Award winning musicians bring the music of Ennio Morricone to the Cowan Center

In the early 1960s, European directors got the itch to make films about the American Wild West – the Spaghetti Westerns – irreverently named for their Italian directors.

The films featured up-and-coming actor Clint Eastwood, and boasted a new way of looking at the West with historically realistic battles – dropping the campy romanticized imagery common in John Wayne films.

The Spaghetti Western Orchestra. Courtesy Photo

It’s a 1960s western version of the Blue Man Group, complete with stage makeup and direction by renown Montreal artist Denis Blais.

“In general, I love the way we’ve managed as an ensemble over the years to bring what are usually considered non-musical performance elements together to make musical sense,” SWO musician Graeme Leak said. “The way Morricone combined the music of the soul with the music of the everyday in such a powerful way in the Spaghetti Western scores is still my primary inspiration."

Cowan Center Director Susan Tomae-Morphew said she hopes the orchestra will be a crowd favorite.

“Their antics are dramatic and comedic while the music is performed beautifully,” said Thomae-Morphew. “I believe this is going to go down in Cowan Center history as one of everyone’s favorites.”

The SWO premiered at the Montreal Jazz festival in 2007 with rave reviews and since then their YouTube videos and concerts around the world have captured the hearts of Spaghetti Western and Ennio Morricone lovers alike.

One Montreal newspaper wrote said the performance is, “As good as watching the movies themselves.”

By Allen Arrick Editor in Chief