[Trombone-l] Spike Lees Credits Musicians

[Bill Dinwiddie]

Some months ago, I wrote the following e-mail and sent it to the List. I am 
currently involved in trying to get the Musician's union to write a letter 
of appreciation to Spike Lee, because of his practice of crediting the 
musicians who play on the soundtracks of his movies.

Here is a bad copy of the e-mail I wrote at that time:

>> OK, so I had nothing to do Friday night, so I went to see this movie
>> which
>> looked pretty good, called "Inside Man"....bank robbery
movie....Denzel
>> Washington...other good people....nothing else looks as good, or, I
have
>> already seen those, so "Inside Man" it is.  So, the music was by
Terence
>> Blanchard...that's great...full orchestra....excellent...Spike Lee is
>> directing...very good!
>>
>> So the movie turns out to be pretty good...not great...but certainly
>> worth
>> the $4.50 (matinee performance). So it's over, and the credits are
>> rolling
>> and, as usual these days, EVERYBODY is credited....the credits scroll
on
>> for
>> like 10 minutes, and finally they get down to Terence Blanchard and
then
>> the
>> orchestra contractor, who is always Sandy Decresent, if it's done in
>> Hollywood, and the orchestrator, and the music preparation guy and
>> then....the members of the orchestra...THE WHAT???  They NEVER credit
the
>> members of the orchestra! They might name the solo piano, or trumpet
if
>> he
>> or she has a really enormous, crucial part...but the whole 60 piece
band?
>> Never, in my experience. I am so taken aback that my brain freezes up
and
>> I
>> cannot keep up with the scroll which is going by pretty fast. I see
all
>> 35
>> members of the string section, I see Malcolm McNab, I see Charlie
Loper,
>> and
>> that's all I can remember. There were 4 trombones and I can only
remember
>> Charlie.
>>
>> Dang!...If I had only known, I could have brought my old Betacam and
shot
>> those precious 10 seconds right off the screen. Has anyone ever seen
>> another
>> movie where the entire studio orchestra was credited along with the
3rd
>> best
>> Boy and Mr. Washington's assistant and the catering guy and the
>> completion
>> bond guy? I mean I was kind of in shock. Maybe this seems unimportant
to
>> a
>> lot of people, but I am one of those people who hangs around until
ALL of
>> the credits are over...all the way down to the stage hand's union
logo,
>> and
>> I don't ever remember seeing the entire orchestra credited. I mean,
what
>> if
>> this catches on...what if all the producers and all the directors
started
>> to
>> insist that all the musicians be recognized? It would be terrific!
God
>> bless Spike Lee, or whoever else
>> made the decision to do this, but will we see it as a regular
practice?
>>
>> Bill Dinwiddie
>> billdin at comcast.net


I would very much appreciate it if any lister who specifically remembers 
seeing musicians credited at the end of a Spike Lee movie, please post the 
name of the movie here on the list so I can advise the appropriate Union 
people about exactly which movies have credited musicians. I already went to 
the IMDB site, but that site does not list the musicians, so I must depend 
on people's memories.

Thanks very much.

Bill Dinwiddie