Anthony Marinelli

Carmine Marinelli (Left), Zubin Mehta
and Anthony Marinelli (2012)

Anthony Marinelli is the son of Carmine Marinelli (born in Vinchiaturo, Molise), the former Master of Properties at the Dorothy Chandler performing arts center.[12] Marinelli took an interest in his father's work and was exposed to operas, ballet, musicals and symphonies during his childhood.[13] Marinelli was personally introduced to Charlie Chaplin, Frank Sinatra, Zubin Mehta and Katharine Hepburn. He attended the annual Academy Award ceremonies with his family, beginning at age nine.[14]

Marinelli became interested in analog synthesizers in his teenage years. His piano instructor knew of another student with these interests and introduced Marinelli to Brian Banks. Marinelli and Banks became known for performances as a synthesizer duo, including as an opener for the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1980.[20]

KFAC live simulcasts from the
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Marinelli and Banks, August 1979 and January 1980.

Live KFAC radio broadcast classical works such as Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, Fugue in G minor, "Little", BWV 578, Beethoven Symphony No 8 in F Major, Tchaikovsky Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture and other performances as Marinelli's synthesizer group The Synners expanded their reach.[7]

Marinelli and Banks then teamed with Emmy Award-winning composer Arthur B. Rubinstein, creating one of the first known digitally synthesized musical scores, Blue Thunder, released in 1983.[21] The trio joined with Cynthia Morrow as The Beepers, and their songs, "Video Fever" and "Long Line Leading To Men", made the soundtrack for the 1983 film, WarGames.[22] The Beepers song "Theme from Blue Thunder (Murphy's Law)" was used in Blue Thunder with an instrumental version closing the film.[23]

The film industry expressed interest in synthesizer technology while Banks and Marinelli simultaneously emerged as experts in the practical-application of the new technology.[24] Banks and Marinelli made a "polaroid" of the Quincy Jones soundtrack for The Color Purple (1985) available to director Steven Spielberg during filming and editing. This process allowed the score to be completely written before orchestral musicians were hired.[2][21]

"...Anthony got very involved with consulting for the development of the Synclavier. A lot of things that are on the instrument are our fault! It's a nice feeling to be involved in the development of a musical instrument."

—Brian Banks, "Synthesizer Upstarts Conquer Hollywood", Keyboard, Sept. 1987, by Jeff Burger[21]

From 1977 to 1983, Marinelli's Synner Productions worked from a converted pool-house at his parents' home, eventually equipped with a New England Digital Synclavier II, 24 track analog tape and mixer, and Dolby Spectral Recording with noise reduction for film projects. Marinelli moved into digital with a Synclavier Direct to Disk synthesizer and digital tape prior to renovating and moving the studio to a circa 1913, Art Deco style, building at 1606 N Highland in Hollywood.[7]

Marinelli explained in a 1987 interview, "We did what we call Polaroids— we did the whole score before it was recorded by orchestra."[21](p. 62) The use of the term "polaroids," which are now called orchestral mockups, was borrowed from the Polaroid instant camera, which delivered color prints moments after taking a picture. In a 2007 interview, Quincy Jones reflected briefly on how the polariod concept revolutionized film and recording industry work-flow process.[32]

Banks and Marinelli spend a lot of time assisting film composers in the studio and were responsible for the first digital synthesis and sampling for a film with "Blue Thunder" and programmed and performed the first polaroid (orchestral simulation) of the entire musical score for "The Color Purple".

"As far as we know, this was the first time this had ever been done," Marinelli said.

—"Sonar Prods. specializes in synthesizing", The Hollywood Reporter, by Bill Desowitz, June 4, 1986.[33]

Synthesizer technology was a controversial addition to the film industry, a lack of understanding came from professional orchestral musicians. Having a synthesist present can minimize the need to hire larger sections of musicians. Additionally, musician time can be reduced by having the arrangements realized with synthesizers to match the edited film before performing the score with a live orchestra.[21](pp. 70, 72) Because of these factors, synthesists were initially considered a threat to employment from the musician's union.[21](p. 72) As musicians, these concerns were not lost on Marinelli and Banks, their proposal for the overdub scale (synthesist's scale) was accepted by the union in 1985. "We came up with a proposal that synthesists should be paid by the hour at an inflated rate, with an unlimited amount of overdubs, doubles or anything else they're called upon to do."[21](p. 72)

In The Family Way (2006)
Los Angeles Philharmonic

Composer Anthony Marinelli (left)
Actress/comedian Julia Sweeney
Conductor Lucas Richman (right)

Orchestral works, which have gained wider recognition for Marinelli, include the score for the biopic Chapter 27 (2007), using a 60 piece orchestra with the score being similar instrumentally to Tchaikovsky's, Nutcracker Suite.[15] In the Family Way was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring the comedy of Julia Sweeney at the Hollywood Bowl on August 25 and 26, 2006.[34]

Marinelli composed a tone poem, In the Family Way, featuring narration by writer/actress Julia Sweeney, Commissioned by the L.A. Philharmonic, the 22-minute piece, performed for 2 nights with a 90 piece orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, is based on Sweeny's adoption of a baby from China and her travels as a single parent.

—"Award Winning Film Composer", Music Connection, by Dan Kimpel, January 1, 2007[15]

At the onset, the combination of musician, arranger, orchestrator and synthesist was in high demand.[21](p. 58) Later, Marinelli's credentials and formal training provided the opportunity to also conduct orchestras. Marinelli has stated that he had put his analog synthesizers in storage and had worked without them for about a decade.[7]

In addition to composing, Marinelli conducted orchestras on the following feature films: Flynn (1993), Hacks (1997), Gideon (1998), Scar City (1998), The Runner (1999), Slow Burn (2000), 15 Minutes (2001) starring Robert De Niro and Edward Burns and The Man from Elysian Fields (2001) starring Andy Garcia, Mick Jagger and Olivia Williams. The made for television films, Don King: Only in America (1997) and Songs in Ordinary Time (2000) were also composed and conducted by Marinelli.[7]

Marinelli was exposed to and studied the styles of many modern composers. His early success in the film industry began with the patronage of jazz/pop composer and producer Quincy Jones, classical composer and conductor Arthur B. Rubinstein, pop/disco songwriter and producer Giorgio Moroder, and classic-rock composer and arranger Jack Nitzsche.

For Quincy Jones, Marinelli and former partner Brian Banks are credited with performance and synthesizer programming on Michael Jackson's Thriller album including the title track.[1] In film, they provided a pre-production synthesized orchestra recording of Quincy Jones' score for The Color Purple (1985), allowing Jones and Steven Spielberg to adjust the score during editing and present a completed work to the orchestral musicians. The final score for the film was orchestrated rather than synthesized with some exceptions; for instance, the sound of a leaky roof landing in tin-cans in Cilie's living room segues into a musical piece played on an African kalimba.[2] Additional titles where Marinelli has worked on Quincy Jones' productions include: The Slugger's Wife (1985), Tango & Cash (1989) and Cadillac Man (1990).[27]

Emmy Award-winning composer and conductor Arthur B. Rubinstein relied on Marinelli and Banks for the Rubinstein scored films, Blue Thunder (1983) and WarGames (1983). Marinelli is also credited on the Rubinstein score for Best of Times (1986), and Marinelli and Banks are credited on Stakeout (1987).[27] Accustomed to working with classically trained musicians, Rubinstein joined in a musical group with Marinelli, Banks and vocalist Cynthia Morrow called The Beepers. Songs from The Beepers include "Murphy's Law", the theme song for Blue Thunder,[23] "Video Fever" and "History Lesson" in WarGames.[22]

Three-time Academy Award winner Giorgio Moroder used Marinelli and Banks on the soundtracks for Cat People (1982), Over the Top (1987), Let it Ride (1989). Marinelli's solo work with Moroder includes: The World (1988), The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (1990), Moroder and Marinelli co-composed the score together for Jackpot (1992).[27] Oscar-winning composer Jack Nitzsche brought Marinelli and Banks industry credit with Streets of Gold (1986) the Oscar nominated films, Starman (1984) and Stand By Me (1986).[27]

A significant milestone for Marinelli and Banks was composing the original score to the #1 box-office hit, Young Guns (1988),[3][35] prior to their ending their partnership in 1993. Still completing numerous feature films per year, Marinelli's responsibilities increased, more often working with directors rather than in support roles under other composers. With the transition from a partnership in Sonar Productions to the sole proprietor of Music Forever, Marinelli also worked on television commercials.[9]

Marinelli continued composing with filmmaker and composer Mike Figgis, writing the theme for Leaving Las Vegas in 1995 and co-composing the scores on Internal Affairs (1990), Timecode (2000) and Hotel (2001).[27] Timecode is a 90-minute experimental film, performed live and filmed on four time-synchronized, hand-held digital cameras. Combining music composition techniques with film-making, the script was developed during single-take rehearsal performances by writer/director Figgis and the actors themselves. Each actor recorded personal script notes on blank, four octave, music paper, with each octave representing a camera view and vertical separations representing each minute of camera time capacity. The film is presented with each camera point-of-view as one fourth of the screen, dialog and music determines which of the four screen-frames is the active frame at that particular moment in time.[36] For special screenings in Los Angeles area theaters, Figgis and Marinelli created alternate/spontaneous live mixes of the dialogue and music from the back of the theater. This allowed new story lines to unfold since the audience could hear dialogue from screen frames not active in the original released version.[37]

Dr. John (left) and Anthony Marinelli

My Sexiest Year (2007)
Studio X, Seattle, WA

Marinelli scored the critically acclaimed release of George Hickenlooper's Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2004) documentary. The film is a montage of musicians such as (David Bowie, Cher, Blondie); a cast of Rodney Bingenheimer's "A-list" friends, "God heads" as he calls them. Bingenheimer is an autograph hound, turned groupie, turned unlikely star-maker via his trendy punk styled club, English Disco and as a long running disc-jockey for KROQ in Los Angeles.[38]

A sampling of Marinelli's solitary composing credits for feature film include: The Man from Elysian Fields (2001), starring Andy Garcia and Mick Jagger,[29] the critically acclaimed independent film, Self Medicated (2005), Jarrett Schaefer's controversial, Chapter 27 (2007), a biography of John Lennon's assassination,[27] My Sexiest Year (2007) which gave Marinelli the opportunity to perform and write songs with Dr John,[9] and Jada Pinkett Smith's, The Human Contract (2008).[39] Recent completions include: Altergeist (2014), written and directed by Tedi Sarafian,[40] Medicine Men (2015), starring Liza Weil, Shawn Hatosy and James LeGros, and Midnight Return (2015), written and directed by Sally Sussman Morina.

Marinelli's discography includes: Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982); Don Felder's Airborne (1983); Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down (1983); Supertramp's Brother Where You Bound (1985); Kenny Loggins's Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (1988) and Back to Avalon (1988). Marinelli has worked with recording artists James Brown, Herb Alpert, The Crystal Method, Billy Childs and Quincy Jones. Marinelli arranges and performs classical ballads and boleros with Cindy Gomez and Asdru Sierra (Ozomatli) in a multilingual group they call Trio Retro.

Marinelli has been honored with Daytime Emmy Honors Award, Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series, for his work on Santa Babara (1986–87).[6] His 1993 score for the film My Forgotten Man earned him an AACTA Award nomination.[45] His work includes critically acclaimed commercials and public service announcements such as the fried egg version of This Is Your Brain on Drugs (1987), which Entertainment Weekly named the 8th best commercial of all time.[8]

• Official website