Video Premiere: Twisted Pine, “Amadeus Party”
What happens when the Punch Brothers meets Jean-Luc Ponty and Ian Anderson and they stroll down Mozart lane? Why, Twisted Pine’s beguiling and catchy “Amadeus Party,” of course. Mandolinist Dan Bui scats down the frets of his mandolin to open the tune, while flautist Anh Phung trills in counterpoint, providing the foundation for fiddler Kathleen Parks to float in with her sensuous fiddle runs. The merry band scampers along with fiddle, flute, and mandolin weaving in and around each other, the music spiraling into a joyous party song, and the bluegrass jazz turns disco as the band shouts “Amadeus Party,” with members of Twisted Pine dressed for the occasion.
As Dan Bui recalls of the making of the video and the song: “It’s a pretty funky tune, heavily inspired by Cold Sweat, with some nods to Vulfpeck as well. I came up with a couple musical ideas, and the band added to it. One day, we were working on it, and Kathleen just started singing this refrain ‘Amadeus Party, okaaay’ – We had a concept!
We were going for an organic performance: we wanted it to be live and we wanted video. I don’t remember whose idea it was to get period costumes, but as soon as that was thrown out, we knew we had to make it happen! The song was recorded at our favorite Boston recording studio, Dimension Sound with Dan Cardinal engineering. Our bud Sean Trischka was there to video. Neither of them knew about the costumes. We recorded the song and shot all the footage on the same day.
People ask if the song is supposed to be an homage to Mozart. Not really, it’s more of an homage to Amadeus, the 1984 film. That movie is classic – we reference it all the time.”
