Josh Groban

Josh Groban goes record shopping at Amoeba Hollywood in this "What's In My Bag?" episode. The singer, songwriter & actor talks about some of the music that shaped him, from the Labyrinth soundtrack and "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" to Mel Tormé, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong. Josh Groban's Cinematic, which pays tribute to iconic songs from classic films, is out now via Reprise Records.

Josh Groban's picks:
• David Bowie & Trevor Jones - Labyrinth [Remastered OST] (LP) 
• LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening (LP) 
• Phillip Glass - The Photographer (LP) 
• Benjamin Britten - The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra; Simple Symphony For String Orchestra (LP) 
• Sababa 5 & Yurika - Kokoro (LP) 
• Mel Tormé - Live At The Maisonette (LP) 
• George Benson - Weekend In L.A. (LP) 
• Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Ella & Louis (LP) 
• George Shearing - The Best Of George Shearing (LP) 
• Walter Cronkite - Man On The Moon (LP) 
• Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Best Of Ladysmith Black Mambazo (LP) 
• Eek-A-Mouse - Wa-Do-Dem (LP) 

Featured Artist: Josh Groban

Editor: Charlie McTavish Smith
Executive Producer: Rachael McGovern
Producer/Director: Craig Miller
Assistant Director: Derich Heath
Cameras: Jacob Gray, Derich Heath
Audio Recorded by: Patrick Emswiler
Assistant Editor: Patrick Emswiler

Watch Josh Groban's "What's In My Bag?" episode on Amoeba.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Josh Grovin. I'm at Amoeba, one of the great stores in the entire world, and here's what's in my bag.

SPEAKER_03 0:11

We will stand up together at the skies, to the church, we will dance.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

I love film soundtracks. I love them. I think they sound so good on vinyl. This was one of the classics of my childhood.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Dance magic dance. Dance magic dance.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

David Bowie, Trevor Jones. It totally holds up. These songs are weird and awesome. It's a tour bus must. Whenever I'm touring and I'm on a bus, we always put this on. When I grew up watching some of these weird kind of 80s films, the uh the music for me is what connected me to films. You know, that's I think I discovered that I had an ear for music by appreciating the music in television and films. Cartoons got me into classical music. I really wanted to sing a song from this within you, I think was one of the ones I wanted to do. And there's an amazing spot that would have been really great in my voice, and then it's just pure instrumental for like five and a half minutes. So it was like, God, I gotta next time.

SPEAKER_03 1:33

Everything I've done, I've done for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

I move the stars for no one. Movies like this introduced me to artists like David Bowie, and I started listening to more. It kind of made me realize that there was kind of a cross-pollination that was possible between both art forms, and I was really inspired by that early on, and especially the films that were musical films, uh, like this one was. Um, it's just so fantastical and just it sparked my imagination. They don't make them like this anymore. Very tight pants he had on, and this It's Always Forever, not long at all. This is an album that I have worn out on CD and streaming, and I don't have a vinyl copy. This is um L C D Sound System. This is happening. What an amazing group of songs. James Murphy is one of my favorite voices in any genre. I just think he's got almost an operatic way of kind of expressing his song. I really like electronic music. I don't know a huge amount about electronic music, but when it takes you to a really emotional core, uh for me, it's something that that always hits. So this is one that I that I love a lot. I love every song in this album. I Can Change is probably my favorite one on here.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

I can change, I can change, I can change. It helps you fall in.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

I'm a big Philip Glass fan. I'm a big minimalist contemporary classical music fan. I love Philip Glass, I love Steve Reich, Max Richter, this. This is called The Photographer. His Glassworks album was the first album that I ever listened to that made me realize that classical music could really be very minimalist and for some reason it really sparked something very emotional for me. Um it doesn't always for everybody, but it did for me. I love the cover. It was the only thing in the Philip Glass section today, which sometimes having just like one album, like if everybody else has taken the more popular ones, sometimes having one that's left over actually is the gem that you didn't know you needed. I'm a big Benjamin Britton fan. I love his music too. I love how whimsical his writing is, how incredible his choral music is. He was one of those composers that when I was young, I really uh took to his writing right away. Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. There were certain recordings when I was young that really introduced me to the world of classical music. And I was reminded of how awesome this album is. I was working with an amazing producer and writer named Spencer Stewart, and he had this up on an organ that he had in his studio, and it reminded me that I need to get this album. And so when I came in here, I immediately looked for this album and I found this Japanese version of this um London Symphony Orchestra recording, which is an amazing recording of it. But it's uh it's all in kanji and hiragana, which is like I just love the way it looks. So yeah, I'm happy this is my first first vinyl of Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, and it's a really, really cool one to get. First of all, it says a black vinyl, which is really, you know, classic. A Middle Eastern psych funk disco and Japanese folk and pop converge to create a mesmerizing new sound. You had me at Middle Eastern Psych Funk Disco Folk. Did you really? I've picked an album that the Amoeba staff has played in the store. I've never felt cooler. One of my favorite vocalists of all time, um, Mel Tour May, uh, live at the Masonette.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Why do you love your lumberlet? Blue skies be your coverlet, how we love sequestering.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

They call him the Velvet Fog. He's got this baritone, very smooth jazz voice. Now, I love jazz music. I grew up listening to jazz music in the house, I grew up listening to singers like Mel Tormey and Ella Fitzgerald. When I started singing, and I realized that I had kind of a smooth baritone voice as well that maybe wouldn't fit for a lot of the big swing kind of songs. Mel Tour May was one of those singers that I really looked up to because he represented a kind of singing that I felt within the jazz world I could also do. So I sang along to a lot of Mel Tour May growing up. I also loved that he was doing something some of his contemporaries weren't doing, which is that he did a lot of scat singing as well, which is a very scary improvisational thing to do, where you're using your voice to basically mimic instruments and improvise around the melody. It's really cool, it's not easy, and he did it just effortlessly.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

So I'm intrigued by your description of scatting is scary.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

It is, I mean, it is scary. The first thing that I ever did, like as a solo in junior high school, I went to Windward here in LA, and I was in the back of a choir, and this uh amazing music teacher named Richard Barrett, who I invite to every concert, saw that there was something in me that maybe was very shy but had potential, and he kind of asked, Does anybody know how to scat sing? And I said, Well, I hear my dad doing it around the house. So I said, I don't know why I raised my hand, but for a shy kid to say, Yeah, I know what scathing is, I thought it was a quiz, I didn't think he was gonna ask me to do it. Um he pulled me to the front and he had me sing a Gershwin song Swonderful in my not yet changed soprano voice, and uh it actually went pretty well. I wasn't bullied quite as much as I thought I would be, uh, which was a win.

SPEAKER_05 8:37

It's Swunderful Smaller.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

You should care for me.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Okay, so my fiance said to me, please make sure you pick up a George Benson album. I love George Benson. His playing, his voice, uh I've always loved loved his albums, but I don't have this one. It's a weekend in LA.

SPEAKER_04 8:59

When I'm here making love to real close to me, recorded live at the uh at the Roxy, not too far away from here, produced by the great Tommy Lapuma.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Some incredible musicians on this. Stanley Banks, Harvey Mason, playing a lot of my favorite songs. Lady Blue, We Is Love. And on that kick, another classic album I've heard a lot, but don't have this version of it, which is Ella and Louis.

SPEAKER_05 9:34

Wrapped in the home of some sweet romance under a blanket of blue.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

This is two of the greats that ever did it to hear them together. Uh Ella was another great scat singer, by the way. Tisca to task it. No no no no no no no yellow basket. I don't know much about the history of how it was recorded, so the wonderful thing about grabbing a vinyl when you've listened to it in streaming is that you actually get a chance to study up, and I can pull out the booklet and I can read more about how it was uh I could have done that online, I guess, but it's more fun to have it in your hands. Louis Armstrong um loved recording in Los Angeles as well. He did a lot of stuff in New York, but um his favorite studio in Los Angeles was Sunset Sound. My dad is the biggest Louis Armstrong fan. Um he grew up playing trumpet in college, and uh and we had an amazing arrangement done for Moon River by the great Vince Mendoza, who's one of my favorite jazz arrangers, and he said there's a spot in the arrangement for um an instrument, and I think it should be trumpet. And I'm thinking about great trumpet players that I might be able to recruit to play that with me. And I said, you know, uh maybe my dad can do that. He hadn't played in like 50 years. And I said, Dad, if I give you three weeks' notice, can you come and play on Moon River? He says, Yeah, I used to play Moon River when I was like in my 20s. So he was rehearsing every day. He like got out his old case. One of the most emotional sessions that I've ever had in my life is we went to Louis's favorite studio here in LA Sunset Sound. We had the stool that Louis used to sit on, and they the producers brought it out and had that ready for my dad, the old microphones he used to play into. So we I have a recording of me and my dad singing Moon River, and it's in Louis's favorite place in my hometown.

SPEAKER_04 11:20

The sound.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

So I've got a special place in my heart for Louie, and Elle is one of those singers that I've been listening to since I was a kid. So together, isn't she cute? They don't make cover photos like that. Everything has to be so glossy and clean now. Just a sweet, wonderful photo. So I will treasure this one. My first introduction to the world of jazz piano was in the second grade. A great music teacher, his name was Dr. Faulkner, he's since passed away. I remember he put on an album of George Shearing, who's an amazing pianist playing Green Sleeves, where he's doing the melody on one hand and it's like a canon. He's then he then he repeats, you know, a few measures later on on the right hand, and he kind of repeats that the entire time. And it was so lyrical and so beautiful, and for my ears back then, uh it wasn't something that was so complicated that I couldn't get it. It was something that really the way he played the piano was so beautiful and emotional to me. And I was realizing as I was walking through the jazz aisle, and there are so many great, some of the best jazz musicians ever lived, it can be very um overwhelming. And then I saw this best of George Shearing, and I was reminded uh of how he kind of first piqued my interest to the piano when I was very, very young, and I thought, yes, that one. I got Man on the Moon, kind of a redone narration of what happened. I love these kinds of albums. I love the ones that are a little different, kind of just that you wouldn't expect. I have no idea what I'm gonna get into for this. I'm gonna pour a glass of wine and turn off the lights and stare out the window and uh uh tell the aliens to come take me while I listen to uh this Apollo 11. It's also just a cool-looking album. I might just frame this one. It's kind of awesome.

SPEAKER_08 13:36

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

One of the first albums I ever listened to when I was a kid was Um Paul Simon's Graceland.

SPEAKER_04 13:45

But I went to Graceland. Memphis, Tennessee, Raceland.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

It was just eye-opening for me and so many other people. It was my first introduction to South African music. You talk about that blend and that cross-pollination of genres and styles. As like a fourth grader listening to that album for the first time, uh, totally blew my mind. And it introduced me to a voice unlike any other voice that I'd ever heard before. It was Joseph Shabalala and Ladysmith Black Mabazo. Their voices are just so warm and rich, and their blend is incredible. I got to work with them on an album uh that I did about 15 years ago. We wrote a song um for Joseph to sing. Joseph since passed away, but um his voice remains one of the most chill-inducing voices that I've ever heard in my life. You know, you talk about love of choirs, like this is probably one of my favorite ensembles that I've ever heard. So happy to have the best of of this amazing group. Oh, and and lastly, I don't know if a lot of people know this, but I'm a really big reggae fan. I go to reggae night at the Hollywood Bowl every summer. It sounds great, smells great, and uh I have a real good time, especially by the middle of the show, having a real good time. I was browsing and I was seeing a lot of albums that I already had. I got a staff uh recommendation, which is something I'd love to do when I'm here because they know so much more than I could ever possibly know. And so they graciously gave me a recommendation to an album that I did not know. Uh this is Ike Mouse Wadu Dem. And I'm really, really excited to check this out and thank you very much to uh sorry, I guess your names. Jacob and Derek. Thank you for your wreck.

SPEAKER_08 16:02

Remember those who accuse you. I say thank you so much. Thank you. This was excellent.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

I'm so happy you came in. Awesome.