Postmodern in Retrospect

First let me say we had a blast. It was that much fun. The talented gang from Postmodern Jukebox can really put on a show, and they know how to have fun doing it. Much later I'll eventually get around to my one regret.

Our local venue, the Parker Playhouse in Ft. Lauderdale, was just about the right size for the sold-out crowd, and not so big that the performers got lost in the distance. Scott Bradley was absent for this stop on the road show, but stand-in Todd Shroeder did a great job of pounding out those honkey-tonk beats. From the moment the cast ran onto the dark stage, and then erupted into a spirited rendition of "Fancy," the energy never let up.

It's hard to believe I've only been a fan and following them for six months. In that short time I went from an infatuation with "All About That Bass," through collecting all their albums -- they put out eight of them in the space of a year -- and watching their 100+ Youtube videos (a new one every Thursday), and finally to a live performance.

Meanwhile my friends have had to tolerate me going on about them every chance I get, and I've lost track of the number of times I've said "just watch this" to another hapless victim. Fortunately most everyone has liked what they see, and my wife joined me in becoming terminally enthralled with the whole scene.

If you know them at all, you might be wondering by now who did we see? PMJ, as they're known for short, includes a current roster of around 40 singers and instrumentalists -- a talented pool from which smaller groups are formed. So of course we didn't see everyone, and there's no way they could do every song, but there were plenty of gems performed by some of their most prominent artists.

Both bass players -- Adam Kubota and Casey Abrams -- were on hand from the "All About that Bass" video, so that one just had to be done, although only one of the three female vocalists was present (Ariana Savalas), so the other parts were done by Robyn Adele Anderson and Joey Cook. Those guys really rocked the bass solo, where they both play the same instrument simultaneously, and the tune is a smash every time, regardless of who's singing.

Of course Robyn had to reel off her classic rendition of "Thrift Shop," which might contain more words per minute than any other song as she rattles them off too quick to follow. The crowd got a charge out of it even though we already knew the gag lines: "How much do you think I paid for this dress?" she asked. More than one voice shouted out "Ninety-nine cents!" and "Bag it!"

And I was delighted that new addition Joey Cook was there to do her version of "Delilah," in which she helps herself out on both ukulele and accordion. (Funny how these once outre instruments are sounding hip again.) She also added a gag by nodding her head in the direction of the uke when she came to the line that says "I'll pay the bills with this guitar." A few in the balcony were chanting "Jo-ey! Jo-ey!" by the time she was done.

Dance? Did someone mention dance? Sure, we had that too. Tap artist Sarah Reich was on hand to hammer on her piece of amplified floor. This girl is a living percussion instrument. To prove it, at one point she did a dueling competition with the drummer where they imitated and tried to one-up each other as he applied his sticks to the same surface she was tapping on.

One of the several tunes Sarah performed to was Lady Gaga's "I Want Your Love," sung steamily by Ariana Savalas. How steamily? Well, in the middle of it she came down off the stage to work the crowd in the front row. "What's your name?" she asked one man. Then, immediately snatching the microphone back, she added, "Never mind, I don't care." She then went into a long monolog about women in show business who get ahead by using SEX, it's disGUSTing ... and all the while she's leaning further over the aforementioned lucky man until her bosom was directly in his face. I hope he enjoyed it as much as everyone else seemed to. Then she was back on stage, and Sarah went back to work for the finale, culminating in Ariana's trademark whistling. A knockout!

And let's not leave out the role of the energetic MC, taken by Mykal Kilgore, whose own solo on "My Heart Will Go On" seemed bent on proving the human voice is capable of reaching the stratosphere. There's a wonderful video online of him performing this in a TV studio in Australia, and the hosts of the show are practically exploding when he's done because he so completely blew their minds. You think that was high? How about we take it up a notch...

Even the wind players had their moments in the spotlight, as each was introduced and did something wonderful and single-handed with their instruments of choice.

What's left? A grand finale, then an encore, with a few from the audience invited to come up and dance with a cast member. Ariana danced with that fortunate fellow from the front row, showing it was all in fun. Then the ritual taking of the cast selfie with the audience in the background -- my wife and I might even be in it, way in the back.

We left sated and totally happy. What's not to like?

Well, I said there was one thing. It's all about the sound. I'd never heard them live before, and was really hoping that the wonderful attention to detail evident in the recordings and Youtube videos would mean that even in performance they would strive for the kind of clarity that jazz buffs expect.

Alas, the demands of the crowd and the need for VOLUME meant that the bass was too strong, the horns too weak, and the voices too often overwhelmed by the accompanying din. As in this photo I took, you get the glitz and the fun, but some of the finer points are blurry and poorly defined.

There. I said it. But with that one caveat, for which they can be forgiven in the interests of the gods of entertainment and populism, I still had a great time. Would I go again? Absolutely. But next time I'm definitely springing for one of those seats in the front row.

Jivin' to the Juke

A blast from the past, and it's not ALL about that bass ...

It began with a simple link to a Youtube video that a friend posted on Facebook with the comment that they really liked this version of the song. I nearly didn't look, but something about the preview caught my eye (maybe it was the dress she had on) and I watched. The song was "All About That Bass," the Megan Trainor hit that's been making its own buzz online. But this new group called Postmodern Jukebox was doing it as if it had been written during the golden age of swing, with a trio of vocalists who could harmonize like the Andrews Sisters, and a sense of humor about the whole thing that was infectious.

"Wow," I commented on the Facebook post, "the '40s are alive and well!" Soon I found I had to see it again and share it with people, who universally loved it. These guys were onto something and I wanted to know what it was.

I focused on the singers first, finding that each of them brought something unique to her performance as they took turns doing solos, duets, and finally a trio. Their names are Haley Reinhardt, Morgan James, and Ariana Savalas, and they are part of the "European tour cast" of Postmodern Jukebox. (More on that below.) I learned that Hailey was a number three finalist on The Voice who has her own solo album, as does Morgan James, and that Ariana is related to the actor named Savalas.

Haley leads off "All About That Bass" with a throaty growl on "my momma she told me" and delivers a performance worthy of any classic torch singer. Then Morgan takes over with her own sassy treatment of lines like "from the bottom to the top - HEY!" Finally, after a brief intermission for the bass solo, in which two players work the same instrument at the same time -- and switch places with one another in the middle -- it's Ariana's turn to celebrate the lyric with a smoother touch, arms flailing the air in celebration. The three finish it off with an a capella repetition of the title line, closed out by a bump of the oft-mentioned booty. Delightful every time.

But who was in charge of all this? Was it the bass player? If so, which one? Well, no, it's actually the one musician you don't see in the video because he's hidden behind the piano where he's hard at work stitching this whole thing together. Scott Bradlee is a jazz musician from Long Island who began his career in New York. A few years ago he began experimenting with arranging and performing contemporary songs as they might have been done if sent back in a time machine to an earlier era.

He explains that this is really what jazz musicians have been doing for many years, continually adopting new contemporary works into the repertoire of what our local NPR station calls "America's classical music." But normally that's done by casting them into the form of contemporary jazz, whatever that might be at the time. Bradlee has gone a step further by rolling back the clock.

He's put together a rotating group of vocalists, drummers, bass players, and assorted brass and winds -- even a cello and harp in a couple of places -- who are capable of reproducing the style and energy of everything from Dixieland to Swing and Gospel. And let me be clear -- when I say "reproducing" I don't mean one of those moth-eaten tributes that grace the air of PBS during pledge week. These guys do it as if it has never been done before, with all the fresh energy and sex appeal that made the style so popular in the first place.

It's not just "All About That Bass." Bradlee and his cohorts have produced a series of top-selling albums and a staggering 80+ videos for Youtube with an equally staggering number of views and subscribers. Now on the road for the first time they're selling out venues in multiple countries. With this kind of success it seems clear they've struck a nerve, and I think I know what it is.

One word. Melody.

You may have noticed this key musical ingredient has been mostly absent from contemporary rap. When you can sing the lyrics with a drum you know something is missing. For example,

Dada dada dada dada dada dada DA
Dada dada dada dada dada dada DA

Or maybe for variety something like

Dada DA da dada dada dada dada DA

In this wasteland it's no surprise that someone like Adele can become an overnight sensation by delivering what listeners have been starved for. If you have any doubt, check out this interview with Bradlee and close personal friend Robyn Anderson where they describe having to create a melody for a song that basically was missing one. And as I explained recently, even Bob Dylan is reaching back into the classic American songbook to dredge up those blasts from the past.

An irony in this situation is that we have some great jazz schools in this country -- our own University of Miami is a perfect example -- that are turning out a slew of graduates equipped with the skills they need to rival the old masters of the form. But they emerge from college all dressed up with nowhere to go. The venues that used to offer a place for those hot little combos to play have all dried up. Radio airplay is filled with the above mentioned rap. Even selling jazz recordings is a tough job.

But the success of Postmodern Jukebox offers some hope. They're on such a roll, and their method of accumulating talent is so expandable, that you could even imagine them becoming a kind of Blue Man Group for jazz vocals with branches on tour all around. Hey, it could happen. Even better, they might inspire some competition. Jazz clubs could re-open, and songwriters could begin writing, um, songs again.

Hey, that could happen, too.

Meanwhile, enjoy them while you can. Just to get started you can check out this quick intro on What is Postmodern Jukebox. Then click into their Youtube channel and see what it has to offer. You'll note the interesting minimalist style where a single fixed camera lets you focus on the performance as a whole, just as you would at a live performance in a small club. But whatever you do, don't leave until you've seen these:

"Creep," in which Haley Reinhardt transforms the Radiohead tune from the 1980s into a soulful anthem for anyone who has ever felt unworthy of the one they admire from afar. This knockout is the very definition of singing your heart out. I think I may be in love.

"Barbie Girl," which features Morgan James choreographed as a doll and doing an amazing impersonation of a Theremin while a man behind her pretends to play one in this playful Beach Boys imitation.

"Gangsta's Paradise." Omygod, I never heard the words before Robyn Adele Anderson sang them like this. Just check it out.

"Bad Romance." Ariana Savalas takes Lady Gaga back to the Gatsby era while a tap dancer provides counterpoint. When is the last time you saw a tap dancer? And I forgot to mention, Ariana leads off the song by whistling. When is the last time you heard that since maybe Bing Crosby?

You can also get an insight into Scott Bradlee's own talent by watching him take Twinkle, Twinkle through several decades of style transformations. In another life he might have made a great studio backup man.

And if after watching all that you find you're still not hooked, then you might as well move along because you just don't get it. Maybe, in the words of "All About That Bass," you'd prefer a stick-figure silicone Barbie doll?