Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

The New Age of Man

Recipe for The Ambitious Orchestra: Take equal parts Big Band Jazz, Klezmer, Showtunes, Chamber Orchestra, and Punk. Mix well. Serves more people than you might think.

Last October, you may recall, I wrote one of the early reviews of the then-small but promising classical music scene on MySpace.com, including short reviews of nine of the most interesting groups with sites. I’ve been periodically checking up on The Ambitious Orchestra since then, and Wednesday night (June 21) I attended their show at the Bowery Poetry Club in downtown Manhattan. (The Bowery district has exchanged the odor of urine and vomit from the Skid Row days of the ‘70s heyday of CBGB for a slew of hip little restaurants, bars, and clubs. I'd never heard of the Poetry Club, but it seems like a promising venue.) The Orchestra was billed as going on at 10:00, but for some reason the band before them didn’t get started until a few minutes after 10, and the AO didn’t start until probably 11:30. The opening band, Aaron and Mordechai, was good (and featured Ambitious Orchestra member Sylvia Mincewicz on electric violin), but they couldn’t compete with the AO.The orchestra has something like 20 members in a pretty standard one-on-a-part chamber orchestra configuration, but conductor/frontman Benjamin Ickies sings many of the songs and occasionally plays accordion. The songs themselves are excellent – great melodies, smart lyrics (“So save your ammunition. Save your strongest dog. Prepare your fragile psyche for the onset of it all. And when you see a monkey rise up and take the stand, remember you’re not dreaming, and welcome to the new age of man.”), and first-rate orchestration – most songs are written and orchestrated by Ickies and bandmember Steve La Rosa. Their new 5-song EP and the samples at MySpace show off the songwriting, orchestration, and performance well, but of course the point of a concert is the show, and it was one of the best shows I’ve seen in a while.

Benjamin Ickies is a remarkable showman, holding the packed Bowery Poetry Club’s attention without pause from the moment the show started – the best way to describe his style is probably disciplined mania. When singing, he thrashed and flailed in a sort of focused way that was far more effective than the sloppy running around, jumping up and down, and melodramatic hand gestures one often sees. When conducting he did the same, throwing pages into the air when he finished (and occasionally knocking over the music of, and otherwise endangering, French Horn player Becky Lipsitz, whose reactions were hilarious). The band itself seemed well rehearsed, played well, and obviously had a blast. The guest singers were each excellent in their own ways. The cover of “One is the Lonliest Number” was particularly good. And at the end, Ickies used the closing number to show off the band in a fun way, vamping for about 5 minutes while he introduced each section, conducted some improvised licks, and then inviting a couple of friends of the band to come up to the stage and do their own conducting of more improvisation. When that was over, they crashed back into a final chorus on a moment’s notice, and brought it all home.

I’ve been listening to the new EP all day, and I’m looking forward to the album, allegedly due out in 2006, entitled “Shout, For the LORD has Given You the City!” In the meantime, if you can make it to one of their shows, you won’t be disappointed.

posted by Galen H. Brown 6/22/2006