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Cinematic Biography
Spencer Brewer is not only a multi-million-selling composer, pianist and producer, but also a
connoisseur of many of the greatest film scorers of all time. For his latest contemporary
instrumental recording, Cinematic, Brewer has turned his talents to creating a collection of
original material specifically meant to evoke visual imagery and also serve as his homage to
movie music.
“I have been a fan of film music since I was a small boy,” explains Brewer, “and as a tribute
to that often over-looked art-form, I decided to make an album filled with pieces I feel have
the same ambience of classic movie and television scores.” In fact, some of the music has
already been used in films and television. Brewer, who extensively collects recordings by
his favorite film composers, has been most influenced by Bernard Hermann, John Barry and
Ennio Morricone, but also has studied the works of Erich Korngold, Franz Waxman, Max
Steiner, Alfred Newman, Thomas Newman, Miklos Rozsa, Esquivel, John Williams, Maurice
Jarre, Howard Shore, Mark Isham and Danny Elfman.
Cinematic is a two-CD set featuring a cover painting by Salvador Dali. The first CD is
subtitled “Black & White” and features Brewer playing solo piano on a dozen pieces with the
addition of guitar and flute on the final tune. The second CD, subtitled “Technicolor,”
contains compositions played by various artists led by Brewer on piano, synthesizers,
Hammond B-3 and a pump organ built in 1888. “Technicolor” has ensemble arrangements
of ten of the same tunes that appear on “Black & White” plus four different pieces. The
musicians on Cinematic are top new age, classical and jazz players including acoustic guitar
virtuoso Alex de Grassi, reedman Paul McCandless (Paul Winter, Oregon), flutist Matt Eakle
(David Grisman, Suzanne Ciani), harmonica player Norton Buffalo (Steve Miller, Kenny
Loggins), drummer Mark Walker (Oregon, Paquito D’Rivera), and bassists Steve Rodby (Pat
Metheny, Chuck Mangione), Todd Phillips (David Grisman, Psychograss) and Cliff Hugo (Rick
Braun, Richard Elliott), plus other percussion, wind and string players including the
renowned Quartet San Francisco led by Jeremy Cohen.
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Spencer, who was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, began playing piano at age seven, and
although he took lessons for several years, he learned the most from his grandmother, who
taught him Southern blues and boogie-woogie. He played in rock’n’roll bands throughout
high school and then moved to Austin for its thriving music scene. Brewer became the
accompanist for modern dance troupes (Deborah Hay, Martha Graham, Daniel Llanes and
Suzanne Grace), which “pushed my envelope as to the possibilities of spontaneous and
interpretive music.” Brewer also wrote the music for “Once Upon A Time” and
“Willowmancifoot the Dragon,” two musicals written in New York City. His first recording,
Stellar Notion, was done in 1980 and was vocal music from those musicals.
After moving to Northern California at the beginning of the Eighties, Brewer began recording
original instrumental music, became a leader in the forefront of the burgeoning new age
music movement and sold more than a million albums under his own name. He also was
involved in producing, arranging, engineering and contributing tunes to albums that sold an
additional several million units. It began with his albums Where Angels Dance, Shadow
Dancer, Emerald, Portraits (a Gold Album with sales over half a million), Dorian’s Legacy
(Top 10 on Billboard’s New Age sales chart and #1 on the R&R’s NAC airplay chart with
sales of more than a quarter-million), Piper’s Rhythm (#1 on both of those same charts),
Romantic Interludes and a half-dozen more. He created the music for several dozen
NorthSound concept albums in which he often went uncredited, but stretched beyond new
age music by exploring pop, jazz, bluegrass, big band and world music. Spencer also
recorded several projects with other musicians who shared credits on the album covers –
one with Tingstad & Rumbel, another with electronic music pioneer Craig Anderton and a
jazz CD with Paul McCandless.
Brewer opened his own studio, Laughing Coyote, near Ukiah, California, nestled in the
redwoods, and from the mid-Nineties to the mid-00s, he spent most of his time recording
many other artists (plus some time out recuperating from a head-on car collision). He
produced, engineered or performed on recordings by artists such as Alex de Grassi, Holly
Near, Gene Parsons, Darol Anger, Steve Erquiaga, Kostia, Joe Craven, Barbara Higbie,
Michael Manring, Phil Aaberg, Fred Simon, Georgia Kelly, Kirtana and many others; and
oversaw productions that featured acts from John Bucchino to the Duke Ellington Band.
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Spencer also contributed music to the films “Home Alone 2,” “The Gifts of Grief” (starring
Isabel Allende and Rev. Cecil Williams) and “Color of Fear” (another ground-breaking movie
on racism from Lee Mun Wah). Brewer wrote the national theme songs for the YMCA and
the Japanese Postal Service. His music has been used on more than 2,000 television shows
all over the world including “Sex and the City,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “L.A. Law,”
“Sixty Minutes,” “Thirty Something” and broadcasts of the last five Olympics.
In addition to creating music, Brewer has run a record company, owns a music store (Ukiah Music Center),
rebuids pianos, collects vintage microphones and gramophones, had his own radio show and
produced hundreds of concerts in Mendocino County. He contributes to his community in
many ways including helping found the Redwood Valley Outdoor Educational Facility for
children and the Ukiah Educational Foundation which helps fund students and schools. He
also has founded and created patents with the high-tech company HighWired Inc. which
allows voicemail or email users to add music, sounds and visual content to their messages.
“Part of what makes movies magical and deeply moving is the music soundtrack married to
the mood of what we are watching,” explains Brewer. “In our own lives, we generally pick
music to listen to because of how we are feeling or want to feel that day. I hope the music
on Cinematic can serve as a soundtrack for people’s lives.”
Many of Brewer’s recordings are available here at his website. Cinematic
also can be purchased online at Cdbaby.com and Amazon.com, as well as numerous digital
download locations such as iTunes and Rhapsody. Check him out on YouTube as well. |
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Local Biography
For over 30 years, Spencer Brewer has been a composer/pianist/performer on the cutting edge of instrumental music- inspiring audiences and listeners worldwide with his piano skills and hauntingly unique melodies
With 14 solo and duet albums currently to his credit, he received acclaim for his #1 hit record on Billboard, R & R, The Gavin Report and the Mac Report, "The Pipers Rhythm". His 1989 release "Dorians Legacy", went #1 on the charts, lodging in Billboards Top 10 chart for 9 months in the NAC market. His release, "Torches on the Lake" with world famous windman Paul McCandless charted on Billboards Contemporary Jazz chart and won rave reviews nationwide. He is released a double CD set in 2008 entitled Cinematic which received the finest reviews in his career as a composer and producer.
Spencer's music is being heard and used the world over daily due to his unique gift for weaving memorable, enchanting melodies within beautifully lush arrangements. His music has been featured on The Opray Winfrey Show, The Barbara Walters Show, the 1988, 1992 and 96 Olympic World games, NPR, CNN, virtually every airline in the skies and 100’s of other TV programs and movies across the globe on a daily basis. He wrote the National YMCA theme song, the National Big Brothers/Big Sisters Theme Song, the theme song for the Japanese Postal Service and scored Lee Mun Wah’s award winning films on racism "The Color of Fear" and “Last Chance for Eden’. He also contributed music for feature films such as "Heartwood" with Hillary Swank & Jason Robards, ‘The Gifts of Grief” with Isabel Allende and Reverend Cecil Williams and was honored as the National Musical Ambassador for Big Brothers/Big Sisters for five years performing across America with many celebrities. He also led new efforts with BB/BS educating individual cities how to put on events and fund raising concerts in conjunction with their sponsor Arby’s. |
In 1995 he started Laughing Coyote Productions, lcstudio.com, a recording studio dedicated to recording and producing audiophile recordings for the acoustic music market. Some of his clients have included Alex de Grassi, Joe Craven, Holly Near, Gene Parsons, Barbara Higbie, Michael Manring, Phil Aaberg, Darol Anger, Steve Erquiaga and many others. In 1999 alone, he engineered and produced 24 recordings out of his Northern California facility with over 200 recordings made out of LCP to date. One of his hobbies is collecting vintage microphones to help the myriad of recording projects that cycle through LCP.
In 1998, he was the founder of the startup corporation, HighWired Inc, highwiredinc.com, MyFunVoice.com. HW is a ‘first to market’ company providing the world-wide Telecom and web-based messaging industry with the ability to create and combine a wide palette of rich-media content with a person’s voice message to enable users to have a more unique, creative and fun experience on virtually every platform of messaging available. HighWired makes messaging fun and easy across all digital and web based platforms worldwide. The entire 2500+ content library was made at his facility.
In 2003, he started the Ukiah Music Center, ukiahmusic.com a music store ‘where music begins’. His passion, which also helps fuel the store, is restoring, buying, selling, tuning and doing virtually anything with the piano. In any given year he works on 100’s of pianos and is a member of the Piano Technicians Guild. From his love of the piano, he hosted for two years a once a month a radio show entitled, ‘The Wonderful World of Pianos’ which documented the composers, players and manufacturers lives and music since the inception of the piano. Spencer firmly believes in contributing back to his local community of Mendocino County. While donating dozens of private concerts over the years for local non-profit agencies, eighteen years ago he started and still runs the highly successful "Sundays in the Park" free six-part summer concert series with over 20,000 attendees a summer in Ukiah, CA. It is also the only on-going solar powered concert series in the world. He has also created the series’ 'Live at the Playhouse', ‘The Professional Pianist Series’, ‘Happination’, ‘BandSlam in the Plaza’, ‘Acoustic Café’, ‘Sunset at the Cellars’, “Lightening Jam with Kris Kristoffersen’ and is a consultant to many performance organizations throughout the area regionally. |
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