Funk, rock bands set to perform at Picnic With the Pops opener
Columbus Symphony principal pops conductor Stuart Chafetz has a certain word in mind to describe opening weekend of Picnic With the Pops.
“‘Celebration’ is a great word really for this weekend,” Chafetz said.
It had to be so: This season’s edition of Picnic With the Pops will open Friday with the funk group Kool & the Gang performing with the symphony. Among the band’s most famous tunes is the song “Celebration.”
“We just want everyone on their feet, singing and dancing and having a good time — and celebrate the summer,” Chafetz said.
Like all of the concerts in the Picnic With the Pops series, the performance will take place at the John F. Wolfe Columbus Commons.
For Kool & the Gang, the concert will represent a homecoming of sorts: Siblings and co-founders Robert “Kool” Bell and Ronald Bell hail from Youngstown.
“We still have family there — very few of them,” Ronald Bell said. “Some of the kids are still there; some of my cousins.”
Since forming Kool & the Gang in 1964, the brothers have lent their talents to tunes such as “Get Down On It,” “Hollywood Swinging” and “Jungle Boogie.”
“It’s a happy kind of music,” Bell said. “I used to say you got to take the minor chords out of your music and make them major . ... If you put major chords on it, the vibration in a major chord is always going to produce harmony.”
The group is accustomed to collaborating with orchestras.
“We’ve been doing that since the ’90s,” Bell said. “It’s a bigger sound.”
Less familiar with symphonic support is Jefferson Starship, which will partner with the symphony on Saturday at Columbus Commons.
Following recent collaborations with the Cleveland Youth Orchestra and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the band — which
traces its genealogy to the rock group Jefferson Airplane — is still new to working with classical musicians.
“It’s obviously incredibly layered,” said vocalist Cathy Richardson, a successor to the spot in the band once occupied by Grace Slick. “It’s the beautiful string sounds.”
Among the songs that benefit from symphonic backing is “Lather,” Richardson said.
“It’s a Jefferson Airplane song that Grace Slick wrote,” she said. “It’s always been such a weird, haunting song in my life, and it just begs to have this orchestral treatment.”
During performances of “White Rabbit,” Richardson said, the guitarist will trade licks with the orchestra. “It’s really cool,” she said. On Friday, the symphony will perform a set on its own before the appearance of Kool & the Gang. Pieces to be performed include Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 6,” an overture by Rossini and a selection of music from the TV series “Downton Abbey,” “Game of Thrones” and “House of Cards.”
“It’s going to be a nice tribute to what this orchestra can do,” Chafetz said.
On Saturday, however, Jefferson Starship will be on hand from start to finish.
“It’s a full-on show of Jefferson Starship only,” Chafetz said.
On either night, audiences should expect a party atmosphere.
“It packs such a punch for Friday and Saturday night,” Chafetz said. “Just two killer groups — a way to get things rolling.”