A Tune for these Cynical Times: Big Beat’s “I’ll Be Burning For You” Karthik Purushothaman - June 5, 2017

Neither in the world of NPR and SXSW, nor in mainstream pop have I heard a song as memorable as NJ-based band Big Beat’s “I’ll Be Burning for You,” this year. ​ ​

Written and sung by William Paterson University alum Allison McKenzie, the song features McKenzie’s earnest vocals backed by a big jazz band playing to bassist Charlie Dougherty’s energetic arrangement. Led by the horn-section into a progression as playful as Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five,” “I’ll Be Burning for You” passes through a percussionist whose rhythm work is as intricate as if he were always playing a solo, before getting picked up by McKenzie’s vocals. “It's challenging to keep up with the dynamics of a large brass section vocally,” says McKenzie, while living up to the challenge she mentions, tastefully pairing 90s R&B vocal acrobatics with an old-school swing voice.

“The late Mulgrew Miller always used to tell us to make the music dance,” says Dougherty, ​ ​ whose arrangement certainly does the former director of William Paterson’s acclaimed jazz program proud.

“I’ll Be Burning for You” has the making of a classic love song, comprising bold romantic lines carried by a hum-worthy tune, and a progression that leaps and springs, never giving us a dull moment in the studio version’s five-minute-nineteen-second runtime. In the 2012 film “Liberal Arts,” the protagonist has a remarkable epiphany while walking the streets of Upper Manhattan, listening to classical music. “Grace, I realized,” he says, “is neither time, nor space-dependent; all you need is the right soundtrack.” Big Beat’s song has such an infectious charm that could similarly energize you on your dullest day, every note that enters your ear serving to add color to the world you see around you.

Over the years, popular music has taken the escalator up the tower of production, the songs so “epic” that listeners now romanticize stripped-down and “raw-sounding” versions (Lady Gaga ​ and Kendrick Lamar are cases in point). In this time, as popstars get in bed with blues, jazz and ​ ​ rock largely to access new audiences, Big Beat organically brings together the band leaders’ eclectic tastes in music, making a song as large as present-day pop hits – listen to “I’ll Be Burning for You” alongside recent up-tempo phenomena such as “Valerie” or “Uptown Funk,” and you’ll hear a classier, elegant and more timeless number that makes you want to move regardless of whether you’re at a sit-down restaurant or sitting on a dentist’s chair.

“I love the classic jazz of the 50s and 60s – Thad Jones, Count Basie, JJ Johnson, and Curtis Fuller come to mind,” says 26-year-old Caleb Rumley, also an alumnus of William Paterson’s jazz program, where he, Dougherty and pianist Ryan Tomski (who is currently pursuing his doctorate at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne) formed Big Beat three years ago. Saxophonist Philip Engsberg soon joined the leadership of the band, which has nearly retained the same lineup since inception, Rumley proudly notes. Like Dougherty, Rumley also hears his old teacher Mulgrew Miller’s voice in his head while composing.

“And I recently married Allison McKenzie, our lead singer, who has been hipping me to all kinds of modern RnB artists like Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Kimbra, Esperanza Spalding and D’Angelo,” Rumley says. McKenzie herself lists the Esperenza Spalding record “Emily’s D+Evolution,” alongside Hiatus Kaiyote’s “Choose Your Weapons” as two recent albums she’s been digging, which gives us reason to believe that there’s unlikely to be disputes in the Rumley household, about which record to put on. McKenzie’s and Rumley’s romance, however, goes far beyond merely appreciating each other’s musical tastes. The lady has written a song about the gentleman, which the gentleman has arranged.

“The song is called Lover’s Call, and you can hear it on our EP,” says Rumley, pursing his lips as his cheeks redden.

“I’ll Be Burning for You” is one of six tracks on Big Beat’s eponymous EP, which they released in July 2015. Legendary trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, who has played for the likes of Horace Silver and Dizzy Gillespie, had contributed with a blurb saying: “They present the music in a delightfully delicious serving like a familiar meal, but with new and exotic tastes!” Since the release of the EP, the band has performed regularly at Hat City Kitchen in the city of Orange, also playing numerous venues in north NJ and New York City. Most recently, Big Beat headlined “Montclair Swings!”, an evening of dance at the Redeemer Church of Montclair.

What next? “More gigs around the tristate, scrape up some money and get a full-length album recorded, and eventually maybe record concept albums focused on different artists,” the band members say, but I say, first things first: let’s get “I’ll Be Burning for You” on the radio.

Karthik Purushothaman Graduate Student of Creative and Professional Writing William Paterson University 2015-2017 Young India Fellow 2012-2013 Indian Institute of Technology, Madras 2012 [email protected] | +16095002795 ​ ​