Texas State’s Hehmsoth uncovers audio trove of jazz history

Staff Reports

SAN MARCOS – Hank Hehmsoth, associate professor in the School of Music at Texas State University, has completed three research projects of jazz and music history that range from Miles Davis and Bill Cosby to jazz drumming to composer Jerry Goldsmith.

During Hehmsoth’s tenure as a research fellow for the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, he discovered a cassette tape among 60 boxes of uncataloged NEA Jazz Master Dan Morgenstern memorabilia.

“There was this cassette marked ‘Cosby,'” Hehmsoth said. “After playing a portion of it, I knew this was an important historical contribution to the legacy of Miles Davis.”

“I withheld this release for a while, due to the controversy surrounding Cosby. But back in 1986, Cosby was a TV star and hosted Miles Davis’ wedding to Cicely Tyson at his home in Beverly Hills,” he said. “Cosby explains in-depth the mystique Davis has and his enormous impact as an innovative creator.”

Hehmsoth has made the interview available at https://bit.ly/35BFEJq

“The History of Jazz Drums” is a 32-episode series of 1989 radio interviews between Loren Schoenberg, senior scholar of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem and keynote speaker at Texas State’s Eddie Durham Celebration, and jazz drummer Mel Lewis. The discussions cover the techniques, equipment and ensembles of jazz drummers from the earliest days in jazz to modern jazz drummers. The series is available online at https://bit.ly/3LvZPaU.

The complete 205-episode series, “Jerry Goldsmith Film and TV Score Retrospective” celebrating the composer’s 80th birthday, which originally aired on Sirius XM from Cinemagic, is now available online through Hehmsoth’s efforts. The series was broadcast as a five-day marathon of Goldsmith’s acclaimed film and television scores, including music from Planet of the Apes, Twilight Zone, Alien and his Oscar-winning score for The Omen, as well as the Rambo trilogy and Star Trek.

“Getting permissions to present these created considerable obstacles, but here they are, all on my YouTube official artist channel,” Hehmsoth said.

The series is presented in five parts:

• Part 1 covers Goldsmith’s relationships with four directors: Franklin J. Schaffner, Joe Dante, Paul Verhoeven and David Anspaugh.
• Part 2 presents a wide array of Goldsmith scores for science fiction and fantasy films.
• Part 3 includes an in-depth look at Goldsmith’s Oscar-winning score to The Omen, with excerpts from his scores from mysteries, thrillers, psychological and horror films.
• Part 4 presents Goldsmith’s war films, including the Academy Award-winning score for McArthur and more action and adventure films.
• Part 5 concludes with unique and rare excerpts from Goldsmith’s lesser known works.

The Cinemagic series is available online at https://bit.ly/36Mj80U.