Show #9: Frank Macchia
Frank Macchia a multi-award winning musician, composer, and arranger who has worked for Disney, Nickelodeon, The Temptations, and more.
Born and raised in San Francisco, California, Frank Macchia began performing and writing music at an early age, starting in high school, and continuing on in the San Francisco music scene. He studied music later at Berklee College of Music, in Boston, but eventually returned to warmer weather in San Francisco. In 1991 Frank toured Germany performing in productions of West Side Story and 42nd Street, and when the tour was over, he found himself in Los Angeles, where he has remained ever since, now living with his wife, Tracy, and son, Charlie.
Over the years, he has performing with such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Rita Moreno, Tony Bennett, Jack Jones, Clare Fischer, Chuck Mangione, and the Temptations, to name a few. He also has led his own original groups, including; Booga-Booga, The Gleets, Desperate Character and The Frankie Maximum Band, the later pictured on the right. In 1989 he began recording a series of eclectic CDs that showcased a variety of his own original material, from new wave to polka, including; Way-er Out West, Little Evil Things, The Galapagos Suite, Animals, Mo Animals, and, most recently, Emotions, with the Prague Symphony Orchestra.
Frank has worked as a composer/orchestrator on many films and television projects, including Superman Returns, The Fantastic Four, The Guardian, Miracle, X2-Xmen United, Men of Honor, Eight Legged Freaks, Hide and Seek, Austin Powers: Goldmember, The Contender, The Apt Pupil, Santa Clause 2, and television shows Night Visions, Nickelodeon’s Oh Yeah Cartoons, Disney’s Oliver Twist, and the Tonight Show. And, Macchia is the recipient of many prestigious music awards.
Clips from his “Bobo Takes a Stroll” can be heard introducing and ending each of our podcasts of Toon In to the World of Animation!
This episode is sponsored by The UPA Legacy Project.