Have you heard who's playing Whoville this year? CBC Music has asked Montreal pianist/composer Josh Rager for a new setting of the Dr. Seuss classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. It will feature narrator Jonathan Goldstein, of WireTap, underscored by a jazz trio and punctuated by a chorus of 200 kids singing fresh arrangements of the iconic Grinch standards by Albert Hague from the 1966 animated cartoon.
That's right, Charlie Brown, it's a new jazz Christmas special, which will be recorded this weekend as part of the 10th annual CBC/McGill Youth Choir gala (more details below). As Rager prepares to get his Grinch on in front of a live audience at Pollack Hall in Montreal, CBC Music asked him about his first "fahoo forays" into the Seussian world of Theodor Seuss Geisel.
What do you remember most about Dr. Seuss from when you were a kid?
Of course I watched the Grinch television special every Christmas season. I also had some of his books growing up and was both entertained and confounded reading them. I loved the animation, but the insanity of the visuals — cars driving up impossible inclines, inventions that quite obviously defied the laws of physics, creatures in an obvious state of calmness as the vehicle they're in careens towards a crash — kind of spooked me out.
When you were asked to create music for this project, what was the first thing that went through your head?
The first thought was "OK, how does one do that?" Then after a few tips from [choir director] Erica [Phare], it became much easier. I knew it was going to be fun and I'm really excited to see it come together with the kids. The energy they are going to bring will be the crucial final element in the arrangements.
How did you approach the task?
I really did mull it over for quite a while. I wanted the underscoring to both provide an emotional backdrop to the text and be representative of the journey of the story. I added some humour and I think that gives the music a bit of the original æsthetic of the cartoon while still being quite different. It's also charming to imagine all those kids onstage listening to the story and then bursting into song.
I wanted to stay away from hammy clichés but at the same time have a clearly jazz flavour to the music. Frankly, I didn't touch much in the original songs but I did weave them in and out of different transformations in the underscoring.
I hope in the end we have a version that is a little more modern in æsthetic while still being playful. I think it's great when a production can breach the barriers of age and generation and have something for all who partake. Shows like The Muppets, or Bugs Bunny were able to do this masterfully and I hope to have that in this production as well.
You've talked before about the strong influence of nature and landscape in your own music. What's the lay of the land in your Whoville? What does it sound like?
Well, the scenes all have musical themes and the one that sounds the most grounded in nature is the theme of the Grinch transformed into sleigh ride music. There are scenes in which we can "hear" the snow underfoot or "hear" the sleigh navigate the backwoods pulled by the intrepid Max, the Grinch's dog. When music has a strong image or flavour I think it can accompany a story better.
Tell me about your colleagues Frank Lozano (flute and bass clarinet) and Fraser Hollins (bass).
I've worked with Frank and Fraser for more than 10 years, almost always in a jazz context. Fraser is bringing both his feel and technique on the bass as this arrangement asks for both pizz (plucked string) and bowed playing. And when I say "pizz" I mean jazz quarter-note walking. Finding a player with both bowing ability and jazz sensibility is actually quite rare. In Frank's case, he has a particular mastery of the bass clarinet, which made him an obvious choice.
And Jonathan Goldstein?
I'm a huge fan of Jonathan Goldstein and his show WireTap. I think he'll personalize the Grinch in a way that brings more humanity to the character. In our rehearsals we already hear a bit more sensitivity, a bit more indecisiveness that paints the eventual transformation of the Grinch in a way that is a bit more relatable than the original — which was done fairly over-the-top. I mean, they got Boris Karlov, if that says anything about where they were coming from back in the '60s. Jonathan makes us all feel like the Grinch when he reads it, so that character's transformation is our transformation.
If you're in Montreal this weekend you can be part of the live audience at the CBC/McGill Series on Sunday, Nov. 25. The free podcast will be available for downloading over the holidays, from Dec. 24 to Jan. 6 on the CBC/McGill website, and don't forget to tune in to hear the Christmas Day broadcasts at 1 p.m. (1:30 NT) on CBC Radio One and at 3 p.m. (3:30 NT) on CBC Radio 2.
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