'The Hustler Symphony Orchestra makes it's debut with Jay-Z at the Radio City Music Hall, 25th June, 2006.

Created as a new division of Wired Strings, The Hustler Symphony Orchestra debut's at the Radio City Music Hall for a performance with Jay-Z.'

Reviews:

New York Times: 27th June, 2006

For this celebration, Jay-Z was joined by ?uestlove, the drummer from the Roots, and a band called the Illadelphonics. There was also an orchestra ("the Hustler's Symphony Orchestra," he said) and a D.J., Just Blaze. Together they evoked the three basic musical elements of "Reasonable Doubt": hard beats (the band), plush arrangements (the strings) and well-chosen samples (the D.J.).

Village Voice, 26th June, 2005

‘When the curtain came up, we were looking at a huge orchestra: nine horns, about thirty strings, a grand piano, ?uestlove, Just Blaze, a hot female conductor, a f*cking harp. I tried to count the musicians onstage at one point, and it was around fifty. Jay came to the stage in a 96 Lexus. The whole orchestra wore matching blak tuxedos, but Jay wore a white one, and that is what we call attention to detail.’

‘Musically, Reasonable Doubt is a lush and restrained piece of work, and the orchestra sounded amazing playing this stuff, building the swells of the songs without cluttering up the beats too much.’

More importantly, the orchestra (Jay kept calling them the "Hustler Symphony Orchestra") wasn't there as stunt casting. It wasn't like the violin players would just hit a couple of notes every song and let the DJ do the rest of the work; every instrument was fully integrated into the show. Even the harp.’

posted on 29/6/2006 22:37