The Renaldo The Ensemble’s Beguiling Beauty

by: Ben Westhoff

Courtesy of The Renaldo The Ensemble Aldo Perez speaks in an extremely dry manner, so it’s often difficult to tell when he’s joking. When asked if his father attends many of his performances, for example, Perez responds: “He’s currently decomposing, so thanks for bringing that up.” Like the lyrics in his band/theater troupe The Renaldo The Ensemble’s songs, there are elements of truth, sadness, and comedy in almost everything he says.

Though largely under the radar, the group has received rave reviews from the few critics who have seen them perform, including representatives from The New York Times and Time Out New York. They maintain a small—but loyal and obsessive—following.

It’s not hard to understand their fans’ enthusiasm, considering the New York-based act is composed largely of conservatory-trained musicians and plays at a near-virtuoso level.

Led by Perez, a singer and guitarist who has studied under famed New York composer John Corigliano and Argentine guitarist Jorge Morel, the group’s members include singer Jenny Lee Mitchell, a European-trained soprano, ethnomusicology scholar Matthew Talmage on drums, conga player Richard Ginocchio, and tubist Matt Muszynski, who is studying at the Manhattan School of Music. Jonathan Roberts, a classical and jazz composer with degrees in music and theater from Lawrence University, rounds out the band.

The disparate talents meld together easily. Their songs are surprisingly immediate and accessible, considering they feature complicated progressions and incessant genre-hopping. In concert, they might segue from a jazz tune into a klezmer ditty into a rock jam. Their music itself is sung in some half-dozen different languages—though mainly in English. Mitchell might bust out her Italian and sing opera, or cover part of a Nelly song.

Even their more straight-ahead rock tracks, like “Peace Pipe” off of their 2008 self-titled debut EP, can turn into sprawling mash-ups. “My mama married up a Cherokee,” Perez sings. “My papa’s people were ashamed of me.” The song’s message of tolerance, however, is suddenly overwhelmed by an out-of-nowhere “Purple Haze”-style guitar solo, after which Perez begs us to, “Excuse me / While I pan sear this salmon.”

The song is compelling, beguiling, and absurd, much like the group’s stage show, which incorporates sketch-style comedy and elements of vaudeville and cabaret. Perez has been known to pop water balloons in his pants, or play the pennywhistle with his nose. Often their shows are delayed while Talmage—dressed as a priest—peruses pornographic magazines, drinks from a flask, and pretends to smoke a fake cigarette.

Over coffee in the West Village alongside Mitchell and Talmage recently, Perez explains the group’s artistic philosophy: “I think of our work as very Schopenhauerian,” he says, in typically verbose fashion. “We’re after the stuff we need to get to the next step in front of us, and if someone’s in our way, we will crush them. Parents are like that with their kids, people are like that with their birds, and nobody wants to admit it because it’s an ugly truth. The way to find some cathartic release from that is to depict it on the stage in no uncertain terms.”

It’s not always easy to follow Perez’s line of thinking, but it can be even more difficult to put the facts of his life together. Formerly a member of New York rock band Psycho the Clown, he now lives in Manhattan. He says his Belarusian father was an Eastern Orthodox priest, and that his mother, a Spanish teacher born in Spain, remarried a man she met on the internet and lives in Long Island. Perez adds that he grew up north of the city in Westchester County, that he’s in his 30s, and that he has a pair of teenaged children.

He won’t divulge, however, whether or not he’s involved with bandmate Jenny Lee Mitchell, with whom he arrived today. “We don’t discuss our personal life,” he says, “except to say that I think she is extremely sexy.”

Perez’s story is nearly as hazy as that of his fictional persona “Renaldo The,” which he started developing 14 years ago. “His mother had sex with like, a circus strongman and a clown at the same time, so they’re not sure who his father is,” Perez says. Though the top hat-clad, Moldavian musician was formerly known as Renaldo the Great, when he came to America an unsympathetic immigration official crossed out his surname—thus branding him simply “Renaldo The.”

“He’s a pompous aristocrat down on his luck who thinks he should be regarded highly, but is never happy with the way things turn out,” Perez continues. For example, he’s secretly in love with his French maid—played by Mitchell—but she constantly attempts to hook up with his valet, played by Ginocchio.

Renaldo The is also forever facing down his rival, a band leader played by Jonathan Roberts. Roberts’ character often halts The Renaldo The Ensemble concerts and begins performing with his “rival” band, Crushed Velvet—who just happen to be on stage at the same time, consisting of everyone in The Renaldo The Ensemble except for Renaldo The himself.

Confused yet? The chaos is part of the fun, and the act’s performances feel simultaneously rehearsed and improvised. One can expect the same type of aesthetic on their LP debut, YRU, Perez says, which is due out this summer. “I like doing strange things with songs, to combine them in weird ways,” he adds. “I don’t plan out things from a cerebral aspect first. I’m just drawn to what I’m drawn to, and if I like it, I assume other people will enjoy it.”

He notes that much of his inspiration comes from childhood fascinations, prompting Mitchell to recall his attempt to mastermind a carnival when he was a kid. “He wanted to be the barker, and to get kids to come,” she says. “But the whole thing was a bust. The hat got cracked, [hardly anybody] showed up, and somebody fell and hurt themselves.”

However, the story has a happy ending, Mitchell continues, because nowadays Perez is essentially doing the type of shows he always dreamt of. “It’s all right there on stage,” she says, adding that she’s amazed by Perez’s ability to incorporate his life experiences into his stage shows.

To an outside observer, it’s difficult to tell exactly where Perez’s real life trails off, and where Renaldo The begins. In both cases, however, one suspects the story is as touching as it is hilarious.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

Tags: The Renaldo The Ensemble, Aldo Perez