedies from 1924 that were either made then or released then. He was an easy choice. Our curator of the weekend is Laura Gabrielle, who is a film historian. She got in touch with Harold Lloyd’s granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, so she’s going to be a big part of it as well. We’re honoring that era. He was one of the biggest stars. 

I read an interview that Suzanne Lloyd gave to Variety last year. She said the following about her grandfather. “He, in a lot of ways, was very much like the character he portrayed on screen. He had a lot of interest in life and people and what made them tick and what he could do to make things better. He liked to promote people from writers to directors, saying, ‘Go out and do your own thing. Go and do your own movie.'” It sounds like she’s discussing the job of an artistic director at a performing arts venue. Does that sound a little bit like your job as well as his perspective of what he did with his career?

Yeah, in ways it does. With the exception that I’m also trying to look outward to the community and not just have it be what I want to do, but what do we want to do. What can be the bridge to the community and the arts. So it’s a little bit of both.

When you’re in a big metropolis or part of a metropolis that includes Los Angeles, which is a cultural center in this country, how do you balance out what is the best thing to service the immediate community around you, versus what is the thing that maybe will get more people to pay attention to you? 

That is a balancing act. We’re in a unique position that we’ve been an institution for 100 years, but this year we’re trying something brand new. That idea came up before I got here, which is why they hired me to transition into a performing arts model. What I’m trying to do is provide world class artists at a very accessible price point. This whole year is a proof of concept. What does the community want? What do they need? So we’re listening. We’re asking a lot of artists, asking a lot of community members, and we’re trying to represent not just Sierra Madre, but now Los Angeles County. We’re really trying to be the regional performing arts center in East LA. There are venues like us, in downtown, the Music Center or the Broad on the West Side and [The Soraya] in Northridge, but there’s no true performing arts space in East LA.

Those venues have 500 seats or more. They can pay an artist, if they wanted to, $75,000 for the evening. That’s not going to be us, but we can still have a world class version. We could even have the same artists, but instead of their opera, we can produce their string quartet or something. We want to have the same quality, but in an intimate setting right now.

The Sierra Madre Playhouse had been a furniture store for 16 years before it became a theater. That sounds to me like the people owned that property were seeing the writing on the wall; there were changes happening that they wanted to take advantage of. That doesn’t seem totally apart and separate from what we’re facing now. What are the challenges for you in competing, not just with some of the arts institutions that you’ve you’ve mentioned, but for things like a smart phone which seems to be the way a lot of people choose to indulge in whatever their particular passions are?

How do you face that moving forward into the next hundred years? 

I think places for people gathering will always be needed and I think the human experience will always be needed. There is a vulnerability, I think, to live theater or live singing of music you can’t replicate on a device. So I think creating an experience is the next step. So it’s like having that as a baseline but then an experience. Maybe not just a recital, but something where the artists talk to the audience to include them in the process – something they can’t get on YouTube. That’s the next step. Then making it accessible. That’s not just price point, that’s genre. That’s also day of the week, time of day. Also marketing efforts to make sure that anyone that wants to be a part of it can be. So there are many factors, but I’m not so worried about that. I don’t think theater will die. I think that we just have to be reasonable. 

We’re in an environment where Center Theatre Group has all but abandoned any sense of a season at the Mark Taper Forum. They’ve got occasional events in there, but nothing formalized like we are all become accustomed to them having. That’s the smallest space at the Music Center. Does that bode well for you?

That’s true and it’s one of the best theaters in the world. But we’re unique in that our overhead is much lower. It costs them so much money to open. I’m not sure of their exact business model and how they filter the revenue and philanthropy. But I would imagine that they need to reduce the amount of work that they put forward. Perhaps they’re too busy or [there’s] too much overhead. But I feel like we’re actually in a really good spot and that over the next five years we’ll grow a lot and then probably plateau to a really comfortable midsize range.

I was talking to Thor Steingraber at The Soraya a couple weeks ago and he was talking frankly about seismic shifts that are going on in the performing arts. For instance, there’s very little, if any, culture covered in the L.A. Times. There used to be regular sections for that. That an institution like The Soraya is competing for advertising dollars not in print, but online. But they’re competing not with other performing arts organizations, they’re competing with Nike. They’re competing with these big monolithic corporations that individual performing arts venues just don’t have the budget to do. What do you see as the main task ahead of you in finding a way of carving out that space so that people know about the Sierra Madre Playhouse? 

I think finding something that is so special that relates to them; being the individual patron for that genre, that it will cut through the noise for them. I think finding something that resonates on a human level and then trying our best to find out what marketing strategies connect with them. You know, this is brand new for me getting to present and market 60 shows at one time. 

I think part of the point for me similar to Thor is that we’re not just an opera company, it’s a performing arts center. So we have many tools to reach the communities. There’s not just one audience that we’re marketing to.

As a performer/musician yourself you’ve experienced the highs and the lows that come with this line of work. What inspires you most at this point today about the best events to produce and the best way to present them?

Problem solving in general is fun for me. My whole life of practicing was all problem solving every day. You go and you try to get better. I think being flexible and remembering that the audience taste does come first, and that’s not at the sacrifice for what I think is good. I would never present something that I don’t like, but I think really listening and thinking about audience impact is important.

Throughout my career I’ve been in many different projects, all of which I’ve loved. Early in my career, some of them were very critically successful and got awards and things like that, but they had a hard time pulling an audience in our own city. So I had to reflect on that. I think learning from the experience of my peers.

There will always be a place for what we do if we keep the intentions in the right place. We’re not a bank. The goal is not to make money. If we just wanted to make money, you know, we could do Chicago 12 months a year and do a really high Broadway quality style thing. But I’m not even sure that that would sell that long.

One of the reasons some are thriving is because they are not doing things the way you’re supposedly supposed to do them. Pacific Opera Project did a production of Madame Butterfly, seeing that in Japanese and English made me realize that I now want to hear Carmen in Spanish instead of French. How much do you think that kind of thinking is what’s necessary today?

I think it’s essential. That’s not to say that there’s not a place for doing things how they’ve always done, but it should be a piece of a much larger puzzle. I think organizations like Pacific Opera Project are really creating the path for the future. They care about the audience and the art form. And there are a lot of problems of the art form. At a certain point you say, how do I fix them? They don’t have to be a library. All these performing arts organizations don’t have to just be a library. You don’t have to be Broadway. There is space in the middle.

Partnerships are at the root of what makes performing arts organizations really thrive. Through your career, we’ve already mentioned Pacific Opera Project, but you’ve been involved with Wild Up, with Martha Graham Dance, with Heidi Suckler and countless other organizations. Do you see opportunities to partner with these organizations as an opportunity for them to try out new work in a smaller, less eyes on them way or for them to do things that they can’t do as part of their regular seasons?

Absolutely. That is how a lot of this season already got booked. What I want to do is a lot more dance, which just takes longer to develop. One of the dance companies that I’m involved with is planning to do workshops. I can’t announce it yet. I can’t pay what The Soraya can pay for one night, but what we can do is offer space. We can offer community experiences in the space that they can bring students into workshop things. Certainly that’s on the table. I think that’s a very unique market position now as well. I control the building, I control the space. So until the money’s there, we can find different ways to partner and highlight voices that couldn’t otherwise get out there. 

You’re just at the beginning of celebrating the 100th anniversary. If you could foresee the Sierra Madre Playhouse of 2124 celebrating its 200th anniversary, what would you hope that anniversary would look like? What would you like your legacy to be as part of that anniversary?

I think an expanded audience, a more inclusive and diverse audience. That is also the genres they present. The Sierra Madre Playhouse is a welcoming space to be, regardless of who you are. I think that that would be a huge accomplishment, and I think it’ll happen. There are already so many community members that have been patrons and fans for 50 years that now their kids and their grandkids are patrons. I think it’s going to happen. It’s a unique spot in a unique community. I think it’s going to last. The building might change. I don’t know if the building will hold up another hundred years, but it’ll be there, I think.

To see the full interview with Matt Cook, please go here.

Main Photo: Matt Cook, Artistic and Executive Director of the Sierra Madre Playhouse (Courtesy Sierra Madre Playhouse)

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