I am so delighted and honored to be able to introduce my guest today, Trombonist, Alan Kaplan!

Kaplan has long been one of the top studio trombone players in Los Angeles. I am so delighted and honored to be able to introduce my guest today, Trombonist, Alan Kaplan! He has played on the scores for nearly 1,000 movies and thousands of television episodes. He has also been the featured trombone soloist on more than 1,000 cartoons.

His recording credits vary vastly from Marvin Gaye to Johnny Mathis to Madonna to Placido Domingo to Sarah Vaughan to Oingo Boingo to Whitney Houston to the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Josh Groban, Michael Buble, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Lady Gaga, and countless more.

In January of 2002 Alan released his first solo album. It is a beautiful collection of standard ballads arranged for a thirty piece orchestra called Lonely Town. In August of 2012 He released a new CD called “Secrets of Hoyt’s Garage”. In 2017 Alan released three play-along albums for Music Minus One. “Ballads for Trombone with Orchestra”, “Standards for Trombone”, and “Mostly Mozart Arias”.

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1:55 What music did your father put on for you as a child?
2:44 Before the trombone at 8, what was your musical life like?
3:14 Do you have Absolute or Perfect Pitch?
3:48 Who were your first teachers, and what did they teach you?
4:39 Were you aware of famous trombone players growing up?
6:26 How many hours as a kid did you practice a day?
6:44 Were you interested in improvisation as well, at the beginning?
7:01 How long were you with your 2nd teacher?
7:34 Did your development really shoot up, studying with Bill Tole
7:48 What bad habits did he fix?
8:07 What kind of music were you studying at the time?
8:30 What etudes would you recommend for new students?
9:07 Studying with Roy Main
9:49 What made Roy Main so special?
10:44 How long did you spend with Roy Main?
11:05 Is that when you started to learn to improvise?
11:38 How did you learn to improvise?
12:53 How did you end up working with Buddy Rich at 19?
14:11 Did you audition for him?
14:43 How did it feel working for Buddy Rich?
14:52 Were you aware of Buddy Rich’s temperament and reputation?
15:13 What was your personal relationship with Buddy Rich?
16:32 How long did you spend with the Buddy Rich band?
17:16 Is Buddy Rich the greatest drummer of all time?
17:38 Did working with Buddy Rich give you more confidence in the industry?
18:07 Any interesting conversations or memories with Buddy Rich?
19:04 What’s a systematic way to develop great ears?
19:48 What do you think of transcribing?
20:15 What made the movie “Silverado” so special to you?
22:19 Describe what it was like as a beginning session musician, how did you fare?
23:57 As your sight reading was already good, were you just focused on the musicality of the playing?
24:52 Do you get to interact with the composers or conductors about the music that you are playing?
25:31 Talking about how John Williams conducts
26:42 Do you like to listen to your work in the movie theaters?
28:40 Are there more recognizable Alan Kaplan moments in other movies?
29:51 Where did the famous stock cartoon trombone sounds come from and how did you get so prolific in cartoons?
31:55 Talking about playing on the Simpsons
32:10 Talking about the famous Simpsons title theme
32:50 Do you remember most of the sessions that you’ve worked on?
33:12 Talking about the hit Disney animated feature films of the 90’s
33:58 Are you friends with Alan Menken?
34:20 Who are the people that you hang out with the most in Hollywood?
35:35 Were there projects that you worked on that you were previously already a fan of before
37:03 What was it like on Die Hard?
38:37 Working on Godfather 3
39:11 Talking about his debut solo album “Lonely Town”
40:51 Talking about arranger Joseph Curiale
42:16 How long were the “Lonely Town” recording sessions?
42:47 Talking about his next album “Hoyt’s Garage”
43:44 Is the trombone a difficult instrument to play?
44:53 How long were you attending the rehearsals at Hoyt’s garage?
45:14 How did you select the arrangements that appeared on the album?
46:13 What are some special memories of the rehearsals at Hoyt’s garage?
47:05 Talking about the fun of the rehearsals
47:44 What were the most difficult arrangements that Hoyt brought out at these rehearsals?
48:41 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Saxophonists
49:10 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Trumpet Players
49:25 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Guitarists
49:34 Did you know Joe Pass?
49:55 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Drummers
50:06 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Keyboard/Piano players
50:21 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Trombone Players
50:44 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Film Composers
50:57 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Classical Composers
51:07 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Film Scores
51:30 Talking about the Incredibles 2 film score
51:54 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Cartoons
54:34 HOT SEAT: Top 3 TV shows
54:56 Scariest moment in the studio
56:30 Name a special experience playing for a big artist
57:18 What’s your proudest musical moment?
58:17 Name a movie that you would have liked to play on but didn’t get a chance to
59:26 What advice can you give to a young musician who wants to make music their career?
1:00:20 Wrapping Up