To musical purists, the very idea of “crossover” — the blending of classical and pop — is anathema. You almost imagine them protesting, a la those vintage Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup ads, “You got your Stratocaster in my Pachelbel!” But to those with more omnivorous tastes, nothing could be sweeter than bringing disparate musical traditions together.
Two distinct takes on crossover will be on display in Valley concerts next weekend. Downtown at Symphony Hall, vocal chameleon Brody Dolyniuk will sing “The Music of the Rolling Stones” with the Phoenix Symphony. And at the Mesa Arts Center, Oregon’s Portland Cello Project will perform alt-rock band Radiohead’s “OK Computer” album one night and a selection of “Brubeck, Bach and Beck” the next.
Brent Havens, founder of Windborne Productions and the conductor and arranger of the touring Rolling Stones show, says he doesn’t mind the “crossover” tag. But he describes what he does more as enhanced rock and roll, because the symphony will be playing alongside a band with electric guitar, bass and drums.
“You’re not missing any of the guts of the rock and roll, because that’s what the band is playing,” he says. “Then you take that and add to it a fully miked orchestra, and you’re talking a whole different set of colors, a whole different set of lines.
“When the guitar player takes off on a solo, the high strings play with him, sometimes note for note, sometimes doing counterpoint up above him. It doesn’t distract from the (visceral element) of the music, it adds to it.”
The big selling point for the show is Dolyniuk, a Las Vegas-based singer who re-creates the vocal stylings of such rockers as Elton John, Freddie Mercury and Robert Plant with his band Yellow Brick Road.
“I don’t run around and try to do an impression of Mick Jagger onstage, but I do try to approximate his voice,” he says.
Dolyniuk has been working with Windborne since 2009, when the Virginia-based company recruited him for its symphonic Queen show.
“I enjoy being a versatile musician, being able to jump from one thing to the next,” he says. “That’s how I stand out.
“But the truth of the matter is when I’m singing any of this stuff, whether it’s (Led) Zeppelin or Queen or Stones, I find that … my voice is not that far apart. It’s really in the inflections and how you phrase things.
“The accent, if you will, that (Jagger) puts on the material has a bit of a twang factor to it. If you hear ‘Angie,’ he’s singing, ‘Ainjeh!’ So it’s just picking up on little details like that. You try to sneak them in without making it seem like you’re trying too hard.”
If Windborne’s concerts are aimed at mainstream Baby Boomers, the Portland Cello Project has more of a hipster, NPR appeal. The outfit started out as an informal gathering of cellists who decided they wanted to bring classical music into such unusual venues as nightclubs and libraries, and halftime at Portland Trail Blazers games. Then the musicians started experimenting with untraditional repertoire, covering pop artists ranging from John Denver to Kanye West.
Co-founder Doug Jenkins says that even though all of the members have eclectic tastes, it hasn’t always been easy learning how to play different genres on the cello. Hip-hop in particular.
“There were a couple, myself included, that really loved hip-hop, but … none of us had grown up spitting rhymes,” he says.
Three years ago, the group performed a live cover of West’s “All of the Lights” that racked up hundreds of thousands of hits on YouTube. But when the musicians tried to follow that hit up with a full-length album of hip-hop covers, the results left something to be desired.
“It didn’t have an air of authenticity,” Jenkins says. “It sounded like classical musicians trying to pretend we were hip-hop musicians, which is probably the worst idea ever.”
So instead of releasing the material, they took it on the road to perfect it in front of live audiences. Their re-recorded album, “Homage,” was finally released in January.
Radiohead’s “OK Computer,” which the ensemble is performing on its current tour, was a more natural fit, Jenkins says.
“It’s a very easy translation. Many of the best studio records like that — there’s so much complexity to them that it is orchestral already, just with different sounds. You can preserve the energy, and it just feels like it’s in a new place, rather than either in a reduced place or an augmented place. It’s just a new perspective on the music.”
Like Havens, Jenkins isn’t bothered if PCP — as fans playfully call the group — are considered crossover. No matter what you label it, he says, their music is all about breaking down barriers.
“The Western classical tradition is rather exclusive, and I think that bothers a lot of performers,” he says. “I don’t like expecting the audience to have to try to figure out what I’m doing because I’m on some intellectual plane or something. I want people to love the music and enjoy the music. And so I think that’s what you see in a lot of the groups that are labeled crossover or whatnot. It’s more of a community-driven motivation to include everybody, to find similarities, to reach out across the aisle rather than expect people to reach out toward you.”
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