LIVE: Dylan Perrillo Orchestra @ Caffe Lena Saratoga Springs 11/29/19
Music is fun.
If the twelve-member Dylan Perrillo Orchestra had a mission statement that would be it. Specializing in the music of early part of the last century the 20s-40s, the orchestra played through the music that their great-great-grandparents listened and danced to and did so with great gusto.
Featuring a Hawaiian shirted Nick Manzella on vocals, the band led the post-Thanksgiving crowd out of their tryptophan induced torpor through 2 sets of big band style music. The band spilled across the stage, with a 3-man brass section, 3 musician deep saxophone section, the 2 violins and guitar section sitting in front of the stage. Dylan was barely visible on the side without much of the benefit of stage lighting,
Louie Armstrong’s “Old Man Mose” was played with spirit and finesse with lengthy introductory remarks by Dylan. Tornerai, a prewar French/Italian hit from the 30s was played featuring Nick Manzella on accordion. Billie Holiday’s “Fine and Mellow” was sung and played with the low down feeling that the song inspires. Almost as if to message the audience not to take the performance as a strictly academic interpretation of the early 20th-century music, the 1960 easy listening hit Percy Faith’s “ A Theme from a Summer Place” opened the 2nd set. The closing tune was the rousing call and response of “Barnacle Bill the Sailor” with Manzella singing both the Olive Oyl part and the Brutus parts.
Not a single person left the Caffe without a smile on their face.
Music is indeed fun.
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