- By Roger McBain
- Evansville Courier & Press
- Posted October 27, 2011 at 3 a.m.
EVANSVILLE - "Shake Rattle and Roll," the rock concert Flash Cadillac and the Evansville Philharmonic will open the orchestra's Pops season with on Saturday, was born in a hair salon in Colorado Springs, Colo., two decades ago.
Until then, members of Flash Cadillac, the traditional rock'n'roll band formed in 1969 and featured in the 1973 movie "American Graffiti," had only talked about performing with orchestras, recalled Warren Knight, the group's bassist.
The notion jelled in 1991, because Christopher Wilkins, the new music director for the Colorado Springs Symphony, needed a haircut. He also needed some innovative material for his orchestra.
Donald Kallaus / Special to The Courier & Press Flash Cadillac will perform traditional rock'n'roll with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra in The Victory Saturday and Sunday in the opening pops concert of the season.
Wilkins found both at the Colorado Springs styling salon where Annie McFadin worked.
While cutting his hair, McFadin mentioned that her husband, Sam, sang lead with Flash Cadillac, the band featured in the high school hop in George Lucas' cruisin' classic "American Graffiti." "Over the course of two or three haircuts, so the legend goes, Annie and Chris said 'Why couldn't Flash Cadillac play with the symphony?' "
"It was something we'd always wanted to do," said Knight, but had never pursued. With Wilkins' endorsement and guidance, they put together a list of songs, however, and sent them out to seven orchestral arrangers.
Some songs on the list, such as Buddy Holly's "True Love Ways," the Beatles' "Penny Lane" and the Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes For You" already featured orchestral string arrangements and were "no-brainers," said Knight.
"But some of the songs, like 'Pretty Woman,' 'Night Train' or 'Hold On, I'm Comin,' you wouldn't necessarily think of with orchestral settings."
The arrangers built the orchestrations around the Flash Cadillac recordings, "so we didn't have to change the way we played the songs," Knight said.
They didn't want to just use the orchestra as backup for the band, however. Wilkins advised them "to treat this as a 65-piece rock'n'roll band. It's Flash Cadillac and the symphony, but it's all one big band."
Only about half the band read music, so when they first sat down to rehearse the arrangements with the symphony, "we didn't really know what we had," he recalled.
"Within about 15 minutes we were all just looking at each other, saying 'This is going to work. This is almost just magic.' "
It wasn't just them. His fiancée came by the rehearsal, intending to leave after 10 minutes, Knight said. "She stayed for three hours."
They debuted with the Colorado Springs Symphony in February 1992, playing the show they'd later record as "A Night of the Symphony" and use to market their show for other orchestras across the nation.
Knight still remembers performing with the Evansville Philharmonic in 1994, and a few weeks later with the Indianapolis Symphony.
For both concerts, the band worked with Alfred Savia, still music director for the Evansville Philharmonic and, at the time, associate conductor for the Indianapolis Symphony.
In two decades of playing pops shows they've worked with lots of conductors. "Some of them really get it, and some of them need to be educated a little bit," said Knight. "Alfred was one of the ones, early on, that really got it."
Savia conducted in denim jeans and a black leather jacket, and musicians wore pompadours, ponytails, high-topped sneakers and poodle skirts.
The conductor and the orchestra will dress the part for Saturday's and Sunday's Pops concerts, as well, and they encourage members of the audience to follow suit.
Two of the band members who played here in 1994 - McFadin and Kris Moe - have died, but Knight, saxophonist Dwight Bement and drummer Dave Henry will return with vocalist Timothy Irvin, guitarist Rocky Mitchell and keyboardist Pete Santilli to present more than 30 "traditional rock'n'roll" favorites with the orchestra.
They'll range from "Blueberry Hill," "Jailhouse Rock" "Roll Over Beethoven" to "Surfin' USA" "Penny Lane" and "A Whiter Shade of Pale." And they'll sing "Flash Cadillac" originals, including Kris Moe and Linn Phillips' "She's So Fine," which they performed in "American Grafitti."
When they first began performing with symphony orchestras, playing rock music with a classical ensemble seemed a novel notion.
And back in the 1950s, when rock'n'roll first erupted in the United States, who could have imagined playing "Roll Over Beethoven" anywhere in the 21st century, much less with a symphony orchestra, said Knight.
The music has endured, however, playing on "oldies" radio stations in most cities across the country, in live shows in clubs and on concert stages and in orchestral performances like this weekend's pops concerts.
It surely sounded presumptuous at the time, said Knight, but maybe Danny and the Juniors had it right in 1958, when they proclaimed "Rock 'n' Roll is Here to Stay."
IF YOU GO
---- What: "Shake, Rattle and Roll," the opening Pops performance of the 2011-12 season
---- When: 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, with a pre-concert performance by the UE Saxophone Ensemble at 6:15 p.m. Saturday.
---- Where: The Victory
---- Tickets: $25 to $60 adults and $15 to $60 for those 12 and younger, with $8 student tickets available at the box office an hour before each performance. For reservations or information, visit www.evansvillephilharmonic.org or call 812-425-5050.
© 2011 Evansville Courier & Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/oct/27/rock-and-roll-with-orchestra-is-here-to-stay
|
