Everyone Orchestra is an American improvisational musical project that features a constantly revolving roster of musicians. Everyone Orchestra creates completely different music every time it appears through conducted improvisational musical exploration and audience participation.
Everyone Orchestra is led and conducted by musician, multi-instrumentalist and
activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
Matt Butler. Butler conceived the project in 2001 after traveling the country extensively in the 1990s as the drummer and percussionist for the touring band Jambay.
Everyone Orchestra has appeared at top-level summer music festivals as well as individual shows and benefit performances around the country. Shows sometimes include live painters and
performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
ists alongside the musicians. Performances by Everyone Orchestra have featured members of
The Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...
,
Phish
Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band is known for musical improvisation, extended jams, blending of genres, and a dedicated fan base. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon ...
,
moe.,
The String Cheese Incident
The String Cheese Incident (SCI) is an American jam band from Crested Butte and Telluride, Colorado, formed in 1993. The band is composed of Michael Kang (acoustic/electric mandolin, electric guitar, and violin), Michael Travis (drums and percus ...
,
The Flecktones
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
,
ALO,
Tea Leaf Green
Tea Leaf Green is an American four-piece jam band from the San Francisco Bay Area, composed of Josh Clark (guitar and vocals), Trevor Garrod ( keyboards, vocals, guitar, and harmonica), Scott Rager ( drums), and Eric DiBerardino (bass).
Histo ...
,
Living Colour
Living Colour is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 1984. The band currently consists of guitarist Vernon Reid, lead vocalist Corey Glover, drummer Will Calhoun and bassist Doug Wimbish (who replaced Muzz Skillings in 1992). S ...
and
Dave Mathews Band among others.
Through benefit events for charitable causes, Everyone Orchestra has raised more than $100,000 in contributions for non-profit and environmental organizations around the nation.
Beginnings
Matt Butler got the idea for what has become Everyone Orchestra while traveling in India. While in the country on vacation, he attended a multi-national
open-mic
An open mic or open mike (shortened from "open microphone") is a live show at a venue such as a coffeehouse, nightclub, comedy club, strip club, or pub, usually taking place at night, in which audience members may perform on stage whether the ...
night, and was exposed to a large number of different musicians, most of whom didn't speak the same language, playing together and communicating purely through music and improvisation.
Upon returning home to the
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
bay area, Butler began hosting open-mic nights aimed at achieving the same kind of purely musical communication. Inviting various musicians to come down to take part in large-scale improvisational evenings, Butler refined the process of conducted improvisation, eventually taking the concept beyond open-mic night
jam sessions
A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without exte ...
, booking the first official Everyone Orchestra concert for
New Year's Eve
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...
in 2001.
Butler was also inspired by musical visionaries and projects that previously incorporated conducted improvisation such as Zambiland Orchestra conducted by Ricky Keller, Butch Morris's Conduction, John Zorn's Cobra and others.
The music
There is usually little formal rehearsal for an appearance of Everyone Orchestra. The music is mainly improvised, with the various members of the band (as well we the audience) taking cues from a conductor. In addition to using hand signals and vocal cues, the conductor makes use of white boards to guide what would be a cacophonous mass-improvisation into a coherent musical journey. The musicians performing will very often be appearing on stage together for the first time, so by taking cues from the conductor as well as their fellow musicians, Everyone Orchestra strives to create something new and different each time they perform. The audience is as much a part of an Everyone Orchestra performance as the musicians on stage. Urged by cues from the conductor, the audience will be asked to sing, make sound effects, become louder or softer, and becomes a large part of the performance.
References
External links
*
The Everyone Orchestra on the Live Music Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Everyone Orchestra, The
Jam bands
Rock music groups from California
Musical groups established in 2001
Musical collectives