Front Page Orchestra
The Front Page Orchestra takes the cafe back to its roots with some pure classic jazz. With a 6 man brass section in addition to bass, keyboard and drums, the full sound offered by the band really stands out. The first number sees the keyboard, drums and bass providing the platform for the brass to take turns to solo off. Overall, it’s fairly light and bubbly to start with.
The highlight of the second piece is when the euphonium solos for 5 minutes straight, taking out all his frustration of not getting the trumpet in high school at once and continuing despite several pointed drum hits. The band slows it down for the next song with a wandering, sad number with hiss of cymbals and steel brushed drums matching the mournful brass.
The solos start getting faster and harder as the set progresses, elastic warm trombone followed by some truly excellent chord choice in the piano solo. Every new song sees slightly more complexity, warming up from their initial light feel of the band. They even manage to earn an encore, notoriously hard at Fuji Rock. The set finishes as the sun starts to disappear behind the mountains outside, an elegant way to bring in the last evening of Fuji rock and to finish the Cafe de Paris for this year.
