Bridging the gulf between rock n’ roll and classical music, conductor/arranger Brent Havens takes the podium to present The Music of Led Zeppelin, a program he scored to extend the listening experience of Led Zeppelin’s timeless tunes. Performed by an orchestra and amplified with a full rock band and screaming vocals, Havens and his ensemble capture Led Zeppelin’s “sheer blast and power” riff for riff while cranking out new musical colors. The 2-plus hour concert features 18 Zeppelin tunes, including "Stairway to Heaven," "Heartbreaker," "Black Dog," and "Immigrant Song."
“Our concept for The Music of Led Zeppelin was to take the music as close to the originals as we could and then add some colors to enhance what Zep had done,” says Havens. “The wonderful thing with an orchestra is that you have an entire palette of sounds to call upon. The band is reproducing what Led Zeppelin did on the albums, verbatim, and then having an orchestra behind the band gives the music richness, a whole different feel, a whole different sense of power.”
Delivering a note-for-note interpretation, vocalist Randy Jackson (lead singer of the rock band Zebra), shrieks brilliantly, acting as a window between the audience and reworked material. “The music itself is one thing, but Jackson more than captures the spirit of legendary Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant,” says Havens. Heightened by rock concert lighting, the symphonic rock hybrid has met with riotous approval at both ends of the hall, explains Havens; “When we first came on stage, the audience gave us polite, almost classical applause. Then we hit the first note and they realized it was a rock show.”
Who's Who
Berklee-trained arranger/conductor Brent Havens has written music for orchestras, feature films, and virtually every kind of television. His TV work includes movies for networks such as ABC, CBS, and The Family Channel, commercials, sports music for networks such as ESPN and even cartoons. Recently, Havens worked with the Doobie Brothers and the Milwaukee Symphony, arranging and conducting the combined group for Harley Davidson’s 100th Anniversary Birthday Party Finale attended by over 150,000 fans. Havens just completed the score for the film Quo Vadis, a Premier Pictures remake of the 1956 gladiator film. Havens is arranger/guest conductor for four symphonic rock programs—the Music of Led Zeppelin, the Music of the Doors, the Music of Pink Floyd, and the Music of the Eagles.
Guest vocalist Randy Jackson is the lead singer of the rock band Zebra, and recently produced and engineered their latest album, Zebra IV. He has also toured as keyboardist and guitarist with the reunited Jefferson Airplane, and works extensively in the area of musical software and hardware development.
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