One of the themes we write about at Acculturated is the distinction
(or lack of one) between “high” culture and pop culture today. The topic can
polarize critics, artists and audiences, so it’s always a pleasure to celebrate
artists who creatively bridge that gap rather than sneer at each other from
opposite shores. Case in point: jazz pianist Scott Bradlee, whose Postmodern
Jukebox seamlessly blends “high” and “low” art in a fresh, joyful, exciting way.
Bradlee himself initially held a lot of pop music in disdain
– a “willful ignorance,” as he calls it, that continued until he began making
YouTube videos and receiving requests to perform modern pop songs. As he writes
on the Postmodern Jukebox website:
I decided to drop my preconceived
notions and examine contemporary pop with an open mind. What I found is that,
despite my initial aversion to the stuff I was hearing, I was unable to truly
categorize this as “bad music” without first defining a set of arbitrary,
culturally-defined criteria... As a relentless devil’s advocate, I then found
that by simply altering the context of such songs, I could find quite a bit of
artistic merit inside of them.
Artistic merit indeed. I never thought I’d find myself
recommending a Wham! song, but check out PJ’s vintage jazz version of the 1984
hit “Careless
Whisper,” with pop-up saxophonist Dave Koz having almost too much fun. The song’s
outstanding instrumental break features not only a nod to Dave Brubeck’s “Take
5” but also a brilliantly surprising bar or two of The Police’s “Message in a
Bottle.”
I’m no Miley Cyrus fan and don’t even especially like
doo-wop, but I could listen all day long to Postmodern Jukebox’s version of
Miley’s hit “We Can’t Stop,”
featuring a couple of members of The Tee-Tones on backup vocals. In fact, I’ve
contributed to probably dozens of the YouTube video’s 8+ million hits. Another
song PJ performs better than the original artist is Lorde’s “Royals” (6+ million
YouTube hits), featuring the almost operatically powerful presence of Puddles
the clown on lead vocals.
Other creative PJ takes on pop hits include: a bluegrass
barn dance version of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”; a 1940’s
swing version of Justin Bieber/Nicki Minaj’s “Beauty and a Beat”; an
acoustic-electro-swing-hiphop “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”;
a ‘40s jazz cover of Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” featuring a
tapdance break; a mariachi-style take on Avicii’s “Wake Me Up”; and an Irish
tenor cover of Daft Punk’s “Get
Lucky” – all filmed live against stark white walls in the corner of Bradlee’s
living room for their YouTube videos. (All of the above – except “Careless
Whisper” and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” – and ten more cover songs are
collected in Twist is the New Twerk.)
The creative arrangements are driven by Bradlee’s rollicking
and rhythmic piano style. The musicianship is tight, flawless, and never
grandstanding, including the pure vocals – a welcome relief from the showy contemporary
singing style of which it could be said, like Mozart in Amadeus, that “there are simply too
many notes.” A special shout-out to drummer Allan Mednard, whose subtlety and
precision are a joy to watch – or would be except that you can’t take your eyes
off singer Robyn Adele Anderson. Her classic vocal style never overwhelms the
song and her merest wink and flick of the hip is loaded with more potent
sexuality than the twerking and tongue-wagging Miley Cyrus could ever aspire to.
For anyone who has written off today’s pop music as lowbrow,
uncreative, and devoid of real musicianship – as Scott Bradlee himself once did
– give him and Postmodern Jukebox a spin.
(This article originally appeared here on Acculturated, 3/18/14)
