Postmodern Jukebox

Postmodern Jukebox, also widely known by the initialism PMJ, is a rotating musical collective founded by arranger and pianist Scott Bradlee in 2011. PMJ is known for reworking popular modern music into different vintage genres, especially early 20th century forms such as swing and jazz. Postmodern Jukebox has amassed over 1.8 billion YouTube views and 5.8 million subscribers.

Each week, Postmodern Jukebox releases a new video on YouTube. Although originally most were filmed casually in Bradlee's living room, sets became more elaborate over time. The band has covered songs by artists ranging from Lady Gaga and The Strokes to Katy Perry and the White Stripes. Since their beginnings as a small group of friends making music in a basement in Queens, New York, Postmodern Jukebox has gone on to feature 70 different performers and tour six continents.

History

Origin

Postmodern Jukebox originated when Scott Bradlee began shooting videos with friends from college in his basement apartment in Astoria. This group included bassist Chris Anderson, saxophonist Ben Golder-Novick, harpist Brandee Younger, and vocalist Emma Walker.

Bradlee struggled for years as a jazz musician in New York City before one of his videos ("a medley of '80s songs done ragtime style") became popular in 2009. He received a message on Twitter from author Neil Gaiman. Two years later his video for "A Motown Tribute to Nickelback" included Drue Davis (emcee), Steve Ujfalussy (saxophone, EWI) Adam Kubota (bass), Allan Mednard (drums), and Tim Kubart (tambourine).

2012–present

With over one million views in its first week, and four million in its first year, Robyn Adele Anderson's cover version of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' "Thrift Shop" (2012) was Postmodern Jukebox's first viral music video. The song was included on ''Introducing Postmodern Jukebox'' (2013) and reached No. 8 on the ''Billboard'' magazine jazz album chart. This was followed by her cover of Miley Cyrus' "We Can't Stop" in 2013. The band performed on ''Good Morning America'' in September.

In late 2013, Postmodern Jukebox was invited to the New York City offices of ''Cosmopolitan'' to film a year-end tribute to 2013, covering the year's hit songs with arrangements from different genres and times. The "Just Another Day at the Office" mashup included Robyn Adele Anderson singing "Blurred Lines", Cristina Gatti singing "Holy Grail", Anderson and the Tee Tones singing "We Can't Stop", Karen Marie singing "Roar", Ashley Stroud singing "Royals", and Andromeda Turre singing "What Does the Fox Say?". The production was completed in a single take, and a companion behind-the-scenes video was also produced.

In 2014, Kate Davis performed a cover version of Meghan Trainor's song "All About That Bass" (2014) in Scott Bradlee's living room after three hours of practice. Davis sang and played double bass; her rendition gathered 8 million views in three months. "I knew the song, probably could have done it on the fly. Maybe that's why it's so funny. I remember thinking it was so funny at the time I was going to crack up, maybe five times." The 1940s arrangement and piano accompaniment is by Bradlee with Dave Tedeschi on drums. The single was a success, catching the attention of ''Time'', ''Billboard'', ''The Huffington Post'', and ''PBS NewsHour''.

''BuzzFeed'' featured a doo-wop cover of "Timber," with Robyn Adele Anderson and The Tee Tones fronting, in February 2014. The group's cover of Radiohead's seminal 1990s hit "Creep," performed by Haley Reinhart, was called a "stunning listen" by the ''Los Angeles Times'' in April 2015. As of April 2022, the video had over 105 million views and was their most viewed video.

In 2015, Broadway actress Shoshana Bean became active with the group as a guest artist when Bradlee moved to Los Angeles. ''Broadway World'' raved about Bean's performance of Sia's "Chandelier" at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California, and ''Billboard'' did a feature story on Motown version of Justin Bieber's "Sorry". Bean joined the Postmodern Jukebox 2016 spring European tour at its midway point.

Sara Niemietz performed with the cast in August 2015, covering the Talking Heads' "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" (1983), PMJ's rendition of "Hey Ya!" (2003) by Outkast, a Dixieland arrangement of Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself" (2015), and a club version of the "Pokémon Theme". Niemietz joined the band's northeastern leg of its 2015 U.S. tour and the entire 2016 European tour. MTV U.K. caught up with the show in London and spotlighted a big band cover version of Elle King's "Ex's & Oh's" (2014) with Niemietz on vocals and Sarah Reich tap dancing.

In early February 2016, Postmodern Jukebox covered David Bowie's song " Heroes" in honor of World Cancer Day with vocals by Nicole Atkins. The song was released to earn money for the Cancer Research Institute. In 2016, Heineken announced a global partnership with Formula One racing, and in September released the "If You Drive, Never Drink" campaign commercial with driver Sir Jackie Stewart (the "Flying Scot") and "Heroes" as background music.

Around the same time, PMJ started Reboxed, consisting of new versions of songs that had already been covered. The first Reboxed song was by Niemietz and the Sole Sisters singing "Bad Romance", which had been sung by Ariana Savalas with Sarah Reich tap dancing. ''Adweek'' named Bradlee one of "20 Content Creators Who Are Setting the Bar for Creativity in 2016".

In late May 2018, PMJ surpassed the one billion view mark on YouTube. Bradlee, members of the band, and guests hosted their first live stream event from the PMJ Manor to celebrate.

On June 12, 2018, Scott Bradlee released his first book, a memoir entitled ''Outside The Jukebox: How I Turned My Vintage Music Obsession Into My Dream Gig''. The book received positive reviews from ''Publishers Weekly'', ''The Weekly Standard'', and ''Billboard''.

In 2014, PMJ started the first annual #PMJSearch contest to discover musical talent. The month-long competition asks fans to submit videos of themselves performing versions of PMJ songs for a chance to perform on an upcoming official video. Out of the many videos that are submitted each year, the winner is selected by Scott Bradlee. Past winners include Holly Campbell-Smith (2015), Devi Ananda (2016), and Olivia Kuper Harris (2017), all of whom went on to be featured in PMJ videos, as well as on tour with the band. Harris' feature on "Last Friday Night" caught the attention of the song's original singer, Katy Perry, during an online feature for ''Glamour''.

Touring

On February 24, 2016, Postmodern Jukebox opened at the Dubai International Jazz Festival, alongside Sting, Toto, Chris Botti, and David Gray.

The 2016 tours included three continents:
# a 75-date European tour starting at Vicar Street in Dublin, Ireland, wrapping on June 3, 2016 in Athens, Greece.
# A 16-city Australia/New Zealand tour, which kicked off on August 29, 2016 at the Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch, wrapping on September 20, 2016 at the Perth Concert Hall. and
# a 45-stop fall North American tour, kicking off on September 29, 2016 at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence, Rhode Island, and wrapping on November 27, 2016 in Mesa, Arizona.

The 2017 tour included concurrent dates in Europe and the US, with two separate "casts" of musicians.

PMJ made its first visit of South America in August 2017, with four dates in Brazil and one in Argentina.

In April 2018, PMJ made their debut in Africa, performing in Tunisia at the Jazz a Carthage Festival and Morocco at the Jazzablanca Festival, marking the sixth continent on which they've performed.

Performers

Creator and founder

* Scott Bradlee – piano, arrangements

Guest musicians

The band has featured the following artists as guest musicians:

* Adam Kubota – bass
* Allan Mednard – drums
* Allen Hunter – bass
* Andrew Gutauskas – saxophone
* Arthur Vint - drums
* Ben Golder-Novick – saxophone, clarinet
* Bennett Miller – bass
* Brandee Younger – harp
* Chip Thomas – drums
* Cynthia Sayer – banjo
* Dave Koz – saxophone
* Dave Tedeschi – drums
* David Wong – violin
* Erm Navarro – trombone
* Gunhild Carling – various instruments
* Jabu Graybeal – tap dance, drums
* Jacob Scesney – flute, saxophones, clarinet, percussion
* James Hall – trombone
* Jason Prover – trumpet
* Jay Ratmann – clarinet
* Jesse Elder – piano, Rhodes piano
* Joe McDonough – trombone
* Kate Dunphy – accordion
* Kylan deGhetaldi – piano
* Kyle Morgan - saxophone
* Lemar Guillary – trombone
* Marc Trachtenberg - keyboard
* Michael Sailors – trumpet
* Mike Chisnall – guitar
* Mike Cottone – trumpet
* Molly E. Fletcher – violin
* Nick Finzer – trombone
* Nora Germain - violin, finger snaps
* Ric Becker – trombone
* Robert Edwards – trombone
* Sean Clapis – guitar
* Sean Condron – banjo
* Seth Paris – saxophones
* Stefan Zeniuk – woodwinds
* Tim Kubart aka "Tambourine Guy" – tambourine
* Tom Abbott – clarinet/saxophone
* Tom Luer – saxophone
* Tosin Abasi

Guest vocalists

Several former ''American Idol'' finalists have found success as part of Postmodern Jukebox's ensemble, including Vonzell Solomon (season 4), Blake Lewis (season 6), Melinda Doolittle (season 6), Haley Reinhart (Season 10), Casey Abrams (Season 10), Thia Megia (season 10), and DeAndre Brackensick (season 11). Four Season 14 finalists have also performed lead vocals for the group: Joey Cook, Rayvon Owen, Clark Beckham, and JAX. Additionally, vocalists Aubrey Logan, Von Smith, and Brielle Von Hugel are ''Idol'' alums who went through the audition process but did not advance to the finals in any season.

Xavier Woods appeared in the cover of "What Is Love", with his trombone "Francesca" and later recorded a video that was released on his channel (UpUpDownDown), in which they cover the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song.

In February 2020, The Rembrandts appeared as part of an evolution of " I'll Be There for You".

The band has featured the following artists as guest vocalists and performers:

* Ada Pasternak – vocals, violin
* Addie Hamilton – vocals
* Alisan Porter – vocals
* Alex MacDonald - tambourine, tap dancing
* Allison Young - vocals
* Aly Ryan - vocals
* Amber Eyes - vocals
* Annie Goodchild – vocals
* Anissa Lee – tap dancing
* Ariana Savalas – vocals
* Ashley Stroud – vocals
* Aubrey Logan – vocals, trombone
* Bernard Taylor – vocals/Tee-Tone
* Blake Lewis – vocals
* Brielle Von Hugel – vocals
* Candice Parise – vocals
* Catie Turner – vocals
* Caroline Baran – vocals
* Casey Abrams – vocals, bass, melodica
* Chloe Feoranzo – vocals & clarinet
* Christopher Erk – tap dancing
* Clark Beckham – vocals
* Cunio - vocals
* Cristina Gatti – vocals
* Dani Armstrong – vocals
* Daniela Andrade – vocals
* David Simmons Jr. - vocals
* DeAndre Brackensick – vocals
* Demi Remick - tap dancing
* Devi-Ananda – vocals
* Emma Hatton – vocals
* Emily Braden – vocals
* Emily Goglia - vocals
* Emily West – vocals
* Eva Mikhailovna – vocals
* Gerard Giddens – vocals/Tee-Tone
* Grace Kelly – vocals, saxophone, swing dancing
* Gunhild Carling – vocals, recorder, trombone, bagpipes, trumpet, tap dancing, harmonica, piano, drums
* Haley Reinhart – vocals
* Hannah Gill – vocals
* Holly Campbell-Smith – vocals
* Jasmin Walker – vocals
* JAX – vocals
* Jennie Lena – vocals
* Jerome Cohen – vocals/Tee-Tone
* Joey Cook – vocals, ukulele, accordion
* Juliette Goglia – vocals, dancing
* Karen Marie – vocals
* Kate Davis – vocals, upright bass
* Kelley Jakle – vocals
* Kenton Chen – vocals
* Kiah Victoria – vocals
* Ksenia Parkhatskaya – swing dancing
* Lara Johnston – vocals
* Lauren Molina – cello
* LaVance Colley – vocals
* Lisa Gary – vocals
* Luke Edgemon – vocals
* Maiya Sykes – vocals
* Mario Jose – vocals
* Maris - vocals
* Martina DaSilva – vocals
* Matt Bloyd – vocals
* Mayré Martínez – vocals
* Melinda Doolittle – vocals
* Melinda Sullivan – tap dancing
* Miche Braden – vocals
* Morgan James – vocals
* Mykal Kilgore – vocals
* Natalie Angst – vocals
* Niia – vocals
* Nicole Atkins – vocals
* Noah Guthrie – vocals
* Olivia Kuper Harris – vocals
* Pia Toscano – vocals
* Puddles the Clown – vocals
* Rayvon Owen vocals
* Robyn Adele Anderson – vocals
* Sara Niemietz – vocals
* Sarah Reich – tap dancing
* Sarah Marie Young – vocals, ukulele
* Scotty Grand – vocals, flute
* Scout Ford – vocals/Tee-Tone
* Shoshana Bean – vocals
* Stefano Langone – vocals
* Sunny Holiday – vocals, dancing, choreography
* Tara Louise – vocals
* Thia Megia – vocals
* Tickwanya Jones – vocals
* Tomasina Abate – vocals
* Tony DeSare – vocals, piano
* Von Smith – vocals
* Vonzell Solomon – vocals
* Wayne Brady – vocals
* Wilkie Ferguson – vocals

Discography

Albums

References

External links

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2011 establishments in New York City
American jazz ensembles from New York City
Cover bands
Musical groups established in 2011
Musical groups from New York City
Jazz musicians from New York (state)
American Internet celebrities