I didn’t write about this one last time either! Double whoops.
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Writer-director James L. Brooks met Hans at a preview screening of A League of Their Own. “I saw this guy chain smoking and chain talking. Going full bore at [director] Penny Marshall takes gumption. I figured him for a film producer since he went into every area of the film. Then I found out he was THE COMPOSER. Composers don’t do that.” In Hans’ telling, the two of them got in an argument so contentious that the movie’s editor Richard Marks speculated the next day that they’d never work together, an assumption proved wrong when Brooks called Hans two weeks later to say they had to work together (and work together they did on multiple films over the next 20+ years).
But first there was director Penny Marshall’s delightful film about the American women’s baseball league formed during World War II, an opportunity for Hans to stretch himself further than he was on 1992’s Radio Flyer. “Radio Flyer was unsolvable, a seriously troubled film, [but its music was] great fun to write. It has nothing to do with my brooding, Germanic approach. I would have said I can't write [that]. It's great, that sort of discovery. [For A League of Their Own] I said I know nothing about being a girl, I know nothing about the ‘40s and jazz, and I know nothing about baseball. And [Penny] goes, ‘At least it’ll be interesting for you.’ I did it because it will push me in a new direction and I’ll learn something. And I did.”
The score had tear-jerking melodies, sports movie grandeur, and Western vibes (a climactic solo trumpet wail an intentional homage to Hans’ hero Ennio Morricone), but it’s best known for its rambunctious big band jazz. Hans conceded he wasn’t a sophisticated jazz arranger but had picked up enough insights “from doing mock-ups for Stanley [Myers]. But it was a lot of fun!” Orchestrators Shirley Walker and Bruce Fowler were responsible for transcribing what Hans conceived on his devices into playable parts. “Shirley thought the bass part [in The Final Game] was unplayable, but [Frank Sinatra’s bass player] Chuck Berghofer proved me right and played it effortlessly. The trumpet parts came with a written warning that they might endanger the player's health, but I forgot you can’t say that to trumpet players because they just see it as a challenge.”
For those fatigued by the action mannerisms of Hans’ later career, the warmth and glee of A League of Their Own should be a cure for those ills. It was his most accomplished score at the time, and he’d go on to score three more films for Penny Marshall. It was also consequential for bandleader Ladd McIntosh, who was pulled in by Bruce Fowler to help with the jazz parts and has since gotten orchestration credits on over a hundred scores.
A League of Their Own: ****˝ - Hans Zimmer; lead orchestrator Bruce Fowler; orchestrated by Shirley Walker, Suzette Moriarty, Ladd McIntosh, Dennis Dreith, Harvey Cohen, Jack Esken, Kim Richmond & Edward Fowler; conducted by Shirley Walker; add’l conducting by Nick Glennie-Smith; featured pianist Mike Lang; recorded by Armin Steiner; mixed by Jay Rifkin; score production coordinator Nico Golfar; composer’s assistant Christopher Ward; Newsreel and Black And White Into Color by Bruce Fowler; unused Take Me Out To The Ballgame arrangement by Hans Zimmer
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Edited sections of seven pieces were aggregated into two tracks totaling seventeen minutes on the original soundtrack album that was otherwise focused on songs. An hour or so of score has lurked around in bootleg / promo format since, but Intrada’s recent CD release marks the first time the full score has been legitimately put out there. It’s an absolute blast finally hearing one of Hans’ ten finest scores in pristine quality, and Kaya Savas managed to get some fun new comments from both Penny and Hans including how his limited understanding of baseball led to an oops in the recording sessions (though Geena Davis’ absence in the liner notes for both this and La-La Land’s new Thelma & Louise CD strongly implies she doesn’t have much interest in these things).
Anyone else pick this one up?
