Diverse repertoire
Everything is live and at full scale when the World Rock Symphony Orchestra hits the stage
World Rock Symphony Orchestra brings iconic performances to life on stage
What do Igor Stravinsky and Frank Zappa have in common?
Robert Martin of World Rock Symphony Orchestra loves them both.
He played and toured with musical iconoclast Zappa for years and his interest in music was sparked by Russian composer Stravinsky.
Robert Asselstine — the creator of the World Rock Symphony Orchestra — says a pivotal moment in his career was meeting Martin in New York just over a decade ago.
“A fellow that was doing some general managing for me told me to go and see a musical that Robert was playing keyboards in but the musical was so bad that I left,” says Asselstine with a laugh, adding he asked Martin to meet him at a deli on 9th avenue.
“So Robert and I have been friends staring each other at the opposite ends of the stage since 2007. It has been great!”
Martin is a Philadelphia-born singersongwriter and multi-instrumentalist, the son of two opera singers, he fell in love with Stravinsky’s “Firebird” at a very young age.
“I was not quite three years old and I used to ask my mum to play “Firebird” on the 78 RPM machine that we had,” recalls Martin. “I grew up in Philadelphia. Right across the river was RCA records where my grandmother worked and she would bring home all of these 78s,” he notes.
“‘Firebird’ is one of the most visual
pieces of music ever written. It was astonishing to me to hear these sounds and be able to visualize what was going on. That was the beginning of the fascination,” says Martin, who taught himself to play piano and sing by ear, then started formal piano lessons at eight.
At elementary and high school Martin pursued French horn and tenor saxophone.
He honed his musical chops under many famous conductors. He also played with Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Tom Bell, a.k.a. “The Mighty Three,” who created the ‘70s “Philly Sound” working with such artists as Archie Bell and The Drells, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield.
Martin played on many Philly Soul recordings like “Me and Mrs. Jones” (Billy Paul), and O’Jays hits “Back Stabbers,” and “Love Train.”
In the late ‘70s, Martin played with American rock group Orleans, known for their hits “Dance with Me” and “Still The One.” An Orleans roadie told him about an audition for Frank Zappa.
“First Frank had me sight-read a lot of complex things to transpose onto saxophone and French horn. That went really well,” says Martin.
“He said, ‘I understand you sing really high and strong. Let me hear you sing something. What do you know?’ And I did not have anything prepared — it was a very very last minute thing so I just said, ‘I don’t know — “Auld Lang Syne.” And he said. ‘Great. “Auld Lang Syne” — key of A, strike up the band with a little four-bar intro.’
“I sang it an octave higher in a natural voice without falsetto that anybody would have thought an uncastrated human male could do. That did it!” laughs Martin. He played on all of Zappa’s subsequent albums and live shows until Zappa’s last show in 1988.
Asselstine is based in Kitchener and has created many different musical revues, like ‘50s sock-hop night “Cruisin’ Classics — A Night At The Diner” and Elvis revue “Return to Grace.”
For the World Rock Symphony Orchestra “the idea was to not have formal choreography but just to enjoy the music itself,” explains Asselstine. “People can wander onstage, stay on stage, and leave the stage if they want, as far as the singers are concerned anyway.
“Then Robert and I worked on the notion of having two keyboard players together for a number of different shows. We have been doing this now for almost 10 years. So Robert is mainly playing organ and tenor sax. I am playing conventional piano. Plus in World Rock we have four keyboard players altogether,” he adds.
“One of the things I did when I was designing the set list was to recognize iconic performances by groups that everyone in the audience would know even if they are not classic rock fans.”
WRSO has chosen a diversified repertoire from The Beatles, and The Stones, to Bowie, Queen, Supertramp and Led Zeppelin.
“In this show, everybody in the band is pretty much playing on every song and Rob Asselstine has me playing different things on different songs,” adds Martin. “Of course, there is a strong orchestral aspect to the show as well,” notes Martin.
“We are doing things like Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the ensemble that includes WRSO chorale. Most bands, when they play that, are only familiar with the pre-recorded choral section at the beginning. When we play BR everything is live. The choral section or the chorale sings that opening,” explains Martin, adding that the ensemble is just shy of 50 people with performers from L.A., Chicago, Nashville, New York and Kitchener.
Local Caribbean-Canadian funk/soul singer Rufus John is joining WRSO for this show along with vocalist Mikelle, Danny Zolli, Michael Lanning, Sharon Riley and Jessica Robinson.