Show notes
This week we chat with Composer Kris Bowers about his recent work on the Hulu show, Mrs. America and the challenges of completing his score during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABOUT KRIS BOWERS
Emmy Award-winning composer and pianist, Kris Bowers, creates genre-defying music that pays homage to his jazz roots with inflections of alternative and R&B influences. The result is a sound rife with contradictions, a work of nuanced alchemy situated at the summit of his influences. A confluence of jazz greats, classical standards, and the alternative and experimental music of his youth, along with the cinematic storytelling of his most studied film scores. Bowers’ earliest musical inspirations were varied, transcending generation and genre to include work by artists such as Steve Reich, Radiohead, Stevie Wonder, Brian Eno, Herbie Hancock, and Jimi Hendrix. As a young musician, Bowers brought the language of jazz to his covers of artists like Death Cab For Cutie, Tune-Yards, Radiohead, and Kendrick Lamar.
Since 2013, the Juilliard-educated pianist has established himself at the forefront of Hollywood’s emerging generation of genre-defying composers. What sets Bowers apart is his unique ability to compose music that resonates across such a diverse continuum of artists, storytellers, and audiences. From scoring documentaries like Kobe Bryant’s Muse (SHOWTIME, 2015) and Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (2016), to scripted series including Shonda Rhimes and Paul William Davies’ For The People (ABC), Netflix’s Dear White People, and SHOWTIME’S Black Monday (Exec. Produced by Seth Rogen & Evan Golberg), Bowers’ work as a film and television composer is a testament to his versatility as an artist.
Bowers first made a name for himself in 2011, when he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where Aretha Franklin chose him as a favorite to win during the semi-finals concert. The win earned him a record deal with Concord Jazz, who later released his debut album, Heroes+Misfits, which opened at number one on the iTunes jazz chart in 2014.
https://www.krisbowers.com
ABOUT MRS. AMERICA
Mrs. America tells the story of the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and the unexpected backlash led by a conservative woman named Phyllis Schlafly, aka “the sweetheart of the silent majority.” Through the eyes of the women of the era – both Schlafly and second wave feminists Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug and Jill Ruckelshaus – the series explores how one of the toughest battlegrounds in the culture wars of the 70s helped give rise to the Moral Majority and forever shifted the political landscape.
Mrs. America features an all-star team in front of and behind the cameras. Two-time Academy Award and Golden Globe Award winner Cate Blanchett headlines as Phyllis Schlafly, leading a stellar cast portraying some of the most iconic women of the era, including Emmy Award nominated Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem, Emmy Award winner Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug, Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisholm, Emmy Award nominated Elizabeth Banks as Jill Ruckelshaus, and Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan. The cast also boasts Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Sarah Paulson, Emmy Award nominated John Slattery, Emmy Award nominated Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ari Graynor, Melanie Lynskey and Kayli Carter. Executive Producers are Emmy Award winner Dahvi Waller (Mad Men), who serves as creator and showrunner, Academy Award nominated Stacey Sher (Django Unchained, Erin Brockovich), Coco Francini, Cate Blanchett and Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck (Captain Marvel, Billions), who directed four of the nine episodes, including the first two.
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