Louisville Orchestra conductor Teddy Abrams has now seen what his own ensemble’s music looks like.
The orchestra recently worked with Louisville-based Crosley Radio to release its 2017 album, All In, on vinyl. Crosley also made turntables featuring a photo of the orchestra, all smiles. Before the company sent the records out into the world, its representatives set up a little studio and invited Abrams over to listen. Jeff Parrish, Crosley’s artist and entertainment director, put the record, the orchestra’s first vinyl album in 30 years, under a microscope and showed it to Abrams. “You could see the grooves,” Abrams says one day in October. “And it doesn’t sound like that fancy of a thing, but honestly, it’s amazing, because you see your music there.”
The album is, Abrams says, “distinctly American,” featuring a work of his own called “Unified Field” that combines as many musical styles as possible while still making sense; the vocalist and repeat LO collaborator Storm Large singing two tunes, one of them by Cole Porter; and Abrams, who was, though he seems to bristle at the term, a clarinet prodigy as a child, performing an Aaron Copland concerto. The records go for $40 a pop, the turntables for $200.
Abrams’ demanding listening routine forces him to rely on modern technology, so he hasn’t amassed a huge vinyl collection himself, but he’s a fan of the medium all the same. And expect more LO vinyl in the future. I ask Abrams if the orchestra’s recent collaboration with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James will ever come out as a record. “Oh,” he says, “absolutely.”
This originally appeared in the November 2018 issue of Louisville Magazine. To subscribe to Louisville Magazine, click here. [4] To find us on newsstands, click here. [5]
Cover photo: The Louisville Orchestra and their new record, All In // Facebook [6]