Robert Drasnin
Encyclopedia
Robert Drasnin is a composer
and clarinet
player.
Robert Drasnin was born on 17 November 1927 in Charleston
, West Virginia
. At an early age Drasnin was interested in the Clarinet
so he took lessons but when his family moved to Los Angeles
he wasn't to start until 1938. He attended Franklin Avenue Grammar School in East
Hollywood and then Thomas Starr King Junior High and eventually Los Angeles High School
in which he joined the American Federation of Musicians
. Drasnin went into the Army after graduation
.
In 1955 Drasnin scored the film One Way Ticket To Hell. Drasnin later went on to score incidental music for such notable TV shows as The Twilight Zone, Mission: Impossible, Wild, Wild West, Hawaii Five-0, Time Tunnel, Lost In Space, Mannix, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea.
Robert Drasnin served as music supervisor for such TV shows as Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, The Twilight Zone and a host of made for TV movies.
In 1959 Robert Drasnin received his M.A. in Music from U.C.L.A in Los Angeles
. That same year, while working at Tops Records, Drasnin was approached by David Pell, the head of the label, to create an Exotica
album. Pell wanted a record that would cash in on the popularity of the Exotica genre made popular by Martin Denny
and Arthur Lyman
. Drasnin created 12 original compositions and would spend the later part of 1959 recording the record. Among the musical peronnel was a young pianist by the name of John Williams
who would later go on to score such notable films as Star Wars
and Jaws
. The LP was released on Tops/Mayfair records in both mono and stereo versions. The cover artwork for the LP featured a photo of a woman in a leopard print bikini dancing as two loin cloth-clad men play bongos in a dark jungle-like setting, bathed in red light. The original cover art was not used in the two different compact disc
reissues of the album.
In 1977 he became Director of Music for the CBS Network.
In 2002, three selections from the 1959 Voodoo album were used in the soundtrack for the documentary film Cinemania: "Desire", "Jardine de la Noche" and "Chant of the Moon".
In 2005 Robert Drasnin was invited to perform at The Hukilau—a 3-day Hawaiian/Tiki
festival in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. A 16-piece orchestra was assembled for the performance. The show consisted of selections from his 1959 album Voodoo as well as new Exotica
-styled music that he composed after Voodoo. These new pieces would form the basis of the Voodoo II album, released in 2007.
In 2007 Robert Drasnin recorded and released Voodoo II, a followup album to his 1950 recording Voodoo. The initial recording was made in February, 2007, at Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. The orchestra was recorded live to multi-track digital hard disc using Digital Performer
recording software and Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU)
digital interfaces. The CD was produced by Skip Heller
and released on Dionysus records in June 2007. Immediately following the release of Voodoo II, Robert Drasnin again performed at the Florida, Hukilau event with a 16-piece orchestra. The 2007 performance comprised compositions from both the Voodoo and Voodoo II releases.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
player.
Robert Drasnin was born on 17 November 1927 in Charleston
Charleston, West Virginia
Charleston is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 census, it has a population of 51,400, and its metropolitan area 304,214. It is the county seat of Kanawha County.Early...
, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
. At an early age Drasnin was interested in the Clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
so he took lessons but when his family moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
he wasn't to start until 1938. He attended Franklin Avenue Grammar School in East
East
East is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.East is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of west and is perpendicular to north and south.By convention, the right side of a map is east....
Hollywood and then Thomas Starr King Junior High and eventually Los Angeles High School
Los Angeles High School
Los Angeles High School is the oldest public high school in the Southern California Region and in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Its colors are blue and white and the teams are called the Romans....
in which he joined the American Federation of Musicians
American Federation of Musicians
The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada is a labor union of professional musicians in the United States and Canada...
. Drasnin went into the Army after graduation
Graduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
.
Career
Robert Drasnin spent the vast majority of his career in music composing for films and television shows. He composed or supervised scores for well over 100 films and TV shows.In 1955 Drasnin scored the film One Way Ticket To Hell. Drasnin later went on to score incidental music for such notable TV shows as The Twilight Zone, Mission: Impossible, Wild, Wild West, Hawaii Five-0, Time Tunnel, Lost In Space, Mannix, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea.
Robert Drasnin served as music supervisor for such TV shows as Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, The Twilight Zone and a host of made for TV movies.
In 1959 Robert Drasnin received his M.A. in Music from U.C.L.A in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. That same year, while working at Tops Records, Drasnin was approached by David Pell, the head of the label, to create an Exotica
Exotica
Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny album of the same title, popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s, typically with the suburban set who came of age during World War II. The musical colloquialism, exotica, means tropical ersatz: the non-native, pseudo experience of Oceania...
album. Pell wanted a record that would cash in on the popularity of the Exotica genre made popular by Martin Denny
Martin Denny
Martin Denny was an American piano-player and composer best known as the "father of exotica." In a long career that saw him performing well into his 80s, he toured the world popularizing his brand of lounge music which included exotic percussion, imaginative rearrangements of popular songs, and...
and Arthur Lyman
Arthur Lyman
Arthur Lyman was an American jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His group popularized a style of faux-Polynesian music during the 1950s and 1960s which later became known as exotica...
. Drasnin created 12 original compositions and would spend the later part of 1959 recording the record. Among the musical peronnel was a young pianist by the name of John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
who would later go on to score such notable films as Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
and Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
. The LP was released on Tops/Mayfair records in both mono and stereo versions. The cover artwork for the LP featured a photo of a woman in a leopard print bikini dancing as two loin cloth-clad men play bongos in a dark jungle-like setting, bathed in red light. The original cover art was not used in the two different compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
reissues of the album.
In 1977 he became Director of Music for the CBS Network.
In 2002, three selections from the 1959 Voodoo album were used in the soundtrack for the documentary film Cinemania: "Desire", "Jardine de la Noche" and "Chant of the Moon".
In 2005 Robert Drasnin was invited to perform at The Hukilau—a 3-day Hawaiian/Tiki
Tiki
Tiki refers to large wood and stone carvings of humanoid forms in Central Eastern Polynesian cultures of the Pacific Ocean. The term is also used in Māori mythology where Tiki is the first man, created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne. He found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond – she seduced him...
festival in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. A 16-piece orchestra was assembled for the performance. The show consisted of selections from his 1959 album Voodoo as well as new Exotica
Exotica
Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny album of the same title, popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s, typically with the suburban set who came of age during World War II. The musical colloquialism, exotica, means tropical ersatz: the non-native, pseudo experience of Oceania...
-styled music that he composed after Voodoo. These new pieces would form the basis of the Voodoo II album, released in 2007.
In 2007 Robert Drasnin recorded and released Voodoo II, a followup album to his 1950 recording Voodoo. The initial recording was made in February, 2007, at Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. The orchestra was recorded live to multi-track digital hard disc using Digital Performer
Digital Performer
Digital Performer is a full-featured Digital Audio Workstation/Sequencer software package published by Mark of the Unicorn of Cambridge, Massachusetts for the Apple Macintosh platform.-Ancestry:...
recording software and Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU)
MOTU
MOTU can refer to:*Mark of the Unicorn, a music-related computer software and hardware supplier.*Masters of the Universe, a toy and media franchise by Mattel....
digital interfaces. The CD was produced by Skip Heller
Skip Heller
Fred "Skip" Heller , although active in many different types of music as a performer, producer, and historian coming out of the Philadelphia jazz scene, he never made much of a mark in his hometown despite local critical recognition....
and released on Dionysus records in June 2007. Immediately following the release of Voodoo II, Robert Drasnin again performed at the Florida, Hukilau event with a 16-piece orchestra. The 2007 performance comprised compositions from both the Voodoo and Voodoo II releases.
Personal life
Robert Drasnin has been married to the former Marlene Waters since 1956. They have three children: Morgen, Jennifer, and a son Michael.Albums as a composer
- Voodoo (1959), Tops/Mayfair Records, vinyl [9679S](stereo)
- Chat of The Moon/Voodoo 45 RPM single (1959), Tops [45-S 316] Stereo
- Percussion Exotique (1960), Tops Records vinyl [L-1694], retitled issue of Voodoo with different cover artwork
- Voodoo CD Reissue (1996), Dionysus Records, reissued from a virgin LP master with different cover artwork by artist Shag.
- Exotic Excursion (October, 1996), Pickwick Records. CD reissue of Voodoo from the original master tapes. NOTE: only 10 of the original 12 tracks were presented on this CD release.
- Voodoo II (2007), Dionysus Records, CD
Albums as a musician
- It's New, It's Nice, It's Norvo (1956) (by the Red NorvoRed NorvoRed Norvo was one of jazz's early vibraphonists, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone, marimba and later the vibraphone as viable jazz instruments...
Quintet) - Ken Hanna and his Orchestra
- Blues at Norm's (1963)
- Norvo...Naturally! (1957)
- Vibe-Rations (1956)
- "Couch, Los Angeles", Skip Heller, Mouthpiece Records, CD, R. Drasnin: clarinet
- "The Blue Dahlia" (2000), Stardust Records, CD, Robert Drasnin: Flute & Clarinet
- "Homegoing", Skip Heller (2002), Innova Records, CD, R. Drasnin: flut * alto saxophone
- "Man From U.N.C.L.E., Volume 2" (2003), Film Score Monthly, limited edition 2 CD set—limited to 3000 copies
- Jewbilee (2005)
- "Lost in Space - 40th Anniversary Edition" (2006), La La Land Records, 2 CD set contains at least 3 cues composed by Drasnin
- "Lua-O-Milo", Skip Heller, (2009), Dionysus Records, CD
Television Scores (partial)
"Episode(s)" denotes the listing may be incomplete.| Year | Title | Info | On CD? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Hondo Hondo -Places:*Rio Hondo, the name of several locations*Hondo, Texas, a city in the United States*Hondo, New Mexico*Hondo, Kumamoto, a city in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan: old name for the main Japanese island of Honshū-Fiction:... |
Episode(s): "Accused" |
NO |
| 1977 | "CHiPs" | All episodes (season 1)): "Taking Its Toll"" "Name Your Price" Music re-used in two other Season 1 episodes. |
NO |