Josh Groban Cinematic: A Journey Through Film Music

Singer-songwriter Josh Groban says his latest album, Cinematic, found him. Last year, after performing all-Italian rendition of “Brucia La Terra” from The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone at the 50th American Film Institute (AFI) Life Achievement Award ceremony, he realized his strong connection to the music side of film.

“If I stop and think about it, throughout the course of my career, I worked with John Williams and James Horner and James Newton Howard and so many of the greats,” he says via phone from a tour stop in Rochester, NY. Groban performs at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 28, at Blossom. “I worked with them while recording songs for movies and recording songs from movies. I’m doing that on basically every album, anyway. Francis Ford Coppola asked me to sing the Godfather theme in Sicilian when he was given the AFI Lifetime Award. I was so touched and honored that I got to do that. I walked off that stage deep diving into the great songs from movie.”

Inspired by the reaction he received at the AFI event, he invited friend Greg Wells (Wicked, The Hunger Games, The Greatest Showman) out to dinner for a brainstorming session. They quickly created the loose framework for what would become Cinematic.

“I told him this idea, and he said he was wanting to make that kind of album too,” says Groban. “He had just come off doing all the music for the Wicked movie, so film was in his bones at that moment. We went out to dinner to discuss the project, and before main course even arrived, we had a list of 25 of our favorite songs and 10 of our favorite arrangers. We mapped out about what would become half of the album in that hour. I’ve found that in anything creative, you can pull your hair out for months and then realize it’s not the right thing. When something comes in a wave like that, you have to follow it. And so, we got to work immediately.”

Groban and Wells did a lot of what Groban calls “sketching” in Los Angeles. They recorded the orchestra and some singing at AIR Studios in London, where an enormous number of scores have been recorded.

Since his rendition of “Skyfall” had become part of his live show, he decided to include it as one of the album’s tracks. He started doing the song “by accident.”

“I was doing a residency at the Colosseum Theater in Las Vegas — and we are going back in October,” he says when asked about the track. “Adele had been there for a little over a year on that stage. We thought, ‘What’s an Adele song we could do to pay kind of pay tribute to her and have an Easter egg at the end of the show?’ This was before I knew I was doing this album. We ended the night with ‘Skyfall’ and just fell into this incredible version we did live before recording it.”

Groban’s rendition is particularly operatic, thanks in part to an ornate arrangement courtesy of British producer and composer Callum Au (Michael Bublé, Dua Lipa).

“We recorded [‘Skyfall’] in London with so many of the musicians that recorded the original as well as an incredible drummer who brought the ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ snare drum for our session history as well,” says Groban. “You have it written on a piece of paper, and then, you hear it with that orchestra, and you go, ‘Wow. This is better than anything I could have expected.’”

Groban reached out to friend and collaborator Jennifer Hudson to see if she wanted to contribute to the album. Their rousing rendition of “Unchained Melody” represents another album highlight.

“Jennifer and I have wanted to collaborate for a long time,” he says. “We’ve sung together on television specials, and I’ve been on her talk show. We had a mutual admiration society going. We were looking for the right thing. With a voice as powerful and incredible as hers is, it has to be the right thing. We didn’t want to waste that opportunity. I told her I was doing this album. I said, ‘No pressure, but do you have film song that you would want to sing?’ She said ‘Unchained Melody.’ That’s been a bucket list song for the two of us. We liked the challenge of turning it into a duet.”

Groban says “Moon River” represents the results of one of his favorite recording sessions of all time. It features his father, Jack Groban, on trumpet.

“My musical DNA is because of my dad,” he explains. “He put away the trumpet and went into a stable kind of business world. He’s been an executive recruiter finding jobs for people for almost 60 years now. He played jazz piano and jazz trumpet in college in the ’60s. We would play his old jazz recordings. The way he would wail doesn’t just go away. That muscle memory is surely there, and we both love that song. I said, ‘Dad, I know this is a long shot, but Vince Mendoza, one of my favorite jazz arrangers, has given us this incredible arrangement and there is a spot for a solo. Would you be able to do it?’”

His father asked for three weeks to prep. When it came time to record, he was ready.

“He rehearsed every day and the whole family came in,” says Groban. “It was like he never stopped playing. This sound came out and the way he could solo with expression was remarkable. He is going to be 80 and to have a forever track of my dad on a track that is so special to us is a wonderful experience for me.”

Not one to rest on his laurels, Groban has another new album half-written.

“I don’t like to tour and also do nothing,” he says. “I do the most writing and thinking about the next album when I am touring. Being in front of an audience is so informative to your truest compass as an artist. It’s when you’re twiddling your thumbs and left to my own devices and alone, that I don’t hear what I want as much. Being out making music makes me want to make more music when I’m off the road. I got a lot of songs ready to be finished and have the scope of a new album that should be out in about a year from now.”