The Brian Setzer Orchestra

THE BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA
"WOLFGANG'S BIG NIGHT OUT"
(Surfdog, 2007)


"Honey Man" (an adaptation of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight Of The Bumblebee")


With his landmark '80s group, Stray Cats, Brian Setzer breathed new life and new popularity into the rockabilly sound of the '50s. When he moved on to form The Brian Setzer Orchestra in the '90s, he turned back the clock a couple more decades, taking on the swing and big-band music of the '30s and '40s, and meeting with just as much success (though in the latter case, more of that success came from other parts of the globe). Now, Setzer and his group have taken one of the boldest and oddest musical gambles in recent memory by stepping back more than a century further, and plugging their amps into some of the most renowned works of classical music.

Brian Setzer is probably the only musician who has the talent, the guts, and the refusal to take himself too seriously, to pull off an album like this. Without his sense of humor and playfulness, this effort could very easily have come across as bizarre and misguided. Just reading the back panel and imagining the fun he had retitling the songs made me want to buy it: a suite comprised of two traditional pieces used for weddings is rechristened "Here Comes The Broad", Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" ("A Little Night Music") is playfully retitled "Wolfgang's Big Night Out", and (here's my favorite joke from the track listing) Strauss' "Blue Danube" becomes "Some River In Europe".

Setzer and his Orchestra took care to arrange each tune to whatever degree was appropriate: Grieg's "Hall Of The Mountain King" has been turned into an actual song -- "One More Night With You" -- with all-new specially written lyrics (the only song, other than the one provided here, to have any lyrics at all), whereas Kachaturian's "Sabre Dance" was enough of a rocking tune in its original form that it has been left largely unaltered. I don't know if Setzer had any kind of ulterior motive in mind when he dreamed up this record (such as introducing classical music to a new generation), or if he just wanted to have some plain old fun. Indeed, he has so much fun loosening up that stuffy old classical music with his inimitable style, that the fun trickles all the way down to us listeners.