New York Rock & Roll Ensemble

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble was a rock band of the late 1960s and early 1970s, whose music was described as classical baroque rock. The group came together around the Juilliard students Michael Kamen, Marty Fulterman (later known as Mark Snow) and Dorian Rudnytsky, joined by the rock musicians Brian Corrigan and Clif Nivison. After a first performance at a Juilliard Halloween ball in 1967 they signed with Atlantic Records. They performed in white tie and tails.

Music and breakthrough

Their debut album The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble was released in 1968 and used classical instruments in rock songs and rock instruments in classical pieces. Leonard Bernstein invited them to one of his Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. There they played their best-known piece, Brandenburg, based on the first movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. The piece begins as an ordinary performance with two oboes, guitar and cello and then turns into a rock song. Faithful Friends and Reflections followed, both in 1969, and on Columbia Roll Over in 1971, their most rock-oriented album. It includes Fields of Joy, which Lenny Kravitz covered in 1991. Freedomburger from 1972 was their last record.

Influence

The band remained small, but its members made careers. Kamen became known for film music and for projects in which classical music and rock came together, Snow for music for television series, above all The X Files. The group shows how early attempts were already made to link classical and popular music.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1968The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble
• 1969Faithful Friends
• 1969Reflections
• 1971Roll Over
• 1972Freedomburger