The Brussels Jazz Orchestra, which co-performed the music for the Oscar-winning best picture “The Artist,” pays its first visit to Eisenhower Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 19.
The musicians will perform some of their best songs plus a work that marries big band music and graphic stories.
Belgium’s only professional jazz big band celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2013 with the release of “BJO’s Finest–Live,” an album of songs composed and arranged by members of the ensemble. The first set of the orchestra’s Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State concert offers music inspired by that recording.
After intermission, the orchestra performs “Graphicology,” its collaboration with Belgian graphic novelist Philip Paquet. The writer selected existing stories and created two new ones for the project. Six composers penned an accompanying soundtrack. The stories were edited into original videos that are projected on a large screen while the orchestra performs the soundtrack.
The orchestra, guided by Artistic Director Frank Vaganée, has released almost 20 albums, including 2013’s “Wild Beauty” with American saxophonist Joe Lovano. The album garnered two Grammy Award nominations.
The band, which has earned a reputation stretching from Singapore to New York City, is known for its crossovers with other genres.
“Nowadays you often hear of projects with music where an artist draws live on stage. That is not what ‘Graphicology’ is about,” Vaganée says. “Philip’s stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. There is a plot, and the music we have written fits to the second with the images. What you see happening on screen, you hear in the music and vice versa.”
You can buy tickets online at www.cpa.psu.edu or by phone at (814) 863-0255. Outside the local calling area, dial 800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at four State College locations: Eisenhower Auditorium (weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), Penn State Downtown Theatre Center (weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), HUB-Robeson Center Information Desk (weekdays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. when Penn State classes are in session) and Bryce Jordan Center (weekdays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.).
