“I’m an American Musician, a composer and a conductor” says Mike Post. He’s the guy who name sits below the title of some of the most iconic television themes ever composed, including: Hill Street Blues, LA Law, Magnum PI, the A Team and The Rockford Files.
Of his approach to composition he says: “I put my art on somebody else’s art to make art more artful.”
Mike began his musical journey with piano lessons at the age of six and by fifteen he was playing club dates in Hollywood. Following musical studies at school and on the road with various bands, he joined the hallowed ground of LA studio session musicians.
His studio epiphany came when he was invited to play on the recording of Sonny and Cher’s, I’ve Got You Babe, with the Wrecking Crew. Choosing the route of his own money to produce and arrange artists he gained work with the Reprise label. Within nine months he produced the hit Just Dropped In (To See What Condition my Condition was In) with the then little-known Kenny Rodgers.
In 1968 Post produced and arranged the Grammy-winning instrumental and #2 Billboard hit Classical Gas by Mason Williams. In ’68, he also met his future collaborator, Pete Carpenter. While Post came up with the catchy melodies carpenter arranged the orchestration.
In 1969, aged just 24, he entered the world of TV as the youngest ever musical director of the Andy Williams show where he pioneered prerecording the large studio band of the time for famous guest artists. A chance encounter with TV producer Stephen J Kennel produced a life-long friendship and Post went on to make music for his shows, including the Rockford Files.
Post and Carpenter’s most fruitful eighties period included Hill Street Blues, Cagney and Lacey, The A-Team and Miami Vice. Fast forward to 2024 and following thirty years of “Episodic TV” he told himself, “Get off your butt and do something hard.” His ’24 concerto, ‘Message from the Mountain and Echoes from the Delta’ has two ‘sides’ to it: a bluegrass rhythm section with an orchestra and a blues rhythm section with an orchestra.
Of the blue grass piece Post says: “The more Americana it got to me the more it became a piece about immigration.” Whereas the blues piece is born of “the great music that started in the Southern part of the USA that speaks to great joy, great suffering and comes straight from the heart.” Post considers the concerto as a whole to be a celebration of the music of the American people.