Fletch
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 8,865
- Location
- Iowa - The Land That Stuff Forgot
I was lucky enough to hear Max and the band in Minneapolis in April. He really has what it takes to sell this music - which is a single, compelling, unique personality. A seamless, pleasantly stereotyped character who can embody the era. Someone approachable, yet otherworldly. Because the music of the dance orchestra IS otherworldly today - best presented and understood as theater.
The band is incredibly good, and shows enough talent at jazz, novelty acts and group singing to carry a show by itself. But you know what? Without Max there, leaning languidly on the piano Not Conducting between vocals, no one would give a good gosh darn. It's the times we're living in. There's no bringing a band like the Palast-Orchester into today's world. You have to create a space where it makes sense. That is Max's genius.
Max Raabe understands what a lot of my fellow musicians don't - that this music does NOT have a life of its own today. That's a hard thing to deal with for a musician like me, but for an entertainer like Max, that's a space for him to shine in. He is about the music and makes the music about him. And everybody's happy.
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