Interview: Pablo Rossil Talks Upcoming Album SWINGIN' WITH THE MUSIC OF BROADWAY: VOLUME 1

How did this project come about?

Swingin' With The Music of Broadway is actually a version of a greater project, Swingin' With The Music, which started about five or six years ago at Rockwell Table & Stage, which is unfortunately defunct. But, it was a performing arts venue, much like Feinstein's 54 Below or The Green Room 42, a cabaret space where were just playing with music and changing it to different jazz versions. I'm a big jazz fan, and I just thought it would be fun to reimagine things. It wasn't a formal idea, and then little by little, the more we did the shows, the more it became, "We should record these! We should formalize this."

Can you tease for us what songs we can expect to hear on the album?

I won't say specific names, but there are things that are from currently running shows, or shows that are queued up on Broadway. Stuff like Hamilton, we have a little Music Man tune, we have Wicked. We go as far back as Hello, Dolly!, Give My Regards to Broadway. I'm just trying to represent the wide spectrum that is Broadway.

How did you decide what songs you wanted to put on the album? Did you decide based on the people singing, or did you pick your favorite songs and then dole them out?

This process was a little different to the Disney process, I did an album called Swingin' With the Mouse immediately before I did this. In the Disney version, I chose the music and told the singers, "Let's do this." In this one, I sort of had enough time to offer for their suggestions, and based off of their suggestions, I plugged that into my method, which is 'try to not repeat eras, composers, genres of shows,' and it's just a little formula that I have for myself to keep it varied. There's an educational aspect I wanted to touch, and I think by representing different eras and different composers, we get excited about different parts of Broadway, not just the same thing. I love all of Broadway, so I could listen to a whole Jonathan Larson album, or a whole Sondheim album, but I prefer to spread the love out and visit different eras and different composers.

Why did you want to put a jazzy spin on these classic musical theatre songs? What is the process like of changing the music to fit a certain style?

Jazz and musical theatre go hand and hand. Most of the jazz songbook is old 1920s and 1930s musical theatre. There is a very deep history with jazz and musical theatre, and they're both American art forms that have flourished and been embraced by the rest of the world. So, I find that it is an easy marriage. Now, the arrangements, that took a little more work because I'm newish to that aspect of my creativity. But, I think it helped that there's similar verbiage in both those American art forms, and they're just very easy to put together.

There are some amazing people featured on this album, was it like working with these performers?

It was a dream. I am so new to musical theatre, I started after high school, into college. I quit my first degree, I was a trumpet major, which I guess explains the jazz in some way, I dropped out, and I googled 'Musical Theatre Schools' and AMDA was the first one to pop up. So, I went to AMDA. And across time, I met some cool people at events, and I've had the good fortune of working with people like Laura Osnes, Marissa [Jaret Winokur] who I met at Rockwell. So, different people I've crossed paths with. But, on this album, John Tartaglia, The Fates, Brittney [Johnson], I had not known them before, they were just very gracious to join the project. And it's fantastic! It's like watching a movie and then entering the world of that movie and learning that these characters have their own lives and their own projects, it's exciting! It's exciting to break through from being an audience appreciator of these fantastic talents and getting to work with them.

What was the recording process like?

The recording process for this one was a little rough actually, because we were supposed to release it in November initially. And that got pushed because I thought, "Election season is not the right time, people don't want to listen to this when there are more important things happening in the world." So then we pushed to December, but then the election got extended, and this and that... January happened, so I was like, World Theatre Day, March 27. And that provided some cushion time and got us comfortable in the recording process. Stuff was sort of strewn across time, and I didn't have people here in person. All of the vocalists recorded separately from the band, which was different to the Disney experience we had. Laura recorded in New York, John recorded on a separate date in LA, Brittney recorded in LA separately, Marissa separately. So, it was all sort of puzzled together, which is the biggest headache, but the result is fantastic! It was worth it.

Do you have any final thoughts you'd like to share?

I do hope that this reaches my musical theatre brethren. Of course, the performers and the creators, but mostly the audience. Because we've had a dry spell, and this is truly a love letter as an audience member to something that I love dearly, and I hope that the audience connects and finds an appreciation for it as a celebratory look at our beloved Broadway.

Album artwork by Justin "Squigs" Robertson