Combining
lively modern jazz, contemporary classical richness, cinematic narratives and
an offbeat sense of humor, Josh Green & The Cyborg Orchestra offer a skewed
but vibrant take on the big band tradition. On their debut album, Telepathy
& Bop (due out February 24, 2017), the 16-piece Orchestra draws inspiration
from surreal visual art, jazz and classical icons, and an accidental stalking
episode briefly intertwining the fates of the bandleader and a certain Today
Show host, all of which converge to craft a strikingly unique and off-center
sound.
By day,
Joshua Green, recently awarded a Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award from
ASCAP, plies his trade as Music Supervisor for ITV America, the world's largest
unscripted television company. While devising the perfect soundtrack for
battling housewives, rampaging bridezillas and scheming chefs comes with its
own rewards, Green found himself in need of a creative outlet apart from the
voyeuristic pleasures of reality television. Enlisting some of the finest
musicians he'd discovered while working on film and TV soundtracks and Broadway
musicals, Green assembled a singular ensemble that deviated from the standard
big band to incorporate unexpected voices, including accordion, bass clarinet,
Electronic Wind Instrument (EWI) and strings.
Band members
include Charles Pillow (oboe, alto sax, tenor sax), Todd Groves (EWI, flute,
alto sax, tenor sax, Eb clarinet, contrabass clarinet), Jay Hassler (Bb
clarinet, bass clarinet), Nathan Schram (viola), Nick Revel (viola), Clarice
Jenson (cello), the adventurous PUBLIQuartet - Curtis Stewart (violin), Jannina
Norpoth (violin), Nick Revel (viola) and Amanda Gookin (cello) - John Lake
(trumpet), Chris Misch-Bloxdorf (trombone), Nathan Kochi (accordion), Sungwon
Kim (guitar), Michael Verselli (piano), Brian Courage (bass), Josh Bailey (drum
set).
The initial
stirrings of inspiration for the Cyborg Orchestra, though, date back nearly a
decade, to a time when Green had shifted focus from his jazz studies to
concentrate on composing contemporary classical music. He was studying at the
University of Vienna in early 2007 when the news reached him of jazz great
Michael Brecker's untimely death. Distressed at the passing of one of his
musical heroes, Green was moved to try his hand at writing a jazz piece
inspired by Brecker's legacy.
"I
really looked up to Michael Brecker," Green says, "and when I found
out he'd died it was a trigger for me to go back to my jazz roots. I wanted to
write something that showcased the jazz language, bebop in particular,
in a contemporary classical setting. It evolved over a really long time until
it became 'Telepathy & Bop.' I had no idea what the piece was going to be
until it became what it was, but that was the impetus to create this
ensemble." That piece, which gives the album its title, is a constantly
surprising three-part suite that refracts the angularity of bebop through an
avant-garde classical lens, creating a tumult of acute swerves and clamorous
textures.
It was a
number of years before Green finally put together the Cyborg Orchestra to bring
"Telepathy & Bop" and other pieces to life. In the meantime, he'd
worked on films by directors like Martin Scorsese, Peter Jackson and David
Cronenberg while writing orchestral arrangements for the New York Pops, Emmy
Award-winning television shows and Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals in New
York and London. He's carried his gift for scoring narrative ideas into the
Cyborg Orchestra, finding the spark for several compositions in visual art and
personal stories.
"The
Lauer Faceplant" sonically recounts the story of one of Green's awkward
brushes with fame (since moving to New York in 2009, he's tallied quite a few,
which he's in the process of turning into a suite). Shortly after arriving in
the city his not-yet-developed urban compass led him into a face-to-chest
collision with Today Show host, journalist and recent Presidential Forum
moderator Matt Lauer. Their destinations being in the same direction, Green
then proceeded to follow Lauer, giving the bandleader the uneasy sensation of
being an inadvertent celebrity stalker.
The
composition born from that encounter plays like a clumsy spy-movie soundtrack,
capturing the accidental intrigue and only-in-NYC hilarity of the incident.
"I hate to take myself too seriously," Green explains. "I'm a
very lighthearted person, and while I can get inside my own head a lot when I'm
trying to write, the thing that speaks to me the most is that wackiness in
life. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in Seinfeld and I see this as a great
opportunity to express the fun I get to have in life in a way that's meaningful
to me."
Frenetic
album opener "Boy & Dog in a Johnnypump," the mysteriously
tropical "La Victoire," and Paris-by-way-of-the-circus rag "Soir
Bleu" all have their origins in paintings. The first is based on a work by
the influential, graffiti-inspired artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, while "La
Victoire" is taken from René Magritte's curious image of a cloud floating
through an isolated door by a seashore - an image that was through an odd
coincidence invoked by a condominium commercial that Green was tasked with
scoring. "Soir Bleu" comes from an Edward Hopper scene that finds a
smoking clown amidst a group of Parisian diners.
"I
always start writing with a narrative in mind when I write," Green
explains. "In all of the paintings that have inspired me, there's a
narrative that's beyond what's right in front of us."
The same
could be said about the photograph of a cobblestone street in Cuba, lined with
classic American cars, that inspired "Reverie Engine: The Ambiguous
Rhumba." The driving rhythms of Cuban music are hinted at but subdued by a
sense of uncertainty in Green's conception. Finally, like "Telepathy &
Bop," "Improvisation & Nebula" nods to another of Green's
musical influences, Hungarian composer György Ligeti. The piece's stark
atmosphere, dark harmonies and spectralism all have their roots in Ligeti's
music.
Having
realized Green's musical vision on record, the Cyborg Orchestra will take on
full-blooded human form for its live debut at National Sawdust on March 2 to
celebrate the album's release. Meanwhile, Green is hard at work on a new batch
of music for the band while trying to avoid literally bumping into stars on the
street. Regardless, it will no doubt combine the accessible with the
avant-garde, the zany with the zeitgeist.
No comments:
Post a Comment