Musikvergnuegen, Sherman Oaks, Calif., scored the spot "Motorcycle," via Grey Advertising, New York, promoting Canon’s Rebel camera and featuring tennis great Andre Agassi. Walter Werzowa and John Luker composed the jazzy, orchestral music to accompany Agassi competing in a game called "fireball" on a motorcycle. George Jecel of bicoastal The End directed the spot….A contingent of composers from Hank Smith Music, San Francisco—Blaise Smith, Mark Harrison, Michael Lande, Terbo Ted, Piero Ornelas, John Tejada and Sean Heskett—has wrapped an 11-spot Polaroid package directed by Peter Care of bicoastal/international Satellite for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. The spots showcase Polaroid’s new I-Zone and Joy Cam cameras and sticky film in a variety of fun scenarios, including foosball games and motor scooter rides…. Monster Tracks, a division of Baker Sound Studios, Philadelphia, has produced music out of CCP, Wayne, Pa., for short promotional films touting a new line of Mattel trucks and the Mattel Car Wash….Kim Carnes sang two theme songs for the Cleveland Browns this summer: "Dawg Fever" and "Somebody Let the Dawgs Out." Both were played during local NFL broadcasts on WKYC-TV, Cleveland, and at the stadium during its home games. The tunes were written by company president Randy Wachtler and songwriter Greg Barnhill via 615 Music Productions, Nashville. Micki Barnes of WKYC-TV was the creative services director on that project….The music for food.com’s 16 spots out of Blazing Paradigm, San Francisco, was recorded, edited and mixed at One Union Recording Studios, San Francisco. The simple vignette spots for the online food delivery service feature music sound designed by Andy Newell out of Earwax, San Francisco. Melissa Bolton of bicoastal Shelter Films directed the spots….Brad Music Detroit/ Chicago’s Brad Fairman and Tommy Coster composed the music for the spot "Use Your Head" for client Shower Shine via Foote, Cone & Belding, Chicago; director was Tom Kwilosz of There TV, Chicago….Brad Music’s John Nixon and Colton Park Weatherston scored a five-spot package—"Cadillac Eldorado," "Lesson Seville," "Learning Curve DeVille," "Accelerated Program Catera" and "Don’t Let Anything Stop Your Escalade"—for Cadillac Motor Car Division out of DMB&B, Detroit….Hollywood-based Megatrax Production Music has acquired the rights to "The Unlimited Classics Collection," comprised of 105 CDs of music by composers including Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. The collection was acquired from Mazur Media in Wedemark, Germany. The deal allows the company to exclusively license the collection for use in film, TV, advertising, audiovisual and multimedia projects throughout the U.S., Mexico, and Central and South America….
James Earl Jones, Lauded Actor and Voice of Darth Vader, Dies At 93
James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen — eventually lending his deep, commanding voice to CNN, "The Lion King" and Darth Vader — has died. He was 93.
His agent, Barry McPherson, confirmed Jones died Monday morning at home in New York's Hudson Valley region. The cause was not immediately clear.
The pioneering Jones, who was one of the first African American actors in a continuing role on a daytime drama and worked deep into his 80s, won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors and was given an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor.
He cut an elegant figure late in life, with a wry sense of humor and a ferocious work habit. In 2015, he arrived at rehearsals for a Broadway run of "The Gin Game" having already memorized the play and with notebooks filled with comments from the creative team. He said he was always in service of the work.
"The need to storytell has always been with us," he told The Associated Press then. "I think it first happened around campfires when the man came home and told his family he got the bear, the bear didn't get him."
Jones created such memorable film roles as the reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in "Field of Dreams," the boxer Jack Johnson in the stage and screen hit "The Great White Hope," the writer Alex Haley in "Roots: The Next Generation" and a South African minister in "Cry, the Beloved Country."
He was also a sought-after voice actor, expressing the villainy of Darth Vader ("No, I am your father," commonly misremembered as "Luke, I am your father"), as... Read More