Bridging the gulf between rock n' roll and classical music, The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra performs The Music of The Doors on Saturday, February 2 at 8pm. Amplified by a full rock band and accompanied by singer Randy Jackson's vocals, creator Brent Havens guest conducts the ensemble as they capture The Doors' unusual mix of Rock and Blues riff for riff while churning out new musical colors.
"My concept for The Music of The Doors was to take the music as close to the originals as we could and then add some colors to enhance what The Doors had done," says Havens. "The wonderful thing with an orchestra is that you have an entire palette to call upon. The band is reproducing what The Doors did on the albums as closely as possible and then having an orchestra behind the band gives the music a richness, a greater sense of depth."
Vocalist Randy Jackson (lead singer of the rock band Zebra), acts as a window between the audience and the reworked material.
Why the music of The Doors? Havens felt that since the original Doors music had a mix of rock band with horns and strings on a number of tunes it makes them an ideal choice for scoring for a full orchestra.
"Many of the songs on their albums had brass and strings already. It was a matter of simply adding the woodwinds and percussion to those tunes to make them even fuller with an orchestra. The remaining songs had a similar feel and lent themselves to scoring as well," says Havens
The 2 hour concert features 21 Doors tunes, including Touch Me, Riders on the Storm, Roadhouse Blues and Light My Fire.
The symphonic rock hybrid has met with approval on both sides of the podium.
"When we first came on stage, the audience gave us polite, almost classical applause," says Havens. "Then we hit the first note and they realized it was a rock show."
Classical musicians also enjoy the change of pace; "Many of the orchestral musicians know these tunes since they grew up with them on the radio just like we did," laughs Havens. "It's fun for the musicians as well as the audience." -- www.bpo.org
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