My fascination with Wes Anderson’s films dates back to my adolescent years. For my taste, no filmmaker has ever used songs in their films so poignantly and created such a unique and singular musical ambiance. There is a “mixtape” aspect to a Wes Anderson playlist: an intimate collection of one’s favorite songs, as if each song was painstakingly curated by combing through used record stores to find the most hip and heartbreaking music yet undiscovered by teenage ears. It evokes the childlike wonder of being immersed in a storybook and taps into the pain of loneliness associated with being an outsider.
There’s something beautiful about creating a collage of sounds that aren’t supposed to fit together, and yet they form a complex picture of a life with contradictions. It’s that unconventional juxtaposition that drew me to this project and inspired me to explore this music through a new genre: jazz. A mixtape is a personal, intimate reflection of what we want to show others about ourselves, and this album is my own spin on that concept—a journey into my inner life through this collage of meaningful music, in my own voice as a composer and a jazz musician. It’s an album inspired by the songs and media that expressed how I felt in my younger years, but it is not a replication of that media. It’s a series of diary entries, a statement about identity and culture, and an exploration of genre and style.
Playing bass was love at first pluck for Marty Isenberg. His career as a jazz musician began at the age of 12, after losing his father to cancer the year prior. A skilled amateur musician, Marty’s father kept many instruments around the house that he would play for the family. After his death, Marty would pull one of these instruments off the wall and begin teaching himself how to play by reading tablature in Bass Player Magazine. The first song he ever learned was My Own Summer by The Deftones. Playing bass was love at first pluck for Mr. Isenberg. It was a cathartic healing experience, a way to stay connected to his father, and a way to creatively express himself. He went on to study at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music where he majored in Jazz Performance and minored in Jazz Composition, and received his Master of Music degree from New York University. He is now a doctoral candidate at Stony Brook University where he is the teaching assistant to the jazz department chair Ray Anderson.
For almost 20 years, Mr. Isenberg has been part of the rich New York City music scene. His performing career weaves though many styles of music, from jazz, to classical music, to theater and contemporary music. Mr. Isenberg pulls from all of these experiences to arrange the music of his debut album The Way I Feel Inside: Inspired by the Films of Wes Anderson, adding his own voice and reimagining the music that helped to shape his own musical identity.
He is an endorsing artist for Aguilar Amps, DR Strings, Fender Guitars and Radial Engineering. He has performed for Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Kiss Me Kate, The Lion King, and Fun Home on Broadway. He has toured internationally with the Dave Juarez Trio, and Soul Doctor the musical. He is a member of the Like Minds Trio with Alicyn Yaffee and Eric Reeves, and the founder and CEO of the Clinton Hill Music School in Brooklyn.
Please Visit: www.martyisenberg.com