Jeff Goldblum

Los Angeles, California -- 1993

"Lush Life" is a wonderful Showtime movie about the life of two jazz musicians. Jeff Goldblum plays a tenor saxophonist with Forest Whitaker as his trumpet-playing buddy. Los Angeles musicians were buzzing during filming because so many had the opportunity to be extras in the movie -- this is known as "sideline work" in the music industry.

To my delight, I was chosen to do a scene with Jeff Goldblum at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Jeff's character was playing recorder in a Baroque ensemble along with several female musicians on clarinets and bassoon. I was seated right next to Jeff in my long black gown with my clarinet. In the scene, Forest Whitaker and Kathy Baker were relaxing nearby on a padded bench watching the performance.

Famous jazz arranger, Lennie Neihaus, was on hand. He had written and recorded all the music to which we were lip-synching. During filming we were supposed to be very quiet on the set and realistically "pretend" to play the parts. Jeff had been practicing and practicing both tenor sax and recorder for the film, and he was very eager to play together with real musicians. He kept urging us to play out loud -- "c'mon, just one note please, ok one more" -- until the director would yell sternly , "Quiet on the set!"

For more about Jeff Goldblum, go to www.goldblum.com.