By Odeisel
It’s not easy breaking into the music business. Aside from the obvious barriers to entry, there are always things you have to concede in terms of your art in order to gain access and exposure to wider audiences. This may be easy for entertainers who have the look but have people writing for them, styling for them, and producing for them. In that case, it’s sit there, look pretty, and move your lips. But for real artists who sing and write and compose, this journey is more difficult. How do you quantify something you love and summarily remove it for the sake of getting people to listen?
Rob Murat is a singer, songwriter trying to make this push. He’s certainly got a unique and eclectic energy, as well as impressive emotional range in terms of his song content. I recently had the opportunity to sit through a performance and was happy to not be bored to death by an overly sensitive, piano-playing faux genius (you know what comes to mind when you hear that singer-songwriter tag). What I did see was an engaging, appealing performer with a few workable flaws and a lot of energy.
He took the stage with a full wind section complete with trumpet, saxophone, a trombone, and believe it or not, a tuba! Outside of an orchestra, Howard homecoming, and the movie Drumline, I’ve never seen a tuba on stage at a show, so you know this is something different. He begins his set aptly with a song called “I’m Not Your Average Brother.”
The storyline of his show is fairly familiar albeit theatrical and narrative for a music performance: Boy meets girl, they date, he pisses her off, she leaves, he wins her back…only to find out she was cheating. Perhaps his debut album should be titled Jerry or Maury (It’s actually So Much To Say). Either way it is interesting enough to hold your attention. Sprinkle a dash of soul and consciousness and you have Rob Murat in a nutshell.
There was a bit of camp like the Sexual Chocolate scene from Coming To America, but it’ s clearly on purpose and all in the name of fun. The wind section was engaging and they each had a solo to showcase their skills within the confines of the set, the highlight of which, I kid you not was a Tuba solo to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. You can’t make this stuff up. Other musical highlights include some really nice non-Bin Ari violin playing by Queen Rose.
The venue was intimate, which allowed for close interaction. His personality lent well to the setting and he had that lounge singer repartee with the audience. It remains to be seen whether this could translate to a larger venue with a few thousand people but for this spot, he projected well. I don’t know if all those horns and a DJ would look like a novelty either.
Rob Murat’s music is unpolished but that’s part of his charm. There is an air of regular guy shtick mixed with a musician’s weirdness that works for him. His voice can use a bit of strengthening as he cracked on a couple notes but a better sound system can hide that. His stage show could also use a bit of polish to tighten it up, but if you were out on a date or it was girl’s night out, you would certainly enjoy the show.
It will be interesting to see how his career turns out. Hopefully Rob won’t have to give up too much of what makes him unique and fun as an artist and performed to get his foot on a larger stage. God knows we already have enough cookie cutters in R&B music.
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