Cuban-born musician Arturo Sandoval is well known as a top trumpeter and recording artist in the jazz world. Now, at 69, he’s thinking of changing careers, and hopes his score for Clint Eastwood’s “The Mule,” based on the story of an elderly Midwestern horticulturist who stumbles into a job transporting cocaine for the Mexican cartel, will be a big step in that direction.
Eastwood, who plays jazz piano, usually composes the themes for his films, and sometimes even entire scores, as he did for “Mystic River,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Changeling” and others. But thanks to Andy Garcia, who played Sandoval in the HBO biopic “For Love or Country,” and who co-stars in “The Mule” as a drug lord, the director and musician met at Warner Bros., initially to discuss creating the Latin source music that would be needed for a party at Garcia’s character’s lavish digs.
Eastwood visited Sandoval’s studio every day for a week and couldn’t resist sitting down at Sandoval’s grand piano (formerly owned by another jazz legend, Oscar Peterson). He also listened to the composer’s demos and made suggestions for the score. Eastwood liked cues that were “super simple, not too much movement,” Sandoval said.
Eastwood’s longtime music editor Chris McGeary, who produced the score, agreed that Sandoval’s future might lie in composing film scores. “We were blown away by what he came up with,” McGeary said. “He’s the real deal.” Eastwood had actually composed a theme for “The Mule,” McGeary revealed, but the veteran director preferred Sandoval’s. “Use your theme,”Eastwood told Sandoval, “don’t even bother with mine.