Mars dresses to impress us
Bruno Mars tells
Philip Lawrence, who performs in Mars’ band and has also co-written and co-produced with the pop star since he became a household name.
‘‘We got two different vantage points: We got the sitting in the studio labouring over songs for hours and days and weeks, and then we get to take whatever that energy is and put it in front of people. And when you do that it gives you the opportunity to see what works, what doesn’t work, what could be better, what could be improved on.’’
Mars’ dance routines have gained attention because they are slick, hip and, at times, hilarious. He started working with Phil Tayag of the hip-hop dance crew Jabbawockeez for Uptown Funk and continued to work with the dancer for his latest project and tour (The 24K Magic World Tour kicks off in March).
‘‘We’d link up and just start moving and see who could make each other laugh first,’’ Mars says of the choreography.
That was also the mood he had in the studio while writing his new album: ‘‘If we can make each other laugh, that should mean something.’’
The only guest on the album is Halle Barry, whose voice appears on the irresistibly smooth Calling All My Lovelies. R&B icon Babyface lends a hand to the closing track, the slow groove Too Good to Say Goodbye, and T-Pain co-wrote the catchy Straight Up & Down, which uses parts of the 1993 hit Baby I’m Yours by R&B group Shai.
Mars says when he first played his label the new music, they were hesitant about the sound.
‘‘It’s not really ‘When I see your face...’,’’ Mars says, singing the hook to his past hit, Just the Way You Are.
‘‘I remember the label was iffy when they heard it, and I was like, ‘Trust me, there’s a whole vision behind this’,’’ he adds. ‘‘Thank God they trust me.’’ – AP For the final concert of their 2016 season, Orchestra Wellington departed from the year’s theme of Last Works and gave us instead a long concert consisting of two new works and Holst’s ever popular The Planets.
In attendance at the Michael Fowler Centre on Saturday was a large audience that was as diverse as any I can recall at an orchestral concert.
None of the works was just a straight performance; audio-visual elements abounded and theatricality was the name of the game.
The opening work, by David Long, was a mixture of music, visuals and electro-musical ‘‘instruments’’ invented by Jim Murphy.
I found it repetitive and tedious, with the visuals by David Downes self-indulgent.
Claire Cowan’s Stark for Violin and Orchestra had its pretentious moments as well – its programme based on a little-known dancer from the 1940s, Freda Stark, contributed to over-long first and last movements – but the heart of the work, the second movement, revealed a composer of rare lyrical imagination.
It was beautifully played by the immensely talented Amalia Hall, who played from a raised rostrum from within the orchestra – a clever and effective device that would work with other violin concertos.
The second half was devoted to Holst’s The Planets, with a backdrop of images of the planets curated by Dr Claire Bretherton of Space Place.
The images were often different to what we might have expected and, on their own terms, brilliant.
However, they highlighted the fact that Holst’s musical view of the planets came from an astrological viewpoint, rather than a scientific one, making much of the music sound curiously unrelated to the images.
But the performance was splendidly large scale and dramatic.
Forgiving some ensemble lapses and a fault or two from the brass, it was superbly theatrical with a menacing Mars, a wonderfully beefy Jupiter (I Vow to thee my Country), a quicksilver Uranus and a beautifully remote and mysterious Neptune, with the off-stage ladies of the Orpheus Choir excellent; the standouts.
Given how little funding this well-attended orchestra receives, uncompromising concerts like this are a minor miracle.
– John Button