EXCLUSIVE:Laura Karpmanwas drip-fed jazz notes when she was a baby.
And so she wanted me to be an artist and she wanted me to be a musician.
There was no hierarchy.
American Fiction creatives Cord Jefferson and Laura KarpmanMGM
It was just all, Oh, lets go from Wes Montgomery to Beethoven.
I loved that about her.
This is somebody who hugely influenced me, she adds.
AMERICAN FICTION, from left: Erika Alexander,Jeffrey Wright, 2023. ph: Claire Folger / © MGM / Courtesy Everett CollectionMGM
Everybody made the trek to Ann Arbor to perform at Hill Auditorium, Karpman recalls.
Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, they all came, she says.
So youve just got to be able to be musically gymnastic.
Karpman reflects that Everett, while penning his novel, of course knew this, Im sure.
Sometimes its almost like [Monk] hits the keyboard.
And so it was a perfect choice for this character.
So Im grateful for that, especially in a talk-y movie.
Also, as a musician, a huge part of what American music sounds like comes from Black music.
And that means concert music as well, not just jazz, she says.
I mean, there wouldnt be that music had there not been jazz, she says.
And he would be the first to admit that he did not invent it.
What he did was bring it into the orchestra.
What is it to be an artist?
Massive budget, this is a little budget.
And thats what Monk [in the film] is dealing with.
Her brother plays the drums and country and western music.
Karpman says she knew that the Steinway had seen incredible Hollywood parties.
I knew that Vladimir Horowitz had played on it.
I had played on it , so she had it sent over to her piano restorer.
She tested it because when you get a new instrument, its like weird.
Tinkling the keys, Karpman improvized some music.
The piece she played around with on the Steinway became what she calls the family theme forAmerican Fiction.
So my family very much weighs into this, she says.
It was something that I really felt in my cache of memories.
I think the experience of this family is obviously different from mine but in many ways similar.
The father was a doctor.
They were a family of doctors and artists, and that was kind of my family.
Karpmans currently scoring two interactive games, neither of which she can discuss.
However, theres a bonza project that shes eager to shout-out about.
Its a backstage drama focussing on a group of women trying to make it in New York as dancers.
My other sort of passion has been advocacy and really helping women and underrepresented composers.
But Dorothy Arzner has been fundamentally erased, even though she was a really important filmmaker.
She adds that everybody knew about Arzners queerness.
She walked around in a tie and a suit and she did her thing.
And I love that Dorothy Arzner did it.Barbiedid it, and Cord does it withAmerican Fiction.
The film often pops up in BFI programing.
Ive to listen to more compositions by Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and, of course, Thelonious Monk.
To that list Ill add some of Karpmans own work.
To me, its a 21st century American classic.
