Here's a special holiday edition of Knowing The Score, featuring the only holiday film to date among Trevor's scoring oeuvre. I would like to extend many thanks to all my readers worldwide, I hope your holiday season - whatever tradition you celebrate - is filled with loved ones and festivity galore.
For your average moviegoer, Jack Frost is little more than an obscure holiday entry in Michael Keaton's resume. But for Rabid Rabinites, it is very special indeed. Not only was the film scored by Trevor, but he is in it! Playing a version of himself, true, but it's a very cool detail that we certainly appreciate. Sales of the DVD have likely benefited from an entirely separate demographic of Rabinites who have purchased it for just that reason (like me). Lou Molino III, Trevor's long-time friend and drummer-of-choice is also in the film, also playing a version of himself (Talk about typecasting!).
The film opens on a winter evening scene in Denver (with the Lake Tahoe environs as the stand-in for the town of Medford where most of the film takes place) and we're outside a club where the Jack Frost Band is rockin' the house indeed with a down n'dirty version of "Frosty The Snowman" (which is actually foreshadowing of a sort).
Almost immediately we are introduced to Trevor Rabin, movie star. It’s fitting that the first shot of the band is of their fabulous guitar player (sorry it’s blurry but it happens so fast)…
…but do we see the man whose name is up on the screen? Of course not, that would just be silly!
Speaking of credits, every time there’s a nice shot of our movie star there are those pesky credits again (which make it difficult to appreciate his familiar and now immortalized for all time ensemble):
Speaking of credits, every time there’s a nice shot of our movie star there are those pesky credits again (which make it difficult to appreciate his familiar and now immortalized for all time ensemble):
Lou gets a bit of screentime in this movie and he got to keep his line. Apparently Trevor’s speaking part didn’t make the cut (though he did tell me he believes he has no acting talent at all so it was just as well).
There’s something appropriately hilarious about Dweezil Zappa playing an A&R guy working for Asylum. His brother Ahmet also has a bit part as the Medford town snowplow driver.
After this sequence of the band's performance it shifts to the next day and we are introduced to Jack's son Charlie, who is referred to by his friends as "the brain" and they are beset by bullies during a schoolyard snowball fight Charlie saves the day with his strategizing, but we understand that he and the head bully Rory will experience further fracas. We also meet his dog Chester and his mom Gabby (played by the lovely Kelly Preston), who is doing her best to hold down the homestead while her husband pursues his rock n'roll dreams (and I'd like to say that their house is rather plush for the family of a struggling musician). As the main theme "Frostbite" is introduced we learn that their relationship is loving despite Jack's long absences. But Mrs. Frost has three boys in her household: it's after midnight and Jack and Charlie are building a snowman in the front yard (while the sprightly theme "It's Snowing" plays, featuring lovely dobro touches). Before bedtime Jack passes down his treasured harmonica, also a bit of foreshadowing, in one of the least schmaltzy scenes, which also features "Frostbite" as a cue.
Jack and Gabby discuss the A&R rep (as the band has a recording date the next day) and then we learn why they can afford such a nice house, she's a banker. It's such a typical musician move, he's just lucky he found such a hot banker!
Here's a flyer for the band's Southwest tour from the Frost fridge (which notes in the fine print they are on Blind Marmot Records) and I think we can assume Trevor is on the end right, as the tallest shadow in the grouping.
The next day Jack and Mac (cute) go off to their Recording Date of Destiny, and the first signs of Charlie's disappointment with a dad who is as wedded to music as his family are seen in that Jack does not have time to show Charlie his signature hockey move "the J shot" before that afternoon's game. Pre-game his team receives a pep talk from their coach, played hilariously by Henry Rollins who is wound just a little too tight for the elementary school set.
Juxtaposed with the game is the band in an ancient studio to record a demo with apparently no money for a basic consideration like sound baffling.
Jack comes home to crushing censure, even Chester gives him a disapproving growl upon his late-evening return. He gets a lecture on how much of Charlie's life he has missed from Gabby and chilly civility from Charlie, but five points to Jack for making a drummer joke. Even though he knows he shouldn't be making foolish promises yet again, Jack promises Charlie a real family Christmas up at their cabin (Wait a minute, they have a cabin too? He is so lucky he latched onto a businesswoman!). As they're heading out the next day Jack gets a call from the A&R guy (okay his name is John Kaplan but I can't stop thinking of him as Dweezil). Because all of this is the set-up for the moment of truth: the head of Asylum demands the band play his Christmas party in Aspen
Cut to the band driving to the Western winter playground of the rich and famous, but Jack has a change of heart on the way there and decides with finality that family is more important than his rock n’roll ambition. Pull over!
Okay, clearly the balance of power in this band is all wrong if the guitar player has to ride in the back with the gear. If for no other reason than the guitar player is 6’3. And you never let the drummer drive, dude, everybody knows that! (OMG I’m just kidding!) It’s implied that Trevor is in this scene, but I think it’s safe to assume he’s not really there since we don’t actually see him.
Since none of the band wanted to play the gig they head for home...and then things go horribly wrong from there - and not just because that's the last time you see the band (save Mac, who becomes a sort of ersatz father figure) in the movie - as evening brings on heavy snowfall and Jack meets his mortal end driving off a bridge and then we cut to a shot of Charlie at the cabin, looking out the window, hoping against hope. The story then moves forward one year and shifts its focus; as Charlie is now a very lonely boy in need of the kind of comfort he is too angry and heartbroken to accept. The cue "Miss Him Too" emphasizes the deep sense of loss Gabby and Charlie experience in their grieving even a year later. That night Charlie builds another snowman so the story can take on the timeworn Christmas trope we know (this scene is accompanied by a version of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" from their live album The Dance). The cue "Magic Harmonica" is a lovely winter-minded composition, with delicate accents bringing snowfall to mind and a sprightly motif as the transformation occurs. The magic of Winter finds a way to bring Jack and Charlie back together again, each to find their way towards redemption and closure. The cue "Charlie Boy" has a lovely emotional resonance as Charlie realizes that yes, a snowman actually contains the spirit of his father. And there's a whimsy to "Frost in Medford" which demonstrates the light touch Trevor can have with comedy. The theme "The J Shot" is the kind of "human highlight reel" music Trevor does so well, again with nice accents of dobro.
Overall, it is a heartwarming story (albeit entirely formulaic), even if many viewers couldn't really get behind Michael Keaton as the nominal lead (as a rock n'roller turned literal snowman) in a family film.
Trevor's appearance in the film is related to his role as scorer, in that he was asked to coach Michael Keaton in the fine art of rock n'roll performing, and we see the result of his guidance in their scenes, with Keaton doing a decent job of portraying a veteran front man. And we are treated to some of Trevor's guitar heroics in the songs "Frosty The Snowman" and "Don't Lose Your Faith" (which he and Michael Keaton co-wrote).
This is how the band appears in the credits of the film:
Those songs performed by the Jack Frost Band were produced by Trevor for the soundtrack. What disappoints me is Trevor and Michael Keaton wrote two songs but the second one, “Going Home” was apparently not used as it’s not listed in the credits; I'm assuming it was meant for the sequence where Jack changes his mind about going to Aspen. And a tangential connection can be found in the Shiverfest sequence, as the band performing "Jingle Bell Rock" is Michael Sherwood's Tangletown, a project which included younger brother Billy. Billy Sherwood is best-known for having been a member of Yes, beginning with his role as a sideman on the Talk tour in 1994. I may be wrong but I'd swear that's Billy playing drums in this scene.
In regards to the family films which Trevor has scored, music-wise this is a solid offering even as he is underused in terms of cues and motifs (which are all very lovely, and I tend to think it is closest to the “light orchestral” score that he mentioned he wants to compose in the 2009 MGU interview) because there is so much licensed music in the film. But my opinion that “Frostbite” is one of the most beautiful things Trevor has ever written – for any project – still stands; and therefore is the single redeeming factor despite the movie’s relative obscurity. But if you can obtain a copy of the score promo CD via the gray market for such items I'd recommend it, it's part of my holiday listening favorites and brings a bit of Winter magic to a place which never gets any snow at all, much less enough to fashion a snowman.
