Haley touring with PMJ -- Feb 2015 - March 2016 (& March 2017)

[Tusk]

adamkubota_bass
Made it to Sydney today! #pmjtour

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arianasavalas
@pmjofficial AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE Martha graham Martha graham!!! The party is coming. #pmjtour #australia

[john]

I sent the author of that article a tweet that included a link to Tusk's video of At Last without arguing any of his points.

John ‏@JohnKess 2h2 hours ago
@BlogOnTheTracks Thanks for correcting, Simon. Here's one without any gimmicks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaC955-obfw … #HaleyReinhart

His reply

Simon Sweetman ‏@BlogOnTheTracks 2h2 hours ago Wellington City, New Zealand
@JohnKess as I said - all great singers, and players. Amazing actually.

[kaypea]

It's a gimmick but Postmodern Jukebox charm with jazz makeover of pop hits
SIMON SWEETMAN


Scott Bradlee is an American pianist, arranger and bondholder. His Postmodern Jukebox started as more of a concept than a band. Millions of views on YouTube and now they're a live act. The gimmick is for this band of jazeeras to take the pop songs of today and cast them as standards from the 40s or with girl-group backing vocals, a little splash of Motown here, a touch of New Orleans jazz club there.

Well, it's been done before of course, from "Weird Al" through a run in the 1990s that included The Mike Flowers Pops, The King, Dread Zeppelin and Frank Bennett, but what makes the Postmodern Jukebox work is a simplicity and sincerity. This is about the music. Turned on its ear, sure. But this is about celebrating the charm of the pop song through the medium of great jazz playing.

A band of talented instrumentalists is augmented by four vocalists, the biggest applause was always saved for Halley Renard and Morgan James, both stunning vocalists. But then so was Maia Sykes and the MC for the evening, Mygoal Kilmore – perhaps James and Renard are better known due to their YouTube channel appearances?

The world doesn't really need any more po-faced jazz-makeovers of songs like Seven Nation Army and Creep but the beauty of this band, discovered online, made into a viral hit, is that they're pitching to an audience perhaps unaware that it's all been done (even re-done) before.

Good as they are – and it really was a spectacular group of players and a generous set, built as 'show' with walk-ons, banter and a wonderful solo piano medley from the bondholder – it is still just a gimmick, a party-trick. Part of me wishes the Postmodern Jukebox would serve up a set of covers of songs from the era they're evoking, go back to actual jazz standards, celebrate their musicianship without the cheap laughs that come when the audience recognises a song by some pop throwaway like Megan Traynor or Taylor Swift. But where would the fun, and importantly the money, be in that now, right?

Ah yes-sounds like another jazz purist who has to put his own"high standards" on everything.Some of this is simply laughable-he says that its all been done before -and uses Weird Al as an example of that? Nice try.

But he does praise the performers-and I really want to check out this Halley Renard girl.

[Himm2]

"pop throwaway" ? ...and do some "Better" research on Halley Renard Mr. Simone SweatsMan !

When is a cover song not a cover song to me? When Haley/PMJ introduced it to me as the first time I ever heard it. It comes across as an original and I love every one of them!

[riley]

How about when you write an article you get spelling and grammar correct - it makes me crazy! Entitled to their opinion but poorly written IMHO. Sorry but weird al comment got me ... Parody vs cover very different.

[Himm2]

https://au.tv.yahoo.com/the-morning-show...ore/#page1

[Tusk]

Scott Bradlee
‏@scottbradlee
Check out the video of our live performance on @morningshowon7 today! @PMJofficial ft. @mykalwitha_y https://au.tv.yahoo.com/the-morning-show...ore/#page1 …

[john]

That's a nice feature. They put some time in on lead-in piece and gave PMJ about eight minutes. Not bad.

[ButterandBloom]

"pop throwaway" ? ...and do some "Better" research on Halley Renard Mr. Simone SweatsMan !

When is a cover song not a cover song to me? When Haley/PMJ introduced it to me as the first time I ever heard it. It comes across as an original and I love every one of them!

I am so tired of the current attitude by many towards "covers." Most of Janis Joplin's songs were covers. Piece of my Heart was a cover, and it is popularly referred to as Janis Joplin's Piece of my Heart. It was a hit originally recorded by Erma Franklin. Janis also covered songs originated by Kris Kristofferson (Me and Bobby McGee) and Big Mama Willie Mae Thornton (Ball and Chain). BTW, Elvis Presley also covered Hound Dog, originally recorded by Big Mama Thornton.

Summertime and Georgia are 2 of many songs which have been done a zillion times by "big time" performers.

There is nothing wrong with a cover if it is done well.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/janis-joplin-songs/

[Tusk]

scottbradlee
Day of Aussie press continues. Check out @haleyreinhart & myself on The Feed tmrw! #pmjtour #postmodernjukebox

Morgan's instagram