Cattle on the Ice

Alexander Nevsky; London Symphony Orchestra; Claudio Abbado, conductor

The coldest temperature I’ve ever experienced was at 4:30 AM on February 9, 1994. My dad and I were loading the car to take me to the airport. I was going to Aukland, New Zealand, to meet up with and play with a band on a cruise ship called the Royal Odyssey. It was 82 degrees in Aukland, according to USA Today. But on our front step, the thermometer said that it was 44 degrees below zero. It was a trademark of mine in those days to claim, "This is a day I'm happy I'm not a cow."

My flight plan took me from Sioux Falls, SD, to Denver, CO, to Los Angeles, CA, to Aukland, New Zealand. And we, of course, crossed the international dateline; at right around midnight, by the way. Which means that when we landed in Aukland, it wasn’t February 10 but February 11. I have contended for years that the best day of my life was probably February 10, 1994, and I never got to have it.

For that matter, when I went home, after sailing from New Zealand to the Mediterranean Sea, it was by way of Athens, Greece, to Chicago, IL, to Sioux Falls, SD. For the last 15 years, I’ve been a full 24 hours ahead of time. If you ever ask me what day it is and I say it’s Tuesday when it’s really Monday, that’s why.

The trombone player in the band was Mike N. and he and I were friends instantly. We first discovered that we had the Midwest in common. He was from Minnesota. Then we learned of each other’s Danish heritage; I’m a quarter and he’s a full Dane. And to top it all off, we figured out that he rented a room in Minneapolis from my cousin-in-law’s brother. Mike has an enormous sense of humor. His hero is Jerry Lewis. So, now I am a fan of Jerry Lewis. He voraciously reads jazz periodicals to keep up with what’s and who’s new in the industry. And he practices nearly 5 hours a day. But my favorite feature of him, and the one that has affected me the most, is his love of the movies.

For years, my only directive in watching a movie was to follow the plot. I was oblivious to virtually all of the other elements. Mike taught me how to watch and what to look for in a movie. He made me aware that a director’s fingerprints are all over the screen concerning color, lighting, angle, scope, volume of sound, what’s in focus and what’s not, and a host of other film components.

And we watched great movies. We watched “Citizen Kane”, the quintessential ground breaking movie, with its below the floor lighting, the constant focus of the cinematography, and always the play on perspective. We watched “Fitzgeraldo”, a film that uses no special effects; everything that you see really happens. And we watched Robert Altman’s “The Player” with its opening shot that lasts 7 minutes and 47 seconds without a single camera break. And we watched “Wuthering Heights”, “War and Peace”, “North by Northwest”, “Gigot”, “Brazil”, “Dr. Strangelove”….

And one afternoon while it rained in the Indian Ocean, we watched “Alexander Nevsky”. Directed by Sergei Eisenstein with music by Sergei Prokofiev, Nevsky is a magnificent 1938 black and white Russian movie that climaxes with the unforgettable Battle on the Ice on the surface of the frozen Lake Chudskoe. The only thing that prevented greatness from occurring in this movie was that it was also being directed by Stalin, if you know what I mean. We can’t allow someone as talented as Eisenstein free reign with Russian, now Soviet, history on the chance that the movie could be shown internationally. So, there are political messages incorporated in the movie that are not timeless, that are not important to movie goers in the 21^st century, and that are not relevant to the story.

Visually, the movie is stunning, using some of the most advanced special effects and cinematography techniques of the time. However, Stalin was in a hurry to approve the movie and was too impatient to wait for its completion. He confiscated it while the soundtrack was in the process of being edited. This is truly unfortunate because the relationship between Eisenstein and Prokofiev resulted in a union of picture and music that remains industry standard. It has been expressed by many in films that this score is the finest ever composed for the cinema.

Prokofiev later created a cantata out of the music from the film score and it is what is heard on this CD. Mr. Prokofiev typically composed in a sharp rhythmic manner that lent a hint of sarcasm to his sound. But in this score, though he is still rhythmic, he is also quite lyrical with long melodic lines that match and modify the visual of the contours and horizons of the bare, treeless landscape encompassing the frozen solid lake.

On Super Bowl Sunday of 1981, the cows broke through the electric fence that surrounded the pile of silage that my dad fed to the cows during the winter. The temperature was 35 degrees below zero. It was so cold that the cows couldn’t feel the electric current when they came in contact with the fence. My dad and I spent two and a half hours in the bitter cold rewiring and strengthening the fence. It took me three hours to get warm again. I’d done my Battle on the Ice. Plus, Raiders 27, Eagles 10. Boooooo.

Credits: Curtis C., who I met for the first time on February 11, 1994. I’ll see you in Heaven, my friend. Jerry Lewis, for The Typewriter and the boardroom scene in “The Errand Boy.” Hey, Lady!!!!!