L A U R E L & H A R D Y films with live original scores by

Steven Bernstein‘s Millennial Territory Orchestra

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Classic comedy is given a rollicking musical goose by trumpeter, bandleader, arranger, and composer extraordinaire Steven Bernstein, who has created new original scores to a selection of Laurel and Hardy films as a special commission for Celebrate Brooklyn Performing Arts Festival. When Bernstein’s incendiary Millennial Territory Orchestra – jam packed with some of New York’s finest musicians – takes the stage and Laurel & Hardy hit the screen, hilarity, along with some astonishing musical invention, will ensue.

The Millennial Territory Orchestra is a nine-piece ensemble led by Steven Bernstein which first came together in 1999 for a midnight show at the downtown New York club, Tonic. It features some of New York City's most original musical voices, wicked and well-traveled improvisers who tear into and savor Bernstein's arrangements. MTO spent a year and a half residency at the Jazz Standard, and released their debut recording MTO Vol. 1 on Sunnyside Records in 2006. Bernstein was inspired to form MTO while working on the score to the Robert Altman film, Kansas City. While studying for the project, Bernstein immersed himself in the music of 1920s' "territory" bands from Kansas City and other points in the Midwest. These ensembles would tour regionally, playing cafes, ballrooms and vaudeville shows. The Kansas City units were especially known for their loose, bluesy performances and their ability to get the dancers on the floor. The big bands may have made the headlines of the era, but the territory bands disseminated the "sound."

Steven Bernstein is a trumpeter/slide trumpeter, bandleader, arranger, and composer who works outside of musical convention. His band Sex Mob formed in 1995, and has since toured the world, won numerous awards, and has had their music featured on MTV, Saturday Night Live, and NPR. Their most recent release, Sexotica was nominated for a Grammy in 2007. Bernstein was the musical director for I'm Your Man, a documentary about Leonard Cohen that was released by Lions Gate films in 2006. He recently filmed a segment for Solos, a Canadian Television program featuring solo performances by musicians including Andrew Hill, Joe Lovano, and John Scofield. Bernstein was also the subject of a recent feature entitled Creative Spaces on NPR's All Things Considered. Since November 2004 Bernstein has been a member of the Levon Helm Band, playing at the Midnight Rambles in Levon's home in Woodstock, New York. Bernstein wrote the horn arrangments for Bill Frisell's Grammy-winning 2004 recording Unspeakable, as well as for artists including Lou Reed, Rufus Wainright, Darlene Love, Elton John, and Marvin Pontiac. During his 10 years as a member of John Lurie's Lounge Lizards he arranged the music for Get Shorty, Clay Pigeons, Fishing With John, and many more film, television and commercial projects. For composer/Foetus mastermind Jim Thirwell, Bernstein arranged Steroid Maximus to be performed live by a 19-piece ensemble.

L A U R E L & H A R D Y S E L E C T I O N S :

SUGAR DADDIES (1927, 20 min)
Director: Fred Guiol, Producer: Hal Roach. A wealthy playboy wakes up from a drunken spree to learn he married a gold-digger the night before. He turns to butler Ollie and lawyer Stan to help him out of his predicament.

DOUBLE WHOOPEE (1929, 20 min)
Director: Lewis Foster, Producer: Hal Roach. Doorman and bellboy Stan and Ollie are mistaken for VIPs at a plush hotel. A young
Jean Harlow makes a cameo, her only appearance in a film with Laurel and Hardy.

WRONG AGAIN (1929, 20 min)
Director: Leo McCarey, Producer: Hal Roach. Stanley and Oliver tend a thoroughbred named Blue Boy in Wrong Again. But when they overhear two men talking about a $5,000 reward for the return of “The Blue Boy,” they miss the part about it being a stolen painting, not the horse.