Jazzsters ready Celtic treats for sinfonia's St. Pat's concert
By Geoff Gehman Of The Morning Call
THE DETAILS: THE REESE PROJECT
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www.mcall.com/entertainment/music/all-a_reeseboxmar11,0,4670749.story
What: Lancaster County jazz quartet performs arrangements of Celtic works with the Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra during a St. Patrick's Day concert. When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Where: Symphony Hall, 23 N. 6th St., Allentown. Tickets: $30 and $25; $26 and $24, seniors; $20 and $15, students. Info: 610-434-7811, http://www.pasinfonia.org. Rest of program: Handel's Suite in D Major (''Water Music''), Vaughan Williams' ''Rhosymedre,'' Haydn's Symphony No. 104 in D (''London''), Holst's ''Brook Green Suite''
The husband is a jazz musician who plays pennywhistle, bamboo flute and an ocarina as big as a bloated softball. The wife is a classical musician who plays jazz on electric cello. Together, they play in four bands that play everything from samba to silent film scores everywhere from a martini bar to a planetarium. Oh, yes, they also run a record company that releases titles like ''Apocalyptic Hayride.''
Tom and Laurie Reese run their musical hayride from Mount Joy in their native Lancaster County. On Saturday, they'll hit the road, a place they know very well, to beef up their jazz, classical and folk chops in a St. Patrick's Day concert with the Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra.
The Reese Project, the couple's jazz quartet with drummer Aaron Walker and guitarist Bobby Brewer, will perform Celtic numbers with the orchestra at Allentown Symphony Hall. The program includes the Reeses' arrangements of Irish harp numbers, a Scottish medley and the Appalachian tunes ''June Apple'' and ''Kitchen Girl.'' The band will solo on Tom Reese's ''Planxty Kong,'' a tribal number honoring one of his favorite films, the 1933 version of ''King Kong.''
The Reeses have long been on the radar of Pennsylvania Sinfonia executive director Alex Meixner, a jazz trumpeter and a fellow member of a touring educational program run by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He mentioned the couple's goal to work more with orchestras to Allan Birney, the Sinfonia's music director and conductor. Birney agreed to add the Reese Project to the Sinfonia's small roster of non-classical acts: a jazz group led by Allentown guitarist-producer Mike Krisukas and the Tango Project.
''We just thought it would be nice to do something a little unusual,'' says Birney. ''There's not a heck of a lot of Irish classical music for orchestra; it's mostly folk and other kinds of music. I don't see us starting a yearly Celtic tradition; we're just taking advantage of the happenstance of a date falling on St. Patrick's Day.''
For the Reese Project, planxtys and reels are but the tip of the harp. The band specializes in ''East Coast Cool,'' an answer to the ''West Coast Cool'' of Wes Montgomery, the late, great, effortlessly soulful jazz guitarist. Hybrids range from a rock version of ''Abigail Judge'' by blind harpist Turlough O'Carolan to Tom Reese's ''Lullaby in Clay,'' a samba played on one of his more than 30 ocarinas made in 19th-century Vienna. On the band's seventh and latest CD, cut live last year in a Fort Worth church, Bach's Minuet in G segues into Lennon-McCartney's ''Norwegian Wood.''
The group's schedule is just as diverse. To make ends meet, and increase the exposure that makes ends easier to meet, the Reeses have performed at a jazz festival at a Lancaster County winery and HMV record stores in Manhattan. They've improvised during screenings of ''Metropolis,'' ''The Birth of a Nation'' and other silent films. Tom Reese, a science fiction fan, particularly enjoys playing to the 1925 version of ''The Lost World,'' based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book about adventures with dinosaurs.
The Reeses are dedicated educators as well. The National Endowment for the Arts has given Tom three grants for directing a theater program at the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster. He and Laurie have worked for The Commission Project, a nonprofit in Rochester that pairs composers with students in upstate New York. One of their workshops involves building ocarinas; he likes to demonstrate by playing a D model, which is as big as a small cantaloupe.
The Reeses grew up 12 miles apart in Lancaster County, with Laurie in Landisville and Tom in Elizabethtown. Despite the short distance between hometowns, they never met in their youth. Tom, 54, was busy fronting jazz groups and raising a family. Laurie, 45, was busy freelancing as a mostly classical cellist on the East and West coasts, sessioning with everyone from Henry Mancini to Gloria Estefan. One of her colorful assignments was recording a Christmas album by Yes singer Jon Anderson. ''He'd always tap on the mike,'' she recalls, ''and say: 'More echo, more echo.'''
Laurie and Tom first collaborated in 1991 when he hired her for a date at the Hotel Hershey. She bluffed her way into his band by fibbing that she knew how to improvise. Fifteen years later, she naturally switches gears whether she's playing love songs during a wedding reception or synchronizing to a laser light show.
The Reeses clearly believe that the family that plays together stays together. They perform in a classical duo (MuZette), a classical trio (Susquehanna) and a Celtic folk-rock quartet (Wyndfall). Their Wyndfall Records label issues CDs by these groups, plus the Reese Project and non-Reese projects.
One of the reasons the Reeses founded Wyndfall was the chance to name their own songs. Two years have passed, and Tom is still sore that a former record executive gave a CD the same title as a song inspired by Reese's dental surgery.
''I wrote 'Vicodin Dreams' around 3 a.m. one night, after having a tooth extracted, when I was hallucinating that we were performing Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five' in 6,'' says Reese with a laugh. ''I wanted to name the record 'Evening in Vermont,' but [the record executive] said it would sound too much like a live album. Some radio stations wouldn't play it because there's a narcotic in the title. It's kind of childish, but I understand. Because people take the wrong meaning out of everything in this world.''
Some of the sting was relieved by the fact that ''Vicodin Dreams'' remained for two months in JazzWeek magazine's Top 60. It's one of a handful of the Reese Project's high charts. ''Blue Etude,'' a 2000 recording, stayed for five weeks on Gavin's national radio jazz list. ''Dark Kat Revisited,'' a track from the 2004 CD ''Apocalyptic Hayride,'' spent six weeks in the Hot 11 at WRTI, the jazz/classical public radio station in Philadelphia.
''Apocalyptic Hayride'' has a cover of a nightmarish painting by Hieronymus Bosch and a tune devoted to another nightmare: the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Inspired by Simon and Garfunkel's interpolation of ''Silent Night'' with broadcasts of the Vietnam War and serial murders, Reese wrote ''Elegy 9-11/a.m. news'' for three flutes, English horn and more than two minutes of radio reports of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers.
''I was a little reluctant to do any kind of 9/11 tribute,'' says Reese. ''I just didn't want to be exploitative; I just wanted to suggest the souls of friends and loved ones departing the buildings as they collapsed. Evidently, it went over well in Mexico; a DJ there told me 'That's all people want to hear.'''
Carving a foreign career is one of the Reeses' goals. They envision touring Ireland for the first time with a keyboardist and a bassist. They also want to play more orchestral dates and expand their recording horizons. They recently received a boost when Concord Records, a well-known jazz label in Beverly Hills, agreed to release the Reese Quartet's remake of Herbie Mann's ''Memphis Underground'' to test the market for a CD.
In the meantime, the Reeses will continue being honorary Irish musicians. On Saturday, they'll play a pair of banks before they perform with the Pennsylvania Sinfonia. It will be an easy schedule compared to last year's St. Patty's massacre – er, marathon. That day Tom and Laurie played seven gigs in a duo, trio and quartet, roaming from restaurant to college to bars. After 17 hours on the run, they felt exhausted, exhilarated and ready for a few Guinness dreams.
geoff.gehman@mcall.com
The husband is a jazz musician who plays pennywhistle, bamboo flute and an ocarina as big as a bloated softball. The wife is a classical musician who plays jazz on electric cello. Together, they play in four bands that play everything from samba to silent film scores everywhere from a martini bar to a planetarium. Oh, yes, they also run a record company that releases titles like ''Apocalyptic Hayride.''
Tom and Laurie Reese run their musical hayride from Mount Joy in their native Lancaster County. On Saturday, they'll hit the road, a place they know very well, to beef up their jazz, classical and folk chops in a St. Patrick's Day concert with the Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra.
The Reese Project, the couple's jazz quartet with drummer Aaron Walker and guitarist Bobby Brewer, will perform Celtic numbers with the orchestra at Allentown Symphony Hall. The program includes the Reeses' arrangements of Irish harp numbers, a Scottish medley and the Appalachian tunes ''June Apple'' and ''Kitchen Girl.'' The band will solo on Tom Reese's ''Planxty Kong,'' a tribal number honoring one of his favorite films, the 1933 version of ''King Kong.''
The Reeses have long been on the radar of Pennsylvania Sinfonia executive director Alex Meixner, a jazz trumpeter and a fellow member of a touring educational program run by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He mentioned the couple's goal to work more with orchestras to Allan Birney, the Sinfonia's music director and conductor. Birney agreed to add the Reese Project to the Sinfonia's small roster of non-classical acts: a jazz group led by Allentown guitarist-producer Mike Krisukas and the Tango Project.
''We just thought it would be nice to do something a little unusual,'' says Birney. ''There's not a heck of a lot of Irish classical music for orchestra; it's mostly folk and other kinds of music. I don't see us starting a yearly Celtic tradition; we're just taking advantage of the happenstance of a date falling on St. Patrick's Day.''
For the Reese Project, planxtys and reels are but the tip of the harp. The band specializes in ''East Coast Cool,'' an answer to the ''West Coast Cool'' of Wes Montgomery, the late, great, effortlessly soulful jazz guitarist. Hybrids range from a rock version of ''Abigail Judge'' by blind harpist Turlough O'Carolan to Tom Reese's ''Lullaby in Clay,'' a samba played on one of his more than 30 ocarinas made in 19th-century Vienna. On the band's seventh and latest CD, cut live last year in a Fort Worth church, Bach's Minuet in G segues into Lennon-McCartney's ''Norwegian Wood.''
The group's schedule is just as diverse. To make ends meet, and increase the exposure that makes ends easier to meet, the Reeses have performed at a jazz festival at a Lancaster County winery and HMV record stores in Manhattan. They've improvised during screenings of ''Metropolis,'' ''The Birth of a Nation'' and other silent films. Tom Reese, a science fiction fan, particularly enjoys playing to the 1925 version of ''The Lost World,'' based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book about adventures with dinosaurs.
The Reeses are dedicated educators as well. The National Endowment for the Arts has given Tom three grants for directing a theater program at the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster. He and Laurie have worked for The Commission Project, a nonprofit in Rochester that pairs composers with students in upstate New York. One of their workshops involves building ocarinas; he likes to demonstrate by playing a D model, which is as big as a small cantaloupe.
The Reeses grew up 12 miles apart in Lancaster County, with Laurie in Landisville and Tom in Elizabethtown. Despite the short distance between hometowns, they never met in their youth. Tom, 54, was busy fronting jazz groups and raising a family. Laurie, 45, was busy freelancing as a mostly classical cellist on the East and West coasts, sessioning with everyone from Henry Mancini to Gloria Estefan. One of her colorful assignments was recording a Christmas album by Yes singer Jon Anderson. ''He'd always tap on the mike,'' she recalls, ''and say: 'More echo, more echo.'''
Laurie and Tom first collaborated in 1991 when he hired her for a date at the Hotel Hershey. She bluffed her way into his band by fibbing that she knew how to improvise. Fifteen years later, she naturally switches gears whether she's playing love songs during a wedding reception or synchronizing to a laser light show.
The Reeses clearly believe that the family that plays together stays together. They perform in a classical duo (MuZette), a classical trio (Susquehanna) and a Celtic folk-rock quartet (Wyndfall). Their Wyndfall Records label issues CDs by these groups, plus the Reese Project and non-Reese projects.
One of the reasons the Reeses founded Wyndfall was the chance to name their own songs. Two years have passed, and Tom is still sore that a former record executive gave a CD the same title as a song inspired by Reese's dental surgery.
''I wrote 'Vicodin Dreams' around 3 a.m. one night, after having a tooth extracted, when I was hallucinating that we were performing Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five' in 6,'' says Reese with a laugh. ''I wanted to name the record 'Evening in Vermont,' but [the record executive] said it would sound too much like a live album. Some radio stations wouldn't play it because there's a narcotic in the title. It's kind of childish, but I understand. Because people take the wrong meaning out of everything in this world.''
Some of the sting was relieved by the fact that ''Vicodin Dreams'' remained for two months in JazzWeek magazine's Top 60. It's one of a handful of the Reese Project's high charts. ''Blue Etude,'' a 2000 recording, stayed for five weeks on Gavin's national radio jazz list. ''Dark Kat Revisited,'' a track from the 2004 CD ''Apocalyptic Hayride,'' spent six weeks in the Hot 11 at WRTI, the jazz/classical public radio station in Philadelphia.
''Apocalyptic Hayride'' has a cover of a nightmarish painting by Hieronymus Bosch and a tune devoted to another nightmare: the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Inspired by Simon and Garfunkel's interpolation of ''Silent Night'' with broadcasts of the Vietnam War and serial murders, Reese wrote ''Elegy 9-11/a.m. news'' for three flutes, English horn and more than two minutes of radio reports of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers.
''I was a little reluctant to do any kind of 9/11 tribute,'' says Reese. ''I just didn't want to be exploitative; I just wanted to suggest the souls of friends and loved ones departing the buildings as they collapsed. Evidently, it went over well in Mexico; a DJ there told me 'That's all people want to hear.'''
Carving a foreign career is one of the Reeses' goals. They envision touring Ireland for the first time with a keyboardist and a bassist. They also want to play more orchestral dates and expand their recording horizons. They recently received a boost when Concord Records, a well-known jazz label in Beverly Hills, agreed to release the Reese Quartet's remake of Herbie Mann's ''Memphis Underground'' to test the market for a CD.
In the meantime, the Reeses will continue being honorary Irish musicians. On Saturday, they'll play a pair of banks before they perform with the Pennsylvania Sinfonia. It will be an easy schedule compared to last year's St. Patty's massacre – er, marathon. That day Tom and Laurie played seven gigs in a duo, trio and quartet, roaming from restaurant to college to bars. After 17 hours on the run, they felt exhausted, exhilarated and ready for a few Guinness dreams.
geoff.gehman@mcall.com