11th September 2020: Exploding the funk: Orlando le Fleming on becoming more American and his love of cricket as he prepares for “Romantic Funk: The Unfamiliar” – out on 18th September

Bass player Orlando le Fleming made the move from his native UK to New York City in 2003. There he has thrived, bringing bags of musical personality to sideman and solo projects alike. The high-intensity fusion that he captured on his solo debut, Romantic Funk has spawned a sequel, Romantic Funk: The Unfamiliar (out 18th September). Ahead of the album release, we spoke to Orlando about the differences between the UK and NYC scenes, his love of cricket, and about what’s in the name, ‘The Unfamiliar’.

WWR: Moving to New York is every jazz player’s dream – what were the main differences between the London and New York scenes? Do you make it back to the UK at all [in non-Covid times]?

OLF: Well, there is the jazz history which is woven into the fabric of people, buildings and institutions. The general public have a greater knowledge of the music – I had regular conversations with a subway train driver about Stanley Clarke and Charles Mingus (while he was driving!). Once, some random guy in a huge truck shouted out ‘Gary Peacock’ whilst driving past me with my bass. The jukeboxes in some bars have jazz on them. Your average person knows who Sonny Rollins is… things like this you notice. The sheer volume of jazz musicians from all around the world is just far greater in NY than London. The hunger and the competition pushes the standards up higher, people are more driven, just out of survival. The cluster of great clubs within 5 minutes of each other also fosters more communication/ hanging/playing/motivation between musicians. The standard and attention dedicated to rhythm is a lot higher in NY than London. There are better drummers who pay attention to the pocket and the details that make the difference. You also have all the other prolific music scenes which seep in to jazz in NY, especially from the huge Latin American population. People play less apologetically in NY too, although that’s necessarily always a good thing…

I make it back to UK to see my family at least once a year. The longer I’ve been in America, the more the UK feels like a Harry Potter movie when I return – I guess that makes me more American now.

WWR: Something listeners might not know about you is your previous life as a professional cricketer. Could you tell us a bit about that?

OLF: Although my parents are musicians, cricket was huge in my family. I played from a very young age, did lots of coaching courses and played in the county and country youth teams. I enjoyed seasons with the successful Devon Minor counties side and had a summer deal with Somerset but never really enjoyed it enough, especially once I couldn’t hide behind the young prodigy precociousness thing and really had to perform and take it seriously. I just didn’t love cricket enough and lacked the confidence and courage to take it further. Once I went to the Royal Academy of Music in London (1995), I basically gave it up, apart from a season at Finchley. I will probably have a mid life crisis soon and end up cramming in a few games before it’s too late.

WWR: You released the first Romantic Funk album in 2017. What’s in the name? (I get the funk bit, but why romantic, and why The Unfamiliar?)

OLF: For the first album the Romantic was really referring to the lush harmony and music from the Romantic period – I wanted to combine this with my love of funk. For the second album, ‘The Unfamiliar’, this tenuous connection has become a bit more solidified. Musically, I encouraged risk taking and trying unfamiliar paths. I wrote tunes with open forms that would allow this freedom, exploration and strong emotion. I love the aspect of the Romantic Period that dealt with the unexplainable, unbounded, inexpressible, unfamiliar, and its reaction against reason and against scientific classification, understanding that these things were only one way to look at the world and not necessarily enough to help people through. A lot of the tune titles all express these sentiments, and possibly the freedom and abandonment with which the music was written and played. It’s also just a jazz fusion album, haha.

WWR: Could you introduce us to your band?

OLF: Yes! These guys are amazing.

Will Vinson is a good friend and a wonderfully expressive alto sax player (exemplified on my tune ‘More Melancholy). He is a great composer and has many great albums under his own name, the most recent with plethora of extraordinary pianists – Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Fred Hersch, Sullivan Fortner and more. We have been playing together on and off for years and co-lead the OWL Trio with Lage Lund.

Philip Dizack is an incredibly intuitive musical trumpet player with a great sound and sense of space. He’s not as well known as he should be, but one of the best trumpet players around. He has an album out on Criss Cross as a leader and is currently playing with Shai Maestro’s trio.

Sean Wayland is a creative keyboard player who really invests time into building sounds on his synths. He plays very interesting lines and melodies that don’t come out of the usual jazz vocabulary. Heavily influenced by Alan Holdsworth, he just adds a fresh sound to the jazz realm. I regularly played in Sean’s trio with Nate Wood at the 55 bar, which inspired a lot of this music on my new album. Check out his many albums as a leader, particularly ‘Pistachio’ which features Keith Carlock, Wayne Krantz, Tim Lefebvre and Adam Rogers.

Kush Abadey is a young drummer who embodies the aesthetics of jazz and swing but is also comfortable playing a backbeat. He played in Wallace Roney’s quintet when he was 16 and is currently playing with everyone on the scene (Joel Ross, Melissa Aldana…). His playing is mature beyond his years and extremely musical. We’ve gone from playing acoustic jazz gigs at Smalls gigs with Lage Lund to electric funk fusion gigs at the 55 bar with Wayne Krantz – it feels great playing with him in every setting.

Nate Wood is an incredible all round musician who I’m lucky enough to have played with on and off over the years. We were playing with Sean’s trio regularly and I wanted to capture this chemistry on my album. He’s a drummer who understands melody, form, and has a very original approach, obviously with jaw dropping facility. If you don’t know who he is, check out his project ‘Four’, his singer- songwriter albums and his drumming with Kneebody and Wayne Krantz.

WWR: What can we expect on Romantic Funk: The Unfamiliar that we might not have heard on the previous incarnation of the project?

OLF: For this album I really wanted the players to have more freedom with the music and I encouraged risk taking even if it meant falling on your face. I wrote the tunes tailored for each musician and tried not to be a control freak band leader. We had workshopped some of this material at the 55 bar which helped a great deal. Considering the openness of the tunes we somehow captured some amazing concise and well-shaped versions in the studio. Will plays some beautiful lyrical sax, Philip and Sean play so well together. I take a few more bass solos and play some upright on this album too. Sean improvised some beautiful intros and John Davis captured everyones sound beautifully. I am really proud of this album and can’t wait for everyone to hear the whole thing.

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Orlando’s album Romantic Funk: The Unfamiliar is available to pre-order on 12″ LP 180g Limited Edition Vinyl / CD / DL: here

Keep up with Orlando’s developments on his Twitter and Instagram pages.

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