Cory Wong is a talent with an amazing aura and so prolific that it’s hard to keep up with all his undertakings. ‘Starship Syncopation’ is one that dropped very recently that you absolutely don’t want to miss. The album is a collaboration with The Metropole Orkest out of The Netherlands, which bills itself as the world’s leading pop and jazz orchestra. Fans of FunkCity.net will recognize them as collaborators on the Grammy-winning album ‘Sylva’ with Snarky Puppy and Grammy-nominated album ‘What Heat’ from Bokanté.
Cory had performed a set of his original tunes with the MO (click here for video) back in 2020 so, presumably, the seed for this album had been planted some time back. For this recording, Cory and Jules Buckley, the MO conductor, wrote original tunes and brought in special collaborators (Chris Potter, Electric Kif, Bruce Hornsby and Marti Fischer) and, with the MO, put together a collection of stellar music the will withstand the test of time through many orbits. One of the beautiful aspects of this is that it is fully an orchestral album with Cory and the other guest musicians as the sparkles within the space. The whole crew has done a really masterful job in balancing all of the vast musical resources at hand to come up with a very special mixture to fuel the journey. This one’s definitely in the running early for album of the year. Have a read and a listen track by track and enjoy the ride!
Track by Track
Starship Syncopation, the title track, has a bit of a disco-era intro and when the orchestra hits with the full strings and horns it is reminiscent of the great TSOP tunes. I absolutely love the the depth of the horn section balanced by the flutes at the high end. The flightpath is lead by the strings with the horns for propulsion.
King Bozzi starts with classic Cory guitar licks and excellent bass work laying the foundation. Then the strings come in to mimic the melody a bit. Cory resumes the lead and the full orchestra comes in with a lush blanket of sound. Cory rips a badass funky ‘solo’ midway. The horns are next, totally on point, with a syncopated jazz section. Towards the end Sam Greenfield, from Cory’s touring band has a bright soprano solo right up to the close
The Sorcerer starts tenderly with Cory and piano. The orchestra comes forth with a deep horn blast that, when similarly played on the Sylva album, I called the ‘elephant march’ sound. The song oscillates between the comtemplative sound of the trumpet leading the full orchestra in a soothingly smooth section and the elephant march. It’s a blast.
305 features my homies Electric Kif, the Miami-based (area code 305) funk fusion band as well as the amazing Chris Potter on sax. The beginning has jang-a-lang funky bounce to it, that actually feels like it could be in the Snarky Puppy catalog. Chris Potter has an amazing solo in the midsection, such a great add to the mix. The build with the bari sax and rest of the horn section and ultimately with the full orchestra to the final crescendo is fantastic.
Burning has a great bass line lead followed by another funky as hell horn lead. This one’s definitely hot and the horn line is freaky deaky good. Cory lays down some funky licks and the synth work is straight outta the Parliament-Funkadelic playbook. You can’t help but shake everything you got with this one in your head.
Sell By Date is a little more cinematically ominous sounding with some heavy bass and horn lines. When the B-section starts, it definitely feels like and an an epic new world. It’s a great piece for the MO. After the bridge, Cory has a psychedelic solo that’s off the charts. The orchestra washes in over the top with the pulsating horns and strings up to the close.
Midwest Conquest feels bright with Cory + piano, bass and strings setting the tone. The music swirls in tone and volume and between channels giving it an airy effect. The tune features a freestyle jazzy piano solo from Kevin Gastonguay, Cory’s touring keyboard player. The thematic ending relies solely on the MO.
Chateau has a very happy feel to it, like so much of Cory’s music. I believe it’s a key ingredient to Cory’s success – his music grabs you with it’s warmth. The soaring strings with the winds gusting is silky smooth. The main melody pumped out by Cory is wonderful right to the quick stop finish.
Utopia has a nice setup with some finger snapping opening. The song features Marti Fischer (Germany) on synth and keys. The bridge features some pizzicato strings. The main melody is bright and cheeful and makes everything allright.
Quotidian Fields brings in the legendary Bruce Hornsby for a solo. It’s him right at the start kicking it off with the strings and bass coming in next. There’s some percolating sounds as an undercurrent behind the strings. Midway, the tempo picks up with and its a full on orchestral blast of energy quickly dropping to the Bruce + Cory closeout.
A couple of final points – Cory does a full break down (second video) on how this song was produced. It’s around his vision of a “grandfather clock in a valley.” Then, there’s a third video showing the orchestral part of the recording. Enjoy!
Liner Notes and Credits
