Postmodern Jukebox Brings Their Unique Entertainment to El Cajon

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox

The music is familiar. The melodies ring with songs you’ve heard on the radio in bars, dance halls, roadhouse cafes, and high-end nightclubs for decades. But the music is filtered and re-shaped into smooth, sophisticated jazz with vocals that could easily send the listener to an early visitation to a melodic paradise. It only goes to show that music knows no limitations, no boundaries; it is a sonic sky that reaches far beyond the horizon. Or, as the beloved character Maude said in the classic film Harold and Maude, “Music is the cosmic dance.” Indeed.  She was right.  This group is a living demonstration of this statement.

Welcome to the cosmically danceable universe of Postmodern Jukebox, an entertaining stage show centered on fine, expressive vocals, right-as-rain smooth-jazz arrangements and sparkling musical performance that sizzles, shines, and goes down the auditory taste bud like so much vintage wine from an unknown year.

Postmodern Jukebox (PMJ) is a collective of musicians and vocalists who are gathered together by Scott Bradlee, a New York City musician who was homegrown in the jazz scene that surrounds Broadway. He grew up in New Jersey where he fell hard for jazz at 12 years old. It was Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue that drew him in. His solo piano work on earlier 2009 recordings bears witness to Gershwin’s influences on his fingers and the magic he spins on the keys. He soon grew well-versed in song arrangement with influences from off-Broadway musical innovations and the influence of New York City jazz.

In 2009 he released the album Hello My Ragtime ’80s, which reworked well-known hits from the decade into ragtime songs. This led to his now classic Mashups by Candlelight series, a collection of frenetically and expertly blended piano interpretations of songs from sources as varied as alt-rock, classic pop, Broadway show tunes, soul, and rock.

Most notably, Bradlee released a successful collaborative project with 2013’s A Motown Tribute to Nickelback. Aptly described as Scott Bradlee’s brainchild, the mind-bending rearrangements of the Canadian alt rock band became a critical favorite.

That same year, 2013, the Post-Modern Juke Box was born. This was familiar ground for Bradlee with an added dimension of musicians coming together in service of the song outside of the expected genre loop. Imagine Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” as swing jazz. Yet, it works. It really works. This unique project allowed Bradlee to expand his scope, vision, and imagination. Like his previous work, he re-shaped the genre and the songs to the degree that it was hard to believe they had come from anywhere but the jazz of New York City during the 1940s. The staging was pure Big Band-era vocal jazz performance at the center the band leader and musician set up in a stripped-down orchestral style like Count Basie and Duke Ellington in their beginnings. And everyone is dressed to the nines.

Photo by Emily Butler.

There’s a certain brilliance to taking songs familiar to a certain genre and era and placing them into a the breezy, jazz-soul feel of PMJ. Prince’s “Purple Rain” goes from gospel-rock to a torch singer’s ballad. The country-tinged classic ballad Felice and Boudleaux Bryant’s “Love Hurts” becomes a danceable samba piece. While the music remains accessible to today’s audiences, the song choices and arrangement are subversively hip. The songs can roll by like background music, but when the arrangements and performances fully kick in, it is a wake call to the sleepy lounge audience. It is a full realization of the strength and universality of popular music. Hearing familiar songs in a brand-new way is like a spiritual re-birth. The songs are new, like they’ve just been created.

Postmodern Jukebox made their mark in 2013 with a doo-wop cover of Miley Cyrus’s “We Can’t Stop” that featured Robyn Adele Anderson and the Tee-Tones. The media buzz grew with exposure from NPR, Good Morning America, and even Cosmopolitan.

Within the music industry other artists paid tribute to the group’s re-working of their music. Jazz saxophonist Dave Koz joined them on a collaboration on the George Michaels classic “Careless Whisper” and the Game of Thrones theme. In 2013, they collaborated with Puddle’s Pity Party, covering Lorde’s “Royals,” which generated 34.6 million views on the PMJ YouTube channel by 2024.  The group has a tradition of hosting American Idol finalists as guest vocalists as part of their ensemble. These include Black Lewis, Melinda Doolittle, Joy Cook, Rayvon Owen, Clark Beckham, and JAX. Singer-songwriter and bassist Kate Davis performed a version of Meghan Trainor’s song, “All About the Bass” after a three-hour rehearsal at Scott Bradlee’s apartment. YouTube received three million views of this performance.

Today, the Postmodern Jukebox maintains a constant viral presence on the Internet that finds Bradlee releasing a new video on their YouTube channel, which has over six million subscribers. Not bad for a small group of musicians who began in a basement in Queens, New York. Postmodern Jukebox now has 70 performers and they tour on six continents.

Postmodern Jukebox is coming to town for a concert on August 10 at the Magnolia, 210 E. Main St., El Cajon, 7pm.