Blue Note Jazz Festival: Postmodern Jukebox

I curiously observed the audience at Highline Ballroom on Monday night as they rose to a standing ovation for Postmodern Jukebox, a band that plays modern songs with an old-timey feel. Appreciating this band required more knowledge of pop culture than I have; instead of sounding like imaginative arrangements of played-out pop hits, the music sounded like generic vintage to me, since I knew just three of the fifteen to twenty songs played and had no basis for comparison with the originals.

With a few notable exceptions, the performers presented the kind of talent that is a dime a dozen in this city saturated with the best of the best. I don’t doubt that they were more talented than they revealed, but I couldn’t tell from the thirty-second horn solos and intentionally derivative delivery to harken back to decades past. An accessible and fun show for the greatest number of people seemed to be the point though, and that they achieved with polish and finesse.

Our tech support Jack reviewed the men’s room for us since I only reviewed the women’s room in our last visit. He reported three urinals, two toilets each in its own stall, three faucets, and one washroom attendant wearing a cool hat. The restroom is well-maintained and has a clean, modern design. Jack, who moonlights as an engineer for a leading manufacturer of electronic effects and musical instruments when not saving our blog from crashing, also mentioned that Highline Ballroom has a good sound system.

The leader/pianist of Postmodern Jukebox, Scott Bradlee, must be a smart guy. While many jazz musicians in the city are getting by on gigs that pay fifty bucks a night, he’s likely making living wages by leveraging his viral YouTube videos. His bio says that he has also worked as musical director for Sleep No More, the most popular and trendy of the immersive theatre works in the city. That’s a good gig. Some may call it selling out but if Bradlee is committed to creating what he calls an alternate universe of popular song, then he is every bit as authentic as the jazz purist.

From the living room to the performance stage, Postmodern Jukebox has broken through our LCD monitors and are continuing their first live tour in Europe now. Our customary translation of “Where’s the restroom?” in French from Belgian world-traveler and music-loving academic Claire should come in handy on a couple of their stops –

Où sont les toilettes?