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When: Aug. 11 at 5 p.m. (8 p.m. show is sold out) Where: The Pearl, 881 Granville St. Tickets and info: ticketweb.ca
Vancouver’s Ghibli Jazz Orchestra formed in 2022 to perform composer Joe Hisaishi‘s scores for animated features from Japan’s Oscar-winning Studio Ghibli. Founder, director and conductor Isabel Leong never expected the 18-piece group to be so successful.
In the past two years, the big band has enjoyed a string of sold-out performances, including a pair of back-to-back shows at the Pearl this weekend. The second show was added in the afternoon due to fan demand.
Previous venues have ranged from more traditional jazz spaces such as a Burnaby church and the Vancouver International Film Festival. A big band on the Granville entertainment strip hearkens back to a different age. An afternoon show is even rarer.
A graduate of Capilano University’s jazz music program with a guitar focus, the 21-year-old Leong first discovered Hisaishi’s music in director Hayao Miyazaki films such as My Neighbour Totoro and the Academy Award-winning Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron.
Forming the orchestra wasn’t a serious proposition at first.
“It began as a bit of a joke in second year when we were all hanging out in this hallway at Cap U where all of the jazz students go and I just wondered if it could ever work to form a big band to play Studio Ghibli music,” said Leong. “I thought no, but two friends pushed me to post a Facebook message asking if anyone would be interested. The response was overwhelming and here we are.”
Noting that Hisaishi’s work is as close as you get to greatest hits in anime film scores, Leong says the Ghibli Jazz Orchestra has parlayed the concept well beyond a chosen few chestnuts. Part of the draw for both players and punters is that no concert selection is ever the same.
Working from available sources such as a collection of Hisaishi’s work transcribed for piano, Leong and a few other core members take the time to adapt and arrange the music for the 18 musicians.
“We are a standard big band with a rhythm section of bass, guitar, piano and drums, as well as four trumpets, four trombones and five saxophones split between two altos, two tenors and a baritone sax,” she said. “Plus, we have an additional woodwind player who covers both flute and soprano saxophone. Because a lot of us are still in school, we only operate off-semester or special events.”
That’s likely to continue to be the case, as Leong heads to UBC in September to pursue an education degree.
Tim Reinert runs Vancouver’s the Infidels Jazz label-podcast and promotions boutique. Along with Ghibli Orchestra, he has seen sellout audiences for shows by the Cowboy Bebop Bebop Band, which performs music from the hit anime series Cowboy Bebop as well as other niche film music jazz gigs.
When he presented a sold out show with the Ghibli Orchestra in 2022 at Frankie’s Jazz Cafe and turned away over 50 people for the 11 p.m. performance, he knew something unusual was taking place. He also knew he wanted to repeat the event in a bigger room.
“To put together a jazz big band in 2024 might be one of the hardest things I can think of, and this idea comes directly from these inspired musicians,” said Reinert. “I had already presented two big bands at the Pearl that did really well, and the idea was we could come close to filling the room with a seated show. The audience made it very clear that this wasn’t going to work, and we opened it up to standing room and sold 300 tickets and then had to add a rush early afternoon show.”
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has staged concerts of Hisaishi’s music as well as video game scores, but taking the idea into the jazz world is something new. Reinert loves that he is the oldest guy in the room at these shows, suggesting the soundtracks of contemporary youth could become a conduit into a musical genre whose audiences tend toward the geriatric.
Anything that gets people in the door is his kind of show and Ghibli Jazz Orchestra is the kind of group to generate dynamic demand. The Infidels Jazz is presenting the Cowboy Bebop Bebop Band again at the FOX Cabaret in December.
Leong would love to see her group out on the road and bring its brand of anime swing to others across Canada. Obviously, the logistics of taking so many musicians on tour is hard to get one’s head around.
“Honestly, I don’t know if it’s fun, but it’s so chaotic that it keeps the musicians on their toes,” she said. “I think that this is such an insane idea that it keeps everyone coming back. When can they ever say they are going to do something like this again?”
With the big band brand making a comeback, can an anime music festival be far behind?
Leong’s group comprises musicians who share a love of Studio Ghibli films as well as music from video games and other anime. The focus is on composer Hisaishi’s scores from Studio Ghibli films arranged by members of the band.
The present membership includes:
Director and conductor: Isabel Leong
Saxophones: Nicholas Wise, Jamal Foster: Alto; Erika Chow, Gordy Li: Tenor; Kaytlyn Fan: Bari Sax; Kayla Ferguson: Soprano/Flute
Trumpets: Robin Comeau, Matthew DeMarcus, Nick Pataky, RJ Abella
Trombones: Casey Thomas-Burns, Nathan Lintott, Michael Millo, George McNally: Bass
Rhythm section: Joshua Young: Piano;Julian Jayme: Guitar; Riley Poystila: Bass; Elijah Tisalona: Drums
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