When Jeff Goldblum and RoboCop formed a band: “We started playing at this brunch place”
Everybody knows that Jeff Goldblum is a national treasure. Doesn’t matter what country you’re talking about; he’s still a treasure.
The lanky, verbose actor is just as famous for his exploits off-screen, but his on-screen work also speaks for itself. From the Jurassic Park series to The Fly to recent turns in Wicked and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, when Goldblum makes his presence felt, you know you’re in for a good time.
As for those off-screen activities, Goldblum’s best-known other passion is music. A gifted pianist and lover of jazz, the star has released three studio albums with the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra Studio. A collection of covers of well-known standards, the albums feature special guests ranging from German trumpeter Till Brönner to comedian Sarah Silverman to Goldblum’s Wicked co-star Ariana Grande.
However, this was far from the first time that Goldblum had jammed with a famous face. Speaking with The Guardian, the idiosyncratic icon recalled the early days of his musical obsession. As a teenager, he moved to New York to follow his acting dreams but kept his love of music alive as well. He bought a piano for his apartment and kept an eye open for people to play with. His prayers were eventually answered by an unlikely source: RoboCop star Peter Weller.
“Peter Weller suggested we do something, and I knew a guitarist, so we started playing at this brunch place on Sunset Boulevard,” he explained. “Now, every week when I’m in town, we get together and play.”
This was the beginning of the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, who take their name from an old friend of Goldblum’s mother. The loose affiliation of musicians didn’t have a name to start with, but were forced to pick one when they started getting booked for larger venues.
Weller is best known for portraying Alex Murphy in the first two ‘RoboCop’ films. He was replaced by Robert Burke for number three, which… well, let’s just say it didn’t go well. He met Goldblum when they both appeared in the 1984 film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, often shortened to Buckaroo Banzai for obvious reasons. Weller was the film’s lead, the titular Dr Banzai. Goldblum, who was still in the early days of his career, plays a side character called New Jersey. The film is something of a cult classic these days.
Weller’s instrument of choice is the trumpet. He played it in a band while studying at the University of North Texas, before giving it up to pursue acting. It was actually Woody Allen, who would go on to direct Weller in Mighty Aphrodite, who encouraged him to take it back up again and perform live.
A quick Google search will reveal plenty of articles about his passion for jazz, including one with Pop Culture Classic. Weller reveals that it was his mother, a massive fan of Duke Ellington, who turned him on to the genre and that, by 1988 (the year of the interview), he was still practising daily.
Sadly, Goldblum and Weller don’t seem to play much together these days. Still, for a period of time, you could go and watch Dr Alan Grant and RoboCop blast out some Miles Davis and nobody would have batted an eyelid.
