Local all-star group the Red Room Orchestra pays tribute to Burt Bacharach at the Chapel
SAN FRANCISCO -- Veteran bandleader and keyboard/trumpet player Marc Capelle brings his Red Room Orchestra to the Chapel Friday to pay tribute to the late songwriting great Burt Bacharach.
While session veteran and keyboard/trumpet player Marc Capelle still occasionally sets backsides in motion as the leader of his all-star R&B revue Marc & the Casuals, the busy musician is finding more and more time taken up by another project far more ambitious project: the Red Room Orchestra.
The versatile player frequently performs with groups paying tribute to specific bands or songwriters, but his latest creative outlet has found Capelle and his collaborators recreating a remarkable range of material. The Red Room Orchestra was initially formed to pay tribute to the music featured in "Twin Peaks," the surreal television show by iconic director David Lynch that saw a revival with "Twin Peaks: The Return" on Showtime in 2019.
Lynch's unique cinematic creations have always put music in the spotlight, from the singing Lady in the Radiator from the director's 1977 debut and the bizarre visage of Dean Stockwell lip synching to the Roy Orbison hit "In Dreams" in his Oscar-nominated breakthrough Blue Velvet through his use of both '50s and modern rock in Wild at Heart and Lost Highway during the '90s. Lynch made music a cornerstone of "Twin Peaks" and its 1992 cinematic prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, collaborating with his longtime composer Angelo Badalamenti on original songs like the hit "Mysteries of Love" sung by Julee Cruise -- who would release a full album of Lynch/Badalamenti tunes and appeared in both the series and film. Sadly, both Cruise and Badalamenti passed away last year.
In the summer of 2017 after an initial more stripped-down performance in the Chapel bar with a smaller ensemble, Capelle gathered a high-powered group of San Francisco musicians including Dirty Ghosts guitarist Allyson Baker, Persephone's Bees guitarist Tom Ayers, drummer Todd Roper (Chuck Prophet, Cake), percussionist Larry Mullins (aka Toby Dammit, who has played with Iggy Pop, the Residents, Swans and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), singer Karina Denike (Dancehall Crashers, NOFX, the Cottontails), violinist/vocalist Dina Maccabee and saxophonist Tom Griesser (New Morty Show, Brass Monkey, the Cottontails) to play the music of "Twin Peaks" and more Lynch-related offerings at the music venue, taking the stage with an expanded group that was christened the Red Room Orchestra in front of a packed house for a transporting night of atmospheric music.
The positive reception of that show would lead the group to partner with SF Sketchfest in 2018 for the first time to perform soundtrack-related music at the Chapel. The first night -- scheduled to coincide with a tribute to "Twin Peaks" featuring cast members from the original show held at the Castro earlier in the day -- featured onstage appearances by many actors from the series including Sherilyn Fenn -- who helped judge and Audrey Horne dance contest -- and actual song performances by "Twin Peaks; The Return" star and local product Chrysta Bell (who brought down the house with her rendition of the Jimmy Scott song "Sycamore Trees" from the original series), James Marshall and Ray Wise, who stepped into his Leland Palmer character to sing "Mairzy Doats."
Since then, the group has presented additional nights of music paying tribute to the creative musical curation of director Wes Anderson -- playing the songs used for his films Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and more with a variety of special guests -- the soundtrack to the Cohen Brothers' cult favorite The Big Lebowski and the music from Paul Thomas Anderson's breakout film, the '70s porn industry period piece Boogie Nights.
For the group's annual engagement for the SF Sketchfest at the Great American Music Hall last month, the RRO revisited the music of "Twin Peaks," paying homage to Cruise and Badalamenti with return performances by cast members Wise, Bell, and Michael Horse (Deputy Hawk) and the first-ever appearance by Carel Struycken (The Giant/The Fireman), who read excerpts from Laura Palmer's diary. The group also recreated one of the greatest punk rock soundtracks of all time with music from director Alex Cox's surreal and subversive 1984 classic Repo Man.
This Friday's show pays homage to another musical great who recently passed. One of the iconic songwriters of the 20th century, Burt Bacharach penned dozens of hits and soundtrack songs -- both with his original main collaborator, lyricist Hal David, and later alongside his then wife Carole Bayer Sager -- starting in the late '50s and continuing through to the modern era. Whether through the chart-topping songs sung by his early muse Dionne Warwick, penning award-winning tunes for films and Broadway musicals, or collaborating with such creative performers as Elvis Costello and Ronald Isley, Bacharach enjoyed a fruitful, decades long career up until his death last month.
This tribute concert was originally scheduled back in March, but was postponed due to a case of COVID. For the rescheduled date, Capelle is joined by many of his regular bandmates (Ayres, Straus, Denike, vocalist Meryl Press, trombonist Carroll Ashby, horn players Griesser, Amber Lamprecht and Scott Larson) along with appearances by such notable guests as gospel group the West Coast Spiritual Corinthians, Oxbow members Eugene Robinson and Niko Wenner, Once and Future Band mainstay Joel Robinow, Little Roger Clark, Jess Ivry, Petra Haden, Peter Case, Bart Davenport, Adrianne DeLanda, Robert Lopez and more. DJ Lead Teddy plays records before the show begins. More information and tickets are available on the Chapel's website.
What the World Needs Now: The Red Room Orchestra Plays the Burt Bacharach Songbook
Friday, August 4, 8:30 p.m. $25-$28
The Chapel