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Paul Zaza

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Paul Zaza
Born (1952-09-01) September 1, 1952 (age 72)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
NationalityCanadian
OccupationSongwriter

Paul Zaza (born 1952) is a Canadian Genie Award-winning film score and songwriter who worked frequently with director Bob Clark and with fellow composer Carl Zittrer. He has composed scores for more than 100 films.[1]

Early life and education

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Originally from Toronto, Zaza trained as a classical pianist, graduating from the Royal Conservatory of Music.[2]

Career

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In 1980 Zaza won the Genie Award for Best Music Score alongside Carl Zittrer for their work on Murder by Decree.[3] That year the pair teamed up again to write the score for the film Prom Night.[4]

In 1981 Zaza composed the score for the slasher film My Bloody Valentine;[5] in 1983 he once more collaborated with Zittrer to write the score for the well-known film A Christmas Story, which was released as an album much later in 2009.[6]

He was nominated for the same award in 1985 for Isaac Littlefeathers. In 1987 he received a Genie nomination for Best Original Song alongside Peter Simpson for the film Bullies.[7] In contrast, in 1986 he was nominated for the Razzie Award for Worst Musical Score for the film Turk 182. He also composed the theme music for Mr. Wizard's World.

Zaza wrote the new television theme song and composed an all-new soundtrack for the 1993 Canadian English dub of Osamu Tezuka's anime, Kimba the White Lion in Toronto, originally released in 1965 in Japan.

Work with The Longo Brothers

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In 1978, the Longo Brothers had a single " Sun Side Up" bw "Looking For Love" released on People City Music PCM 123. Zaza produced the single. He was also the arranger on their single, "Manhattan" bw "Nightwalk".[8][9]

With Frank Longo and Larry Longo, he played on the Parry Music Library releases Orchestral Drama 2 PML 141, Country Moods PML 144 and High Style PML 147 albums.[10]

The Longo Brothers had a single "City Motions" (Featuring Moe Koffman) in the CanCon Top 10 Adult Contemporary chart for a number of weeks in 1984.[11][12][13]

Work with Yvonne Murray

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Zaza produced her single, "Don't Send Me Roses (Dear Abby)" and album.[14] The single did quite well. For the week ending October 8, the single had entered the RPM Country 50 Singles chart at No. 50 and was at No. 24 on the RPM Contemporary Adult chart.[15][16] The song peaked at No. 13 on the tenth week in the RPM Contemporary Adult chart on November 26.[17][18] It also peaked on that date at No. 22 on its 8th week in the RPM Country Singles chart.[19][20] He produced her next single, "Let's Not Waste Another Heartbeat" at his Toronto studio.[21] The song spent a total of eleven weeks in the chart, it peaked at No. 12 on June 2.[22][23]

Selected filmography

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Canadian Composer. Vol. 4. Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. 1993. p. 16.
  2. ^ "Chords of Fear: An interview with composer Paul Zaza". Terror Trap, February 2010
  3. ^ "Genie sweep scored by 'Changling'". Ottawa Citizen. Postmedia Network Inc. CP. 21 March 1980. p. 81. ISSN 0839-3222. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
  4. ^ In Comparison: Prom Night 1980 vs Prom Night 2008". Fansided, by Avery McReynolds, September 2028
  5. ^ "The Soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino’s Favourite Slasher Film Is Finally Getting Released". Noisey, 1 Jun 2016
  6. ^ "Oklahoma celebs spice up Christmas CDs". NewsOK, by BRANDY McDONNELL, 27 November 2009
  7. ^ "Canada's Awards Database Paul Zaza". Awards. Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 4 May 2011.
  8. ^ 45Cat - The Longo Brothers - Discography
  9. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 30 No. 5 October 28, 1978 - Page 32 People City Music Presents THE LONGO BROTHERS
  10. ^ Library Music Themes - Topic: Parry Music Library
  11. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 41 No. 5 October 6, 1984 - Page 14 Longo Brothers release City Motions single
  12. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 41 No. 5 October 6, 1984 - Page 5 TOP CANCON, ADULT CONTEMPORARY
  13. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 41 No. 8 October 27, 1984 - Page 7 TOP CANCON, ADULT CONTEMPORARY
  14. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 39 No. 4 - Page 15
  15. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 39 No. 6 October 8, 1983 - Page 11 RPM Country 50 Singles
  16. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 39 No. 6 October 8, 1983 - Page 14 RPM Contemporary Adult
  17. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 39 No. 13 November 26, 1983 - Page 14 Contemporary Adult
  18. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 39 No. 14 December 3, 1983 - Page 15 RPM Contemporary Adult
  19. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 39 No. 13 November 26, 1983 - Page 12 RPM Country 50 Singles
  20. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 39 No. 14 December 3, 1983 - Page 11 RPM Country 50 Singles
  21. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 40 No. 1 March 10, 1984 - Page 15 New MCG release by Yvonne Murray
  22. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 40 No. 12 May 26, 1984 - Page 14 RPM Contemporary Adult
  23. ^ RPM Weekly, Volume 40 No. 14 June 9, 1984 - Page 14 RPM Contemporary Adult
  24. ^ "The Savage Stack - PROM NIGHT (1980)". Birth-Movies-Death, Jacob Knight 17 Oct. 2018
  25. ^ "Our history: More Christmas songs have Cincinnati connections". The Inquirer, via Cincinnati.com, 15 Dec. 2017
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