--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BJORKESTRA LIVE 09.23: BJORKESTRA @ Spiegelworld Festival, New York 10.20: BJORKESTRA @ Blue Note, New York 10.23: BJORKESTRA @ Regattabar, Boston
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * ENJOY! reviewed in DOWNBEAT
* Travis Sullivan Interviewed by San Francisco Chronicle
* Travis Sullivan & Becca Stevens Interviewed by LA Weekly --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra is an eighteen piece, genre-bending orchestra that successfully fuses the eclectic accessibility of Björk's broad ranging pop music with innovative stylistic and improvisatory concepts drawn from modern jazz and beyond.
Arranged and conducted by alto saxophonist, arranger and band leader Travis Sullivan, The Bjorkestra performs a repertoire of the music of visionary artist Björk, spanning her entire catalogue as a solo artist, truly creating a new, dynamic and accessibly fresh approach to the big band sound that is uniquely 21st Century.
"Maybe her music chose me" is what Travis Sullivan when asked "why Björk?" by the Boston Globe, adding "I started listening to her music around the time that I was first getting into arranging for big bands, and Björk's music is really the perfect vehicle for that because it's in the cracks between a lot of different genres. It's melodic and rich and deals with a lot of modality." But Sullivan is quick to add that his arrangements though for a big band are firmly "not the kind of big band music that Glenn Miller played." This music made for our time - music that is coming from many different directions, yet like Björk’s own music, keeping a strong balance between the accessible and innovative.
"There's a density to Björk's music, but there's also an openness to it," he says. ''There's that open Icelandic vibe you get with her music. I wanted to see how I could write that into my arrangements using musical colors that are much more opaque. I was thinking about it in terms of painting with layers as I was trying to make these very long brush stokes with the music."
No surprise then that Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra features some of the best musicians in the NYC downtown jazz and indie music scene, including almost an equal ratio of female to male players. The Bjorkestra’s personnel have performed and/or recorded with the likes of The Arcade Fire, Dr. Dre, Charlie Hunter, The Saturday Night Live Band, The Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra and many others.
Perhaps most important of all, after Travis himself, is the person adding vocals to this unique ensemble - standout Becca Stevens, whose voice is evocative of Björk yet has a personal quality all of it's own, along with Travis she is the spokeswoman for the group. Like Björk, Becca Stevens has been performing for a very long time - she was born into a musical family in North Carolina and has been on stage since the age of two! As well as performing with Bjorkestra and numerous jazz/rock bands she teaches guitar and a music readiness program for very young children.
Sullivan admitted to PRI's The World radio show that "there does seem to be certain factions within the jazz community that have totally ignored this project just because it doesn't fit into that sort of definition of preserving the tradition of the past. You know, we're covering a pop artist, so, oh no." But guest musicians like Grammy nominated tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin, Verve recording artist Kurt Rosenwinkel, and guitar icon Ben Monder have all been keen to come in sit in with the band and audiences at venues like The Knitting Factory, Joe's Pub, St Marks Church, Maxwells, Makor, JVC Jazz Festival, Thalia Theater, BAM, Bowery Ballroom, Symphony Space and the Highline Ballroom (and that's just NYC), as well as writers at publications like The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Boston Globe, Jazz Times, New York Post, Philadelphia City Paper and others have all raved about the band.
Perhaps the appeal of Bjorkestra can be best summed up by the fact that Travis, despite a jazz background that includes a book of Eric Dolphy transcriptions, does not try to recreate Björk or simply do a standard big band jazz arrangements. Starting from the first arrangement he did in 1998 - "Hyberballad" - Sullivan has aimed more to reproduce the emotions in Björk's songs; and it's this emotional approach that takes Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra beyond the norm and even beyond jazz into a wonderful zone, as Sullivan says "between the cracks." Welcome to a new zone.
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Travis Sullivan's Unreleased Liner Notes for "Enjoy!"
Do something, do something to that, and then do something to that. – Jasper Johns
In the jazz tradition, the big band is the ultimate canvas, on which the arranger can paint layers of color of varying densities, from opaque to translucent, with brushstrokes broad or detailed. All of which can evoke images as diverse as a peaceful landscape, a New York City street at rush hour, or being alone with your lover at midnight. Also, with the right musicians (and this is why I live in NYC) you can swing your ass off or rock hard in the same set!
The music of Bjork gave me the desire to paint on this large canvas. Her voice, her grooves, her melodies and harmonies demonstrate a musical vision that is a rarity in modern music. In order to understand her music better for myself, I needed to disassemble it, metabolize it through my musical influences, and put it back together again.
The music on this CD is the result of this process.
Hyperballad – My first arrangement of a Bjork tune. I used a lot of the thematic material that’s in the original Bjork version on “Post”, which is rich with possibilities. I also made a slight change to in the chorus from an even to an odd meter, which subtly adds more urgency to the song. The trombone chorale at the end of the arrangement was eight measures of music written eight years ago when I first had the idea to arrange a Bjork song for big band.
Alarm Call is my second attempt at putting Bjork in a big band setting. The original has a beautiful melody and sentiment over a very simple vamp. I took that and gave it a little bit more of a harmonic structure, but really tried to keep the uplifting “wake up” vibe of the original intact. It’s my hope that because of the f-note that Bjork drops in this song that this will be first jazz record in history to get one of those cautionary stickers slapped on it.
Human Behavior – This is such a quirky song that it was a natural choice for an arrangement. Originally I wanted to have more of a straight ahead jazz swing feel, but because of the nature of the bass/timpani line, it evolved into having a reggae feel. We usually play this one to end our live sets, because it’s a real show stopper!
Show Me Forgiveness – This arrangement is a contribution from Arun Luthra, who is one of The Bjorkestra’s sax players and is a brilliant arranger in his own right. He took Bjork’s melody (sung completely a capella on “Medulla”) and added his own harmony and chord changes, reworking the song into a lush swinging waltz. We also went to Middle Earth to record Becca’s vocal at the beginning of this arrangement.
Army of Me – One of the longer arrangements that we do that is the showcase for several soloists. The bass line from Bjork’s version is so hard driving and compelling that it is preserved in our version. The chorus (“and if you complain”) is completely re-harmonized with rich sounding chords, creating a nice release to the verse. It also provides an excellent setting for the sax soli (what would a big band record be without a sax soli?).
Hunter is another arrangement by one of our long standing Bjorkestra members, Kelly Pratt. Kelly has successfully captured the mysterious, dark, and brooding nature of Bjork’s version through his effective re-orchestration , and bass trombone and baritone sax have never sounded so sinister…
Who Is It – I wrote this arrangement shortly after “Medulla” was released, and is one of my favorite songs for this album. Besides the majestic horn writing behind the vocals and the addition of a solo section, this arrangement preserves the melody and (brilliant!) harmony of Bjork’s original version. The end of this track, with Becca’s layered vocals, is one of my favorite moments on the entire album…I wish that had been my idea!
Cocoon – This is an instrumental version of this song from “Vespertine”. It took me a while to figure out an effective approach to the music on this CD, which many consider to be her masterpiece. The way she phrases the melody in her version felt like a slow waltz to me, so I changed the meter of the arrangement to ¾ time. I also reharmonized a portion of this tune to make it slightly evocative of “Someday My Prince Will Come”. If you know the lyrics to “Cocoon”, this will make sense in a few different ways.
Enjoy - Kevin Schmidt, our bass trombone player, arranged this tune. His version reflects many different moods throughout until finally giving way to a huge, swinging ending. Note the very intricate line between the bass, bass bone, and bari sax on the chorus of this arrangement – very challenging stuff.
Overture from Dancer in the Dark – I know, I know, an overture is supposed to be at the beginning, not the end, of a set of tunes. When we play live we usually use this as an opener – but for CD purposes it made more sense to put it at the end (and if you have a problem with it, you can start the CD here and let it loop around to the first track!). Anyway, this piece is a re-orchestration of the original version, which is from the opening to the Lars von Trier film “Dancer in the Dark”. It is such a beautiful, captivating theme. The perfect way to end an album!
