Bob Telson
Encyclopedia
Robert "Bob" Eria Telson (born May 14, 1949) is an American
composer, songwriter, and pianist
best known for his work in musical theater and film, for which he has received Tony
, Pulitzer
, and Academy Award nominations. He is currently living and working in Argentina
.
, France
, in 1949. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, son of Paula (née Blackman) and David Telson. He began studying piano
when he was five years old. By nine had already performed a Mozart piece on television and given a concert of his own compositions. At 14, he wrote 72 love songs for his first girlfriend, Margie. At 15 and 16 he studied organ
, counterpoint
and harmony
in France
with the teacher Nadia Boulanger
. He followed this with a degree in music from Harvard University
in 1970. Telson also played organ and composed original songs for a rock band called The Bristols while he was a high school student at Poly Prep in Brooklyn
, New York
. Several of these were recorded at Decca studios
but never released. At Harvard, he formed another group called Groundspeed, which brought him back to the Decca studios in 1967 to record a demo recording of his songs "L-12 East" and "In a Dream" with producer Dick Jacobs
. This was released by the label in 1968. Groundspeed also featured high school classmate and session drummer Mike Jacobs along with Harvard friends Jesse Miller
(guitar), Rick Scheuer (bass) and Ken Kyle (vocals). After the demise of Groundspeed, Telson formed the band Revolutionary Music Collective, probably most notable for having Bonnie Raitt
, then Telson's occasional girlfriend, singing lead vocals.
After graduation from Harvard, Telson’s first professional work was as a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble
from 1972-1974. After that began his immersion in ethnic world musics, as the pianist of salsa
bandleaders Tito Puente
and Machito
. He was then organist of the gospel group Five Blind Boys of Alabama, for whom he also composed, arranged and produced. Collaborating with director/writer Lee Breuer
, in 1983 he composed the musical The Gospel at Colonus
, an adaptation of Sophocles
's Oedipus
tale, featuring Morgan Freeman
, the Five Blind Boys
and the Soul Stirrers. Newsweek Magazine called it: "The best white man’s capturings of the essence of black music since Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess
."
As a composer, Telson received an Academy Award nomination for his song "Calling You" from the movie Bagdad Café
, as well as Pulitzer, Grammy and Tony Award
nominations for his Broadway
musicals "The Gospel at Colonus" and "Chronicle of a Death Foretold", an adaptation of the Gabriel García Márquez
novel.
Telson has composed soundtracks for American, French, German and Argentinian films (including five for Percy Adlon
), as well as a ballet score for Twyla Tharp
(Sextet
) His songs have been recorded by many international artists, such as Barbra Streisand
, Natalie Cole
, George Benson
, Joe Cocker
, Celine Dion
, Wynton Marsalis
, k.d. lang
, Shawn Colvin
, Caetano Veloso
, Gal Costa
and George Michael
.
According to The New York Times
: "Mr. Telson has a remarkable talent for relating to musicians from diverse musical cultures and for writing stirring, dramatic music in non-Western European idioms." They also described his music as "a compendium of world music styles brilliantly reimagined, embellished and sometimes made to overlap by Mr. Telson, a classically trained American composer and multi-instrumentalist".
with his wife, Argentine singer Isabel de Sebastián, and their two sons, David and Dylan Telson. His latest CD, comprising nine of Telson's songs from film and musical theater, is called Trip.
BAGDAD CAFE (soundtrack)/ Island Records 1989
CALLING YOU (Bob Telson)/ Warner Bros. 1992
AN ANT ALONE- SONGS FROM THE WARRIOR ANT (Little Village)/ Rykodisk 1991
LA VIDA SEGUN MURIEL (soundtrack)/ Polygram 1997
TRIP (Isabel de Sebastian & Bob Telson)/ Acqua 2008
links: personal website: www.bobtelson.com
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer, songwriter, and pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
best known for his work in musical theater and film, for which he has received Tony
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
, Pulitzer
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
, and Academy Award nominations. He is currently living and working in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.
Biography
Robert Eria Telson was born in CannesCannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, in 1949. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, son of Paula (née Blackman) and David Telson. He began studying piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
when he was five years old. By nine had already performed a Mozart piece on television and given a concert of his own compositions. At 14, he wrote 72 love songs for his first girlfriend, Margie. At 15 and 16 he studied organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
and harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
with the teacher Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
. He followed this with a degree in music from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1970. Telson also played organ and composed original songs for a rock band called The Bristols while he was a high school student at Poly Prep in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Several of these were recorded at Decca studios
Decca Studios
Decca Studios was a recording facility in Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead, North London, England.Famously, The Beatles failed their audition with Decca Records at the location on 1 January 1962, and subsequently signed with Parlophone instead....
but never released. At Harvard, he formed another group called Groundspeed, which brought him back to the Decca studios in 1967 to record a demo recording of his songs "L-12 East" and "In a Dream" with producer Dick Jacobs
Dick Jacobs
Dick Jacobs was an American musician, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, music director and an artists-and-repertoire director for several record labels who helped Jackie Wilson, Buddy Holly, Bobby Darin and others form their careers in the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Life and career:He was born...
. This was released by the label in 1968. Groundspeed also featured high school classmate and session drummer Mike Jacobs along with Harvard friends Jesse Miller
Jesse Miller
Jesse Miller was a Jacksonian member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.Jesse Miller was born near Landisburg, Pennsylvania. He was the first clerk to county commissioner of Perry County, Pennsylvania, from 1820 to 1823. He was sheriff of Perry County from 1823 to 1826...
(guitar), Rick Scheuer (bass) and Ken Kyle (vocals). After the demise of Groundspeed, Telson formed the band Revolutionary Music Collective, probably most notable for having Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, then Telson's occasional girlfriend, singing lead vocals.
After graduation from Harvard, Telson’s first professional work was as a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble
Philip Glass Ensemble
The Philip Glass Ensemble is a musical group founded by composer Philip Glass in 1968 to serve as a performance outlet for his experimental minimalist music. The Ensemble's instrumentation became a hallmark of Glass' early minimalist style...
from 1972-1974. After that began his immersion in ethnic world musics, as the pianist of salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
bandleaders Tito Puente
Tito Puente
Tito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...
and Machito
Machito
Machito , born as Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, was an influential Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music...
. He was then organist of the gospel group Five Blind Boys of Alabama, for whom he also composed, arranged and produced. Collaborating with director/writer Lee Breuer
Lee Breuer
Lee Breuer is an American academic, educator, film maker, poet, lyricist, writer and stage director.-Work with Mabou Mines:Lee Breuer is a founding artistic director of Mabou Mines Theater Company in New York City, which he began in 1970 with colleagues Philip Glass, Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne...
, in 1983 he composed the musical The Gospel at Colonus
The Gospel at Colonus
The Gospel at Colonus is a gospel version of Sophocles's tragedy, Oedipus at Colonus. The show was created in New York City in 1985 by the experimental-theatre director Lee Breuer, one of the founders of the seminal American avant-garde theatre company Mabou Mines, and composer Bob Telson. The...
, an adaptation of Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
's Oedipus
Oedipus
Oedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family...
tale, featuring Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won...
, the Five Blind Boys
The Blind Boys of Alabama
The Blind Boys of Alabama are a gospel group from Alabama that first formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind at Talladega, Alabama in 1939. The three main vocalists of the group and their drummer/percussionist are all blind....
and the Soul Stirrers. Newsweek Magazine called it: "The best white man’s capturings of the essence of black music since Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
."
As a composer, Telson received an Academy Award nomination for his song "Calling You" from the movie Bagdad Café
Bagdad Café
Bagdad Café is a 1987 German film directed by Percy Adlon.The film is a comedy set in a remote truck-stop café and motel in the Mojave Desert. The plot is centered around two women who have recently separated from their husbands, and the blossoming friendship which ensues. It ran 95 minutes in...
, as well as Pulitzer, Grammy and Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nominations for his Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musicals "The Gospel at Colonus" and "Chronicle of a Death Foretold", an adaptation of the Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
novel.
Telson has composed soundtracks for American, French, German and Argentinian films (including five for Percy Adlon
Percy Adlon
Percy Adlon is a German film and television director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his film Bagdad Café aka Out of Rosenheim.-Biography:...
), as well as a ballet score for Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp is an American dancer and choreographer, who lives and works in New York City.-Early years:Tharp was born in 1941 on a farm in Portland, Indiana, and was named after Twila Thornburg, the "Pig Princess" of the 89th Annual Muncie Fair in Indiana.she spend hours working on it to help her...
(Sextet
Sextet
A sextet is a formation containing exactly six members. It is commonly associated with vocal or musical instrument groups, but can be applied to any situation where six similar or related objects are considered a single unit....
) His songs have been recorded by many international artists, such as Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...
, George Benson
George Benson
George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
, Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
, Celine Dion
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...
, Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
, k.d. lang
K.D. Lang
Kathryn Dawn Lang, OC , known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress...
, Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin is an American singer-songwriter and musician.-Childhood and early career:Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota. Her formative years were spent in the town of Carbondale, Illinois, where she attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She learned to play guitar at the age...
, Caetano Veloso
Caetano Veloso
Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso , better known as Caetano Veloso, is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo which encompassed theatre, poetry and music in the 1960s,...
, Gal Costa
Gal Costa
Gal Costa is a Brazilian singer of popular music.-Early life:...
and George Michael
George Michael
George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
.
According to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
: "Mr. Telson has a remarkable talent for relating to musicians from diverse musical cultures and for writing stirring, dramatic music in non-Western European idioms." They also described his music as "a compendium of world music styles brilliantly reimagined, embellished and sometimes made to overlap by Mr. Telson, a classically trained American composer and multi-instrumentalist".
Current work
Telson currently resides in Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
with his wife, Argentine singer Isabel de Sebastián, and their two sons, David and Dylan Telson. His latest CD, comprising nine of Telson's songs from film and musical theater, is called Trip.
Musical theater
- Sister Suzie Cinema – premiere: 1980 NY Public Theater / collaboration with Lee Breuer
- The Gospel at ColonusThe Gospel at ColonusThe Gospel at Colonus is a gospel version of Sophocles's tragedy, Oedipus at Colonus. The show was created in New York City in 1985 by the experimental-theatre director Lee Breuer, one of the founders of the seminal American avant-garde theatre company Mabou Mines, and composer Bob Telson. The...
– 1983 Brooklyn Academy of Music / collaboration with Lee Breuer/ 1988 Broadway, still touring internationally - The Warrior Ant – 1988 Brooklyn Academy of Music/ collaboration with Lee Breuer
- Chronicle of a Death ForetoldChronicle of a Death Foretold (musical)Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a musical with a book and lyrics by Graciela Daniele and Jim Lewis and music by Bob Telson...
– 1995 Broadway/ produced by Lincoln Center - Bagdad Cafe the Musical: toured in Europe 2004-6/ collaboration with Percy Adlon and Lee Breuer
Discography
THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS (original cast recording)/ Nonesuch 1988BAGDAD CAFE (soundtrack)/ Island Records 1989
CALLING YOU (Bob Telson)/ Warner Bros. 1992
AN ANT ALONE- SONGS FROM THE WARRIOR ANT (Little Village)/ Rykodisk 1991
LA VIDA SEGUN MURIEL (soundtrack)/ Polygram 1997
TRIP (Isabel de Sebastian & Bob Telson)/ Acqua 2008
links: personal website: www.bobtelson.com