Starr Parodi: Musician Finds Magic in 1928 Piano
Film Composer Scores One for Herself
by Amy Wagner
The story of musician and composer Starr Parodi and her Steinway piano is the kind of thing you would expect to see in a movie and, coincidentally, it would be a good fit, considering that both instrument and player share a long-standing relationship with the sliver screen.
Parodi's piano, which has been a constant inspiration to her, isn't just any old instrument. After all, this particular Steinway played a starring role during the glory days of MGM Studios when melodies from classic films like The Wizard of Oz were tinkled across its keys—the wonders of its sound frozen on celluloid forever.
Starr Parodi discovered the piano in Riverside, Calif., about 10 years ago. "I ended up at this guy's ranch and he had about seven or eight pianos at his house and this one particular one really spoke to me," she remembers. "It's just got a magical feel to it. It's a lovely, lovely instrument."
That special Steinway has probably known many places and players through the years, but it couldn't have found a better or more appropriate owner than Parodi. As one half of a film composer team called Parodi Fair (the other half is her husband, Jeff Fair), the gentle-voiced musician is something of a maverick. There aren't many women who do what she does as well and as successfully. Here's an example. Say you're a studio head and you're looking for someone to compose music for the trailer for a big budget action film. Who do you call? The answer is most likely Starr Parodi.
The music mover and shaker got her start at 20 years of age ghostwriting music for television shows and playing keyboards as part of the house band on the Arsenio Hall Show. Things really took off, though, when she met fellow musician Jeff Fair. The pair were engaged a week after their first date and are now celebrating 15 years of marriage, a 3-year-old daughter and a resume that boasts line after line of A-list projects.
"It was in 1995, just when studios were beginning to do remakes of big action films," she recalls. "We had just started doing movie trailers and the head of creative advertising at MGM called us and said, 'We'd love it if you'd come up with some ideas to bring James Bond into these times and try to update the theme.'"
The pair set about recording a demo that reworked the classic cocky Bond theme into something dark and moodier. MGM jumped at Parodi Fair's new theme and they landed the job of scoring the trailer for the 1997 007 picture Goldeneye. Their updated theme was also heard in the trailers for three more Bond films: The World is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day. In addition to providing service for Mr. Bond, the popular twosome also worked on a slew of other blockbusters, including X-Men 3 and War of the Worlds. In their nonexistent spare time, Parodi and Fair also compose original music for theatrical and made-for-television films.
"I think one of the great advantages that I have working with Jeff is that we really bounce ideas off each other," she explains. "If I have an idea and I'm wondering if it's something that's really going to work, I know if I ask him that he'll tell me the truth."
For a woman like Starr Parodi, whose musical talents are constantly in demand, it's almost impossible to imagine that she would have time for the happy accident that became her latest solo album, Common Places (Sonic Doppler Records). Released in October 2006, the disc features a collection of piano improvisations, which include original works as well as Parodi Fair's version of the James Bond theme and a glorious take on the still timely Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth."
But nonetheless, that's how it came to be. "It wasn't planned," admits Parodi. "The piano has just always been kind of a touchstone for me, a place that I always go to to find peace and solace and kind of collect myself."
It all started when Parodi and her husband made their annual trip to a music trade show. In the middle of the piano section, she sat down and began improvising. Soon a crowd started to gather, entranced by the melodies. "Jeff was watching and said to me, 'You know, you really should do a piano record,'" she says.
A short time later, the two were in between projects, so they set up some microphones, Parodi took her place behind the piano and the magic started to flow. "I recorded a few songs over a period of a couple of days," she explains. "I did several takes of just dramatic ideas and improvisations on those ideas and I figured I'd go back later to see if I had anything."
After recording the title track, "Common Places," the rest of the album flew together quickly, and now with it available in stores and on parodifair.com, Starr Parodi is enjoying some new experiences.
"I think the nature of composers in general is that you always want to be doing the next thing," she surmises. "I think doing this record for me has been so satisfying that instead of wanting to be doing the next thing, I'm very committed to supporting it and exploring where it's going to take me."
Though releasing an album of piano improvisations may not offer the same kind of exposure for a woman used to having her music heard by millions of popcorn-munching movie-goers, she isn't lingering on the numbers. "I just resolved myself to not say that the grass is always greener," she offers.
And with her historic Steinway always close at hand, it's a safe bet that Parodi and her piano will embark on many more musical journeys together.
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