Orchestra will back rapper Common
Common, above, performs on the Free Your Mind stage during the 2019Smokin' Grooves music festival at the Queen Mary Events Park in Long Beach. The rapper is teaming with Pasadena-based conductor and composer Geoff Gallegos and his 50-piece Stardust Symphony — not the first collaboration with an orchestra for Common, who has also performed with the Chicago and San Francisco symphonies.
Hip-hop music will get the symphonic treatment when a Pasadenabased composer joins forces with a Grammy-winning rapper this weekend.
Composer, conductor and saxophone player Geoff Gallegos, along with his 50-piece Stardust Symphony, will be backing Common when the rapper comes to Burbank's Starlight Bowl on Saturday.
“We're bringing you something that will feel like hip-hop through these orchestral instruments,” said Gallegos, 52, who's known as Double G and is no stranger to mixing large symphonic ensembles with hip-hop. “I'm a Common fan, too. I love his music. I think he's a brilliant MC, so working with a musician of that level is an honor,” he said.
Common comes to Burbank to support his recently released album, “A Beautiful Revolution Pt. 2,” and when he performs at the 3,800-person venue, his music will be punctuated with a string section and wind instruments conducted by Gallegos.
“It'll look and feel like something you would see at a Hollywood Bowl classical concert or Walt Disney Concert Hall,” Gallegos said.
The rapper, who released his debut album in 1992, has performed with other orchestras around the country. In recent years, he's performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony.
Gallegos, who earned a jazz composition degree from Berklee College of Music, became an early proponent of blending the genres in 1999 when he co-founded the daKAH Hip Hop Orchestra to perform orchestral music with MCs.
“My whole jam was trying to do a large funky orchestra,” he said, adding he's looking forward to Saturday's show. “His flow is so good. He's one of those MCs who can flow over anything,” Gallegos said.
Opening the night is singer Nikka Costa and funk collective Lettuce.