Upstart ensemble brings big band sound to small stage

Samantha Foster Staff Writer

The name of 12-piece modern jazz ensemble Brunswick is a new development. Up until their showing at The Camel this past Tuesday night, they were the John Hulley Large Ensemble, a name adopted from an official calendar’s event listing for the then-unnamed group.

John Hulley, bandleader and classical guitar performance graduate from VCU, christened the band “Brunswick” after his hometown of Brunswick, Maine – but insisted that the ensemble has “never been about the name.”

Hulley assembled his group – whose set on Tuesday ranged from softer jazz tunes to Hulley’s own arrangement of Daft Punk – from brass and rhythm players from VCU Music after he graduated from the department.

“I graduated and was working normal jobs that someone with a college degree would work, like in sandwich shops,” Hulley said. “I realized that I had to do music by myself. … School was not forcing me.”

Brunswick started practicing together at the end of the summer, using VCU rehearsal space. Later, due to schedul- ing conflicts, they relocated to Hulley’s basement.

“We stopped feeling like VCU kids at that point,” Hulley said. “You don’t do this outside of a university class.”

Both Hulley and trumpeter Steven Cunningham, also a 2011 VCU Music graduate, compose songs for Brunswick.

“The tunes that I write are what I was going through that day,” Cunningham said.

“I think that there is a ratio of how much you love playing music to how much you’re paid,” Hulley said. “At this time in our lives, people are willing to work for very little money. … It was time to do this opportunity.”

At their Tuesday night show – the second time that they had ever performed live – it was clear that all 12 members felt right at home in the ensemble.

Band members, crammed on The Camel’s small stage, shuffled and folded around each other mid-song for solos, swayed in unison to the beat, and kept their audience of about 50 enraptured throughout.

“Goddamn, there was a lot of people,” Hulley said after the show. “I was surprised at how packed it was. I mean, there were people sitting on the floor.”

Brunswick is hoping to have more shows in the future, although they are currently still looking for a venue.

“People miss this style of music,” Hulley said. “It’s hard to do it, and no one else in Richmond does.” CT