In many respects, Postmodern Jukebox could only exist today with a perfectly-matched blend of elements coming into harmony over the past decade.
The performers lie at the heart of that, though quite a number of them can claim at least adjunct membership in the project these days. The sounds those players make isn’t limited to one style; PMJ’s set lists vary wildly across genres, from western swing to traditional jazz to big band to ’60s soul.
Video, though! That’s the way in which the group has truly grown, with a consistent output to YouTube capturing millions of views. As of press time, the project—per Wikipedia: “a rotating musical collective founded by New York based pianist Scott Bradlee in 2011”—had released over 400 videos on YouTube alone, with more than 6 million subscribers on that service. The Thursday video release on YouTube routinely scores PMJ hundreds of thousands of hits, with songs that top the million mark a regular occurrence.
At the heart of the PMJ project sits musician and arranger Bradlee, who is frequently featured in the group’s videos, which highlight hits from across the decades, almost always done in a retro style that both defies and complements the original song. With guest vocalists the rule, PMJ updates tracks from the past handful of decades, across a wide variety of styles.
In recent months, the band covered the Cure and Miley Cyrus, Morgan Wallen and Billy Joel, the Weeknd and the Bee Gees. In each case, the original version of the song was matched with an approach that would surely surprise fans of the original. A great example of that is KISS’ “I Was Made for Loving You,” played by PMJ in a spaghetti western soundtrack style, with vocalist Effie Passero on lead vocals.
During the stretch of autumn 2023 video releases, Chloe Feoranzo returned to the PMJ fold. She’s been featured in the band as both a live, touring player and as a guest vocalist on videos. In October she covered the Depeche Mode classic, “Enjoy the Silence,” giving the song a 1920s Jazz Age sheen. It racked up about a half-million views within the first two weeks of airing.
Feoranzo’s performed with the group on an irregular basis for the past few years. And though she’s not taking a heavy role in this summer’s touring, she’s well-versed in what the group does and guests with the group from time to time.
For the session that birthed “Enjoy the Silence,” she said Bradlee offered up a handful of tracks she might wish to sing on—with her clarinet-playing also well-featured on the track. Once she decided on “Enjoy the Silence,” she was flown from her home in Los Angeles to Nashville. There, about 20 minutes outside of town, she joined the ensemble that would be featured on the track, working with them to whip it into shape at Bradlee’s state-of-the-art home audio and video studio.
A traditional player at heart, Feoranzo said, “I have rarely brought a song to the table, but for the ‘Dancing With Myself’ video, I did suggest it. I love Billy Idol, and thought it was a fun one to try. Scott usually gives you a list to choose from. And with Depeche Mode, I thought ‘Enjoy the Silence’ would be one that would work best for my style.”
She added that everything about the experience has become finely honed. The production studio moved around the country until Bradlee’s property became the PMJ headquarters.
“They have a studio on the property that’s always set up,” she said. “There are instruments and background curtains, an entire studio dedicated to doing videos. When I did ‘Enjoy,’ Scott sent me a scratch recording of him playing it on the piano. I memorized the song—the lyrics and chords—and got a feel of it, and we went through it a few times.
“Then it was time to try on a costume. We took about seven or eight takes. The interesting thing about being a part of Scott’s videos is that nothing’s ever overdubbed. If the take is messed up, we start over again. What you see is what you get. I know that there’s some audio tweaking, but that’s just adjusting levels and such; the core take is live,” Feoranzo continued.
In running through dozens of songs a year, the band has a massive catalog of material from which to choose, and players are brought in who can master it. Just as the sounds are generally plucked from the 1980s through today, the styles they play range from the 1920s into the 1960s, a challenging thing for even the keenest players.
Feoranzo said, “I have been taking a step back from the longer touring. I did release that video with them and have been doing smaller tours. Like, I got a sub call earlier this year to go out for a few days.”
Not unlike some of the barnstorming troupes of the mid-20th century, she said that the PMJ machinery is so well-honed that “they have one, or even two tours happening at once here in the U.S. and overseas. Each of these tours can involve a cast and crew of about 15 members, or about as many people as you can fit on a bus.”
Though musicians are obviously booked for that role, she suggested that the nature of the beast is such that they wind up behind the merch table. The band’s emcee—who helps keep the show moving on-stage while engaging the audience by highlighting the best-dressed members—might be one of the tour managers. It’s an all-hands-on-deck type of experience, played to an audience that crosses many demographics.
Or, as Feoranzo said, “It’s a wide range of ages for sure, and people who’re happy to go out for an evening.”
Feoranzo said she’s open to guesting on upcoming videos and would consider further touring, though she’s busy with a pair of groups in Los Angeles: the Pino Noir Quartet and the Jessica Fichot Quartet. She also plays dates on the road with the Shake ’Em Up Jazz Band, a group she joined during her pre-Covid era living in New Orleans.
She said, though, that even when she’s not an active, touring participant of PMJ, she knows the group has put up a video featuring her on one platform or another.
“They’ve been able to master the video portion of the business,” she noted. “They have that part of the equation down pat. They share videos all of the time. Every few hours, they’re posting and reposting videos.”
She recalled that a previous video of hers was re-released through Instagram, with the quick reel adding a black-and-white filter to the original clip.
“And all of a sudden it went crazy,” Feoranzo said. “It had like 2.5 million views. From an old video. I was getting all sorts of followers on Instagram, which was weird, but not an unusual thing. But the Depeche Mode video hadn’t come, and the timing wasn’t lining up. But because PMJ had slapped a filter on it, Instagram went crazy for a day and a half.”
Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox performs 7pm on Sunday, Aug. 18, outside at The Meritage Resort, 850 Bordeaux Way, Napa. Doors open at 5:30pm. Tickets available online at bit.ly/pomojukebox.
