The Fil Lorenz Orchestra is a high-voltage, crowd-pleasing big band born of the blues, with a sound defined by the scorching energy of the Hammond B3 organ, a searing, relentless horn section and an exhilarating, sometimes challenging repertoire of well-known blues burners and fascinating originals alike. To put it simply, the FLO can turn any club or festival performance into blues/bop celebration.
“The sound that inspires us, and that we shoot for ourselves, is a blending of that great 1960s Philly sound with the best big bands we can think of,†says bandleader/arranger/baritone saxophonist Lorenz. “Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes or Jimmy Smith meets the Woody Herman Orchestra. Those are my two favorite sounds in the world, and I wanted to get to both of them with this big band.â€
That’s setting a pretty high bar, but Lorenz has assembled a musical cast that’s wholly up to those high standards, bringing some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most accomplished and adventurous jazz veterans together with some of the fertile San Francisco scene’s most promising up-and-coming players.
A streamlined band that’s built to move
The FLO, despite its mile-wide sound, is an orchestra built for speed, checking in most nights at a spare 14 players. Lorenz says the band’s stripped-down size is perfect for the style he wants. “In that sense, we’re modeled after Maynard Ferguson’s band of the late 1950s,†Lorenz says.
The band’s streamlined configuration means that, while they’re large enough to pump any room full of hard bop energy, they’re also nimble enough to turn on a dime, able to react to a sudden course change in a band mate’s solo or a mid-stream directive from Lorenz. Put this versatility and quality together with a book full of demanding arrangements, and you’ve got a band that’s ready, willing and able to take the sort of chances on-stage that lead to unforgettable, crowd-pleasing performances.
