Most rock bands open with sonic booms and lightning flashes, something big. Not East Village Opera Company. They start small and finish huge.
Did I say opera?
That’s because of the song material this rising star on the music scene pulls from. They put a heavy duty Rock sound to arias from Bach to Puccini. Not much new there. Think Elton John’s “Aida” and the like.
Nor is there much to punch about the group’s sound. It’s jazz, pop, blues, soul, surf, R&B and a little country, all of it packaged for pop consumption.
What works is vocalists AnnMarie Milazzo and Tyley Ross. They got chemistry and game.
No “Hi, there.” No “How you doing.” A low-key string quartet with Jeff Lipstein on drums gets the ball rolling.
Eventually, lean, long-legged and brunette, Milazzo meanders out in a dreamy, spaced-out way and lets you take her in without saying a word.
In her own good time, like a lost and lonely waif, Milazzo cuddles up to the mike and opens up. The voice starts slow, faint and vulnerable; strengthens steadily and builds to a powerhouse finish. I swear, each interpretation interprets the rise to personhood of women in general.
Ross, for his solos, strides out bald, bold and fully composed but also with no announcement. He says nothing and stares back. He checks out Lipstein on drums and the all-lady string quartet who are always doing their thing and doing it beautifully.
After giving the nod to Peter Kiesewalter, the band brain, keyboard specialist and group’s co-founder with Ross, Ross then takes charge of the mike and everybody else everywhere.
I gotta say this guy Ross burst on the scene as Tommy in a Canadian “Tommy” a few years back and has skyrocketed since. He is the electric hero for rock addicts all ages.
Arias from Wagner, Verdi, Handel, Bizet, mighty Mozart and number of lesser knowns are all there somewhere in this group’s Big Bang mix. But you gotta listen for them.
The group kids themselves thinking they are bringing opera to the masses. It’s more buried than resurrected. Also, they can seem irreverent; but publicly and in print, they are the first to say opera commands respect and they know whereof they speak. Kiesewalter, who writes the music, is university-trained, turned pro in high school and is prominent in film and recording studios as well as on stage.
So I say, opera lovers, think kindly of East Village Opera Company. A little nose-thumbing won’t topple our immortals. I am inclined to think it makes them smile.
Edmonds Center for the Arts hosted this event. It was a marvelous one-night stand. It was also a friendly finger pointing to Bearfoot’s bluegrass which followed last week and Gaelic Storm’s Celtic classics coming up Oct. 10. Quite a variety, don’t you think.
Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at entopinion@heraldnet.com or grayghost7@comcast.net.
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