Perhaps the greatest takeaway from Postmodern Jukebox's performance on Saturday at the State Theatre of Ithaca is this: It is an inescapable truth that the internet has fast become the fabric of our culture. Oh, also, good news for Ryan Gosling in "La La Land": The spirit of jazz is doing just fine.
Since its inception, the World Wide Web in particular has bridged gaps across national and international lines; we are, in a sense, all connected, even if we never meet. Though this has its obvious cons, it is in the arena of music and entertainment where we can often forget the downfalls of a society oversaturated in technology and rediscover the joys of boundless human creativity.
We'll do so by clicking on YouTube videos of everyday people covering their favorite pop songs, then sharing them in a frenzy across social media until those everyday people become stars themselves. We've seen this happen with Justin Bieber and 5 Seconds of Summer -- and we've also seen it happen with Postmodern Jukebox.
The jazzy musical collective has experienced a turbulent rise in popularity since 2013, when the group's first viral video -- featuring singer Robyn Adele Anderson performing a 1940s ragtime rendition of Macklemore's smash hit "Thrift Shop" -- scored 1 million views in its first week and 4 million by the end of the year. Today, the video has 14 million hits, and it's just one of a massive catalog of vintage reimaginings of contemporary music on the collective's channel. The group's delicious doo wop take on Miley Cyrus' "We Can't Stop," for example, has 17 million hits.
Postmodern Jukebox also boasts a pretty girthy discography, with its deubt EP "Introducing Postmodern Jukebox" and 2014 record "Historical Misappropriation" landing neatly in the Top 20 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart in 2015.
Founded in 2011 by pianist and arranger Scott Bradlee in Astoria, Queens, the Postmodern Jukebox family is a large one. It has featured more than 100 performers, both professional and amateur; permanent and guest. It's still very much a grassroots movement, though. Bradlee picks the tunes and arranges them all, and the group's weekly videos are still recorded in his living room.
"There's no Sony, no Universal, there's none of that," said vocalist LaVance Colley on Saturday, who also served as the evening's master of ceremonies. "It's directly to you, from us."
The iteration of Postmodern Jukebox that played Ithaca featured Colley alongside such veteran members as Anderson (who opened the night with "Call Me Maybe," a song that also owes much of its success to the internet) and Ben "the Sax Guy" Golder-Novick, who played in Bradlee's very first combo. Other vocalists included "American Idol" alumni Vonzell Solomon and Von Smith with "Jack" Dani Armstrong of Los Angeles, and other instrumentalists included trombonist Reggie Watkins, bassist Nimrod Speaks, pianist Logan Evan Thomas and drummer and bandleader Chip Thomas. The evening also prominently featured Anissa Lee, a glittering professional tap dancer who even dueled the drummer during a set break.
What may, from the outset on paper, seem like a tired testament to the ubiquity of mashup culture, proved instead rather refreshing at the State Theatre on Saturday. Postmodern Jukebox's performance felt less like a concert and more like a cabaret. This was entertainment, through and through, not just sonically, but visually, as the lineup of vocalists changed in and out of many jaw-dropping old-timey suits and gowns several times throughout the evening.
"I have one question for you," Colley said at the beginning of the night. "Do you like my outfit?" This really set the tone.
The virtuosity of these performers, though, cannot go unnoticed. The beautiful State Theatre was alive on Saturday with shouts and whistles -- signifiers that the music wasn't just good, but great.
The first standout performance of the night came from Armstrong, on Weezer's "Say It Ain't So." That this '90s alt rock staple was included in the same set as a bunch of Top 40 pop tracks, and so soon, was refreshing enough, but to hear (and see) Armstrong transform it into a grand torch song was a sign that things were only about to get better. Armstrong soared, commanding with ease both her own fiery vocal, and in the tradition of these old school groups, the band itself.
Tonight in Ithaca: @PMJofficial! Here's a bit of their grand rendition of "Say It Ain't So" by the mighty @Weezer. #PMJTourpic.twitter.com/9yi0G5j3jB
-- Dan Poorman (@Dan_Poorman) November 19, 2017
When Von Smith took the stage, in his signature straw hat and suspenders, he turned an '80s rock 'n' roll classic ("Sweet Child O' Mine") into a bluesy big band classic. Again, reading it, you might say, "Alright" and continue sipping your coffee, but to hear Smith's velvety runs, cartoonishly good range and singular stage antics is, as the old folks would say, "something else." Smith made extensive use of his comic rubber face again on Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River," where, in a truly dynamic vocal tag, he had Ithaca living on a weird plane between hilarity and astonishment.
Speaking of ridiculous range and pitch control like butter, Colley wowed everyone when he climbed a full octave at the climax of Beyonce's "Halo." The man went from tenor to soprano in seconds. There's nothing more to be said about that. Chops like this should be against the law.
A real turning point for this reviewer, though, was on Vonzell Solomon's rendition of Radiohead's "Creep." The song, often cited by Radiohead diehards with a groan, has been covered and rearranged ad nauseam; to a point where frankly it is hanging on the precipice of outright meme-dom. Bradlee's arrangement and Solomon's soulful vocal, however, respected the tune as the masterpiece of pop songwriting that it is, like it or not. This isn't a cover for the sake of a cover; it's a sort of musical DNA extraction. It's the means by which Postmodern Jukebox intends to show its audience that even the most critically maligned or "played to death" radio singles are smart, dynamic and worthy of study.
Solomon's choice on the final pre-chorus of "Creep" (on that "You're so f---ing special" lyric for which everyone waited) was a tender and feathery comedown from what had been something of a Whitney Houston epic. It was simply stirring. The audience showed their appreciation, again, by whistling; it all felt like a exceptionally communal experience.
"Shake It Off" by @PMJofficial in Ithaca. #PMJtourpic.twitter.com/CVcgoe8EmX
-- Dan Poorman (@Dan_Poorman) November 19, 2017
The evening culminated in the group's take on Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off," which featured four of the five vocalists and quickly melted into an all-out jam session. When the crowd wanted more, Colley led the band back to the stage for a three-song encore that featured "Chandelier," "All About That Bass" and "What Is Love," which actually (of course) just became the rocking gospel tune "Shout!"
That Postmodern Jukebox continues to rack up YouTube hits and subscribers with its constant stream of content is impressive enough, but to see a live band version of this concept is different. It is a spectacle, and if you're like this reviewer, it just might make you curb your digital age cynicism in favor of being reintroduced to the organic power of music.
O.K., Internet, you win this one.
The Setlist
"Call Me Maybe" (Carly Rae Jepsen)
"Say It Ain't So" (Weezer)
"All Star" (Smash Mouth)
"Sweet Child O' Mine" (Guns N' Roses)
"Straight Up" (Paula Abdul)
"That's What I Like" (Bruno Mars)
"Every Breath You Take" (The Police)
"Cry Me a River" (Justin Timberlake)
"Thrift Shop" (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis)
"Halo" (Beyonce)
"Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" (Cage the Elephant)
"We Can't Stop" (Miley Cyrus)
"Style" (Taylor Swift)
"Creep" (Radiohead)
"Shake It Off" (Taylor Swift)
Encore:
"Chandelier" (Sia)
"All About That Bass" (Meghan Trainor)
"What Is Love" (Haddaway)
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