Mucca Pazza is an interdisciplinary
instrumental
An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...
music and performance ensemble based in
Chicago, USA.
Mucca Pazza consists of approximately thirty active members and performs instrumental music; their mode of performance is informed by
physical theater. Mucca Pazza’s instrumentation is loosely based on that of a traditional American
marching band
A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who play while marching. Historically they were used in armed forces and many marching bands remain military bands. Others are still associated with military units or emulate a military sty ...
—
drumline,
sousaphone
The sousaphone ( ) is a brass musical instrument in the tuba family. Created around 1893 by J.W. Pepper & Son, J. W. Pepper at the direction of American bandleader John Philip Sousa (after whom the instrument was then named), it was design ...
,
trombone
The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...
s,
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...
s,
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...
s—but also includes
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...
,
mandolin
A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...
,
violin
The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
,
cello
The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...
,
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...
, and
cheerleaders
Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ent ...
. Their sound references American marching band and
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...
traditions,
as well as
Middle Eastern music
The various nations of the region include the Arabic-speaking countries of the Middle East, the Iranian traditions of Persia, the Jewish music of Israel and the diaspora, Kurdish music, Armenian music. Azeri Music, the varied traditions of Cyp ...
, California
surf,
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone ( , ; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, Orchestration, orchestrator, conductor, trumpeter, and pianist who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 film score, scores for cinema and televisi ...
, and 1950s television show themes. They perform in mismatched marching band uniforms,
and are known for their energetic performances.
Their debut album, ''A Little Marching Band'', was released in 2006. Their second full-length album, ''Plays Well Together'', was released in June 2008. The band's song "Borino Oro" was featured in a season 4 episode of the
Showtime television show ''
Weeds
A weed is an unwanted plant of any species.
Weed or weeds may also refer to:
Places
* Weed, Arkansas, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Weed, California, a city in the United States
* Weed, Kentucky, an unincorporated communit ...
'', and the songs "Tube Sock Tango" and "St. Fresca's Regret" were used in season 1, episode 8 of Amazon's''
Transparent''. Their third album, ''Safety Fifth'', was released in July 2012 and a fourth full-length album, ''L.Y.A.'', was released in October 2014. Their most recent studio effort, ''GET PUMPED!'', was released in May 2023.
History
Mucca Pazza was formed in Chicago in 2004. Many of the founding members met while performing with
Redmoon Theater. Early on, rehearsals took place in the parking lot of a steel mill.
The first official Mucca Pazza gig was at trombone player Tom Howe’s wedding
at
Bond Chapel at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
.
Collaborations
;With the Chicago Sinfonietta
In September 2014, Mucca Pazza performed as part of the
Chicago Sinfonietta
The Chicago Sinfonietta is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois.
The orchestra was founded in 1987 under the guidance of conductor and music director Paul Freeman (conductor), Paul Freeman (1936–2015) to address the disconnect be ...
’s opening concert of the season. Together, the Sinfonietta and Mucca Pazza performed two pieces by Mucca Pazza composers, in orchestral arrangements by Joe Clark: “Rabbits and Trees,” by David Smith; and “Holiday on Ice,” by Mark Messing. The two ensembles also collaborated in performing the ''
1812 Overture
''The Year 1812, Solemn Overture'', Op. 49, popularly known as the ''1812 Overture'', is a concert overture in E major written in 1880 by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The piece commemorates Russia's successful defense against the ...
'' by
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...
, in a conceit which featured Mucca Pazza as the invading French army and the full symphony orchestra as Russia.
In May 2018, Mucca Pazza reprised their collaboration with Chicago Sinfonietta in a concert titled Praise and Punk. There were two performances, one at
Symphony Center
Symphony Center is a music complex located at 220 South Michigan Avenue in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. Home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO); Chicago Symphony Chorus; Civic Orchestra of Chicago; and the Institute for Learning, ...
in downtown Chicago, and one at Wentz Hall in
Naperville, Illinois. In addition to performing the "ending of all endings", a medley of famous classical music endings, Mucca Pazza performed the original composition "War of Amusements" by composer and drummer Andy Dietrich and arranged by Joe Clark.
;With the Chicago Children's Choir
In May 2014, Mucca Pazza performed together with the 3500 children of the Chicago Children's Choir at the CCC's annual "Paint the Town Red" concert at Pritzker Pavilion in
Millennium Park
Millennium Park is a public park located in the Chicago Loop, Loop Community areas of Chicago, community area of Chicago, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The park, opened in July 2004, is a prominent civic center near t ...
.
With dance company Pilobolus
In July 2019, Mucca Pazza collaborated with dance company
Pilobolus on the opening ceremony of Old Forester's Kentucky Center in Louisville, Kentucky. The band was featured in some of the dance company's shadow work and provided a transition between acts.
Tiny Desk concert
In January 2015, Mucca Pazza performed on
NPR Music
NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...
’s Tiny Desk concert series, with either 23 or 24 band members present.
Bob Boilen, creator of the series, described the band’s performance as “the biggest and most colorful Tiny Desk show of them all, this one was a challenge and a thrill to pull off.”
Mucca Pazza’s appearance was later selected by Bob Boilen as one of the 15 best Tiny Desk concerts of 2015.
Music videos
Mucca Pazza has created music videos for the songs "Boss Taurus", "All Out of Bubblegum (live at Mass MoCA)", "Tube Sock Tango (wax cylinder version)", "The Sit Down Waltz",
Rest on Muffin Street, and
Mr. Spider Goes Home to Spiderland.
Mucca Pazza is featured in the official music video for
Andrew Bird’s song �
Fitz and the Dizzyspells��, which was filmed a
The Hideoutin Chicago in 2009. The video storyline was written by Sharon Lanza.
Discography
*''A Little Marching Band'' (2007)
*''Plays Well Together'' (2008)
*''Safety Fifth'' (2012)
*''L.Y.A.'' (2014)
*''Barbarous Relic'', single (2017)
*''Trick or Treat'', EP (2017)
*''War of Amusements'', single (2018)
*''GET PUMPED!'' (2023)
In 2019, Mucca Pazza opened for
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...
at
Ravinia.
In 2020, Mucca Pazza was chosen for Newcity’s Music 45—outstanding artists of Chicago’s 2020 music community.
References
{{Authority control
American marching bands
Musical groups established in 2004
Musical groups from Chicago