Reel Music: The Wrecking Crew

With everything else that’s going on, don’t forget about the Northwest Film Center’s Reel Music film festival, which continues through the end of next week. Out of the movies I was able to preview in this year’s lineup, my favorite screens Saturday night. It’s called The Wrecking Crew, and it’s about the group of LA studio musicians who played on damn-near every single friggin’ record that came out of California in the 1960s. Here are some clips* from the movie, and an interview with director Denny Tedesco, son of legendary session guitarist Tommy Tedesco:

As I said in this week’s Film Shorts, the film’s success almost entirely succeeds on whether or not they got the rights to use the music in the movie. Well, the movie has so many classic songs that you’ll almost be disappointed when they quickly cut from one to the next. I mean, seriously, these cats played on sooo many songs it’s mind-boggling. (I wonder if the short snippets were the reason Tedesco was able to secure the rights to so many of them?)

The Wrecking Crew screens 7 pm Saturday night at NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium, in the basement of the Portland Art Museum (1219 SW Park). It, along with the two Superman Orchestra performances Friday at 7 pm and Saturday at 2 pm, promise to be the highlights of the Reel Music festival. Also, I should like to add that Nancy Sinatra’s legs were pretty much the best things ever.

End Hits: The Wrecking Crew of music blogs.

*UPDATE: Oops, originally posted the wrong YouTube clip, which was the official trailer of the movie with nary a glimpse of Nancy’s gams. Here’s the proper one, complete with interviews with Tedesco and some of the musicians who made up the Wrecking Crew playing at the Nashville Film Festival.