‘Story Behind Nights in White Satin’ Up for Best Documentary

By Julie Pendray

IDYLLWILD, Ca. — When the ethereal strains of “Nights in White Satin” hit the airwaves in 1967, radio DJs knew there was something different about them. Eventually the public caught on to the symphonic and trance-like sound that included the deep tones of a new keyboard instrument, the mellotron, accentuating the crescendos of the heartfelt melody.

The Moody Blues were on their way into the psychedelic era with the groundbreaking album Days of Future Passed. They set the tone from then on with a style that was “elegant, artistic and complicated,” according to music and documentary producer David Minasian. It earned the British band the highest of praise from Rolling Stone magazine, which dubbed them The Sistine Chapel of Rock.

Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema will rekindle the public’s love affair with that hit song next month with “The Story Behind Nights in White Satin,” Minasian’s movie, which is nominated for Best Documentary.

David Minasian,music and movie producer. Photo courtesy David Minasian.

It’s Minasian’s first participation in the Idyllwild festival, which is coming into its seventh year. This week, in a phone interview, he said he’s “very excited.” The Hemet resident said he’s especially delighted that festival producer Trinity Houston is allowing time for one of his other movies, “Watching and Waiting,” too. Both highlight Moody Blues songwriter Justin Hayward.

Hayward was 19 years old when he wrote “Nights in White Satin.” He was facing the end of one love affair and the beginning of another. Soon after he penned the song, he joined The Moody Blues and offered it to them for the landmark album that became known as one of the first successful “concept” efforts.

Days of Future Passed was about the life of “everyday man” during one day, according to a BBC interview with Hayward in recent years. It also expressed humanity’s interest in the mystical. The band had been looking for fresh ideas and a new sound. They decided to drop acid to pave the way.

“We were searching for some kind of enlightenment,” Hayward said in the interview. (LSD) opened the door in my mind. I could see the world as it really was.”

An early performance of “Nights in White Satin.” Still frame courtesy of David Minasian.

In the “White Satins” documentary, we hear how the delay of a flight bringing The Supremes to a television show in France gave The Moody Blues an opportunity to go on-air with its brand new song that would become a mega hit.  The documentary shows the first time the group performed the song on film. It was shown on French television within days of the album’s release.

“The whole story of how this song became a hit is interesting,” Minasian said. “Days of Future Passed was a demo record to showcase stereo, which was just coming out. Decca wanted to show that stereo could be used for both orchestral music and rock. They decided to come up with an album that blended both.”

The album features The London Festival Orchestra.

“The song didn’t even reach number 1 on Billboard until 1973,” Minasian said. “Half the people at Decca wanted to release it and half didn’t. Some thought it was too long.”

“Nights in White Satin” expresses the sweetness and exhilaration of love, with the mellotron for grand dramatic effect. It was the single that propelled the album to fame.

“The mellotron hadn’t been used before,” Minasian said. “It was difficult to play. The only guy who could play it was Mike Pinder, the keyboardist in The Moody Blues, because he’d worked for the manufacturer. Nothing else sounded like it.”

The Moody Blues went on to sell more than 70 million albums worldwide, collecting 18 Platinum and Gold Discs.

Minasian’s documentary is one of an estimated 100 movies and shorts to be presented at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema Jan. 5 to 10 at various venues. Idyllwild is a mountain town between Palm Springs, Los Angeles and San Diego. The festival draws tourists and movie makers from all over the United States and the world.

“The Story Behind Nights in White Satin” will screen at 7 p.m. Jan. 6 at The Rustic Theatre. Minasian and executive producer Michael Pinkus will do a question and answer session with viewers after the movie, then there’ll be a screening of “Watching and Waiting,” a piece about a solo Hayward concert. For more information on the screenings and accompanying  VIP reception, click here.

Still frame courtesy David Minasian.

Minasian and Pinkus have worked with Hayward and The Moody Blues on a variety of projects. DVDs of some of the Hayward performances are available through PBS stations.

Today’s version of The Moody Blues band includes original 1964 drummer Graeme Edge, along with Hayward and bassist John Lodge from the 1966 lineup. They’ll start a 23-cities tour March 3 in Florida. For details, click here.

To see the schedule of the Idyllwild festival screenings click here. Tickets are available through the festival web site

Copyright Julie Pendray and SpecialsNotOnTheMenu.com

‘Hawkins’ Documentary Debuts at Idyllwild Film Festival

Marshall Hawkins performing at Jazz in the Pines, 2014. Photo by Peter Szabadi.

By Julie Pendray

IDYLLWILD, Calif. — You’re eating dinner in a mountain bistro, with sounds of a jazz trio in the corner.

The conversation around you is engaging, but your ears are gradually distracted by subtle musical surprises. Which instrument sounds like it’s morphing into something completely different? Which one sounds like it’s speaking a language, comically baiting the other performers? Which one is changing the rhythm so mischievously that you simply have to turn your head to see what’s going on?

It’s Marshall Hawkins on upright bass, tickling and tapping the strings, sliding along them as though he knows every sweet spot.  His eyes are closed. He’s in his groove. The room goes into a hush. Then everyone laughs and erupts with applause.

It’s classic Hawkins — loving the mischief, loving surprising people, loving entertaining, loving inspiring and educating.

This week, at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema, some of his  former students from Idyllwild Arts Academy are returning the love, with the release of their documentary, “Hawkins.” It is a legacy piece, both educational and entertaining. There are tenderhearted moments that indicate the depth of the students’ gratitude. It’s very clearly a “call and response” song of appreciation between them and their instructor.

The Rustic Theatre is a venue for Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema. Photo: Julie Pendray.

Hawkins created the Jazz Department at the private residential high school and co-founded Idyllwild’s annual festival, known as Jazz in the Pines. Alumni from the academy return to perform at the festival, along with accomplished musicians from all over Southern California. Among them, is alumnus and former American Idol finalist Casey Abrams.

Casey Abrams, a former American Idol finalist, performing at Jazz in the Pines, 2014.

When Hawkins, in his mid-70s, performs at venues “on the hill” (in mile-high Idyllwild), he can be found sharing what he learned over years of playing with Miles Davis, Roberta Flack and Shirley Horn. Sometimes the chat is part of the repartee with keyboardist Barnaby Finch or saxophonist Paul Carman over a glass of wine. Sometimes, it’s a teaching session at the academy.

Wherever Hawkins is, he seems the same. He doesn’t mince words. He values truth and he’ll tell it to you straight, as the feature-length documentary shows.

“You’re heading for a train wreck,” he tells his young students when they get out of synchronization, in one of the scenes. Another clip shows him walking over a stage and patting one student forcefully on the back during a public performance, in order to get him feeling the timing and back into the groove.

Keyboardist Barnaby Finch was in the audience when the “Hawkins” documentary had its first showing this week. He said he liked how much the film discussed time and rhythm.

“Time is so hard and so subtle,” he said. “It gets down to a thousandth of a second sometimes. It’s good to see it being instilled at a young age. Even those of us who have been playing for years, we still talk about it. That’s what everyone used to talk about on the tour buses all the time.”

Finch formerly performed for years with George Benson. He and Paul Carman, a former saxophonist for Frank Zappa, often perform with Hawkins on the hill. All three are music instructors.

Finch said he’s really glad that Hawkins has been honored with the movie’s release.

“He’s such a great musician, educator and human being,” he said.

Former academy students Devon Gilpatrick and Ashi Manoff together wrote, produced and directed the film, which they funded through the Kickstarter program. They said the idea came up when they were chatting with a friend, Brent Miller, last summer.

“Marshall had just won an award or something. That sparked the whole thing,” Manoff said.

From there, a sense of community grew around the project, he said.

“The purpose of the film was to bring credit and light to (Hawkins’) teachings. It was clear people were beginning to pay attention to what we were doing, even before production.”

Asked about the inevitable trials and tribulations as well as the joys of making the movie, Manoff said the challenges included “staying organized and keeping a clear head.”

“Devon and I had never taken on such a long shoot and many problems arose. Anything from stalled equipment, scheduling problems, confusion and debates on artistic direction, to just generally getting into heated situations with each other and the crew from the high levels of stress. But it was also a great experience. I benefited so much from it. We made Marshall happy and that made me happy. Meeting his family in Washington, D.C. was so cool. I love them all.”

For people who only know Hawkins from his time in California, the movie sheds nostalgic light on his early years on the East Coast, with scenes from his neighborhood and discussions of race and the whole jazz scene in the nation’s capital.

Hawkins deals with the issue of being a minority head on and proclaims that music can be a bridge between all people.

Manoff said this is an issue close to his own heart, since he was born in India and adopted at 5 months old by Jewish-American parents.

“Issues of race and identity have always been important to me and I’m sure these themes will appear in my future work,” he said. Manoff is currently studying at U.C.L.A. Film School.

It’s clear that Hawkins has an impact on his students that goes far beyond the classroom, as young people test their strengths and try to figure out how to navigate the rest of their lives.

“Marshall is both my music mentor and someone I can talk to about my personal life,” Manoff said. “If anything, we’ve grown closer as we shot the movie. I consider him a close friend and I look up to him. I’ve learned how to be a better person by watching him.”

He said Hawkins played a big role in making the film.

“He was essentially a producer and helped us get contacts and ideas about who to reach out to. We were always talking to him each step of the filmmaking process. We had some friends fill in on crew. And of course, our parents played a big role in supporting us.”

On the Kickstarter website, Gilpatrick commented, “We believe it is important to get a current view of Marshall’s teaching methods by intimately documenting students’ progress through the upcoming year in his class. This (movie) will show what it is like to study under Marshall for a year. We want to get real footage of Marshall as a teacher in the present while also going into the history of the department. “

Together, Gilpatrick and Manoff made this statement, “You do not have to be a musician to learn from Marshall. His teachings are universal. Marshall doesn’t just teach people how to play an instrument, he helps them form their own instruments for living life. Music is one form of connecting people but the craft itself can teach everyone what it means to be a good person and live a life of fulfillment. Marshall shows that we can learn and develop every day no matter how we choose to live our lives. Marshall’s teachings are important because they connect people globally and strongly engage the pursuit of a meaningful life.”

The “Hawkins” documentary will have its second showing at 6 p.m. tonight at Caine Learning Center in Idyllwild. Viewers will find it touching. It isn’t a perfect production. But as Marshall would say, any “undesirable notes” of production are overlooked by audiences if the timing is on.  In other words, in life, as in music, people tend to hear and see the big picture. There are places in this documentary that made the audience laugh out loud this week and a few spots that engendered pathos, as students discussed what it’s like living in a foreign country or how they feel when they perform.

Idyllwild Arts Academy draws university-bound students from all over the world.

Drummer Martin Budde appears in the documentary “Hawkins.” Photo: Devon Gilpatrick of ManoffGilpatrick Productions.

Martin Budde, who was an Idyllwild Arts student in the movie, had this to say after watching the film on the big screen this week.

“I like that the movie doesn’t have a lot of polish to it. Everything you see in those teaching sessions, that’s very real. It’s organic. That’s how Marshall teaches.”

Hawkins is expected to attend tonight’s screening.

Copyright to Julie Pendray and SpecialsNotOnTheMenu.com