DESCRIPTION:
Ted Lachrymose Brinkley's Hornblower Cruise is a large ensemble made up of mostly wind players, supplemented by a rhythm section and a small chorus of voices. The music both awkwardly and adroitly sidesteps themes of alienation, community, tawdry transcendence, cognitive- dissonance, hedonism, exploitation, and revolution by way of a predilection for dense and busy big band textures. Stylistically, rock and jazz strategies predominate, with superficial nods towards glee clubs, musical theater, traipsichore, and gratuitous indulgent abstract cacophony.