Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor Jules Buckley is transforming the once-stuffy image of the orchestra.
These are the breaks
There’s a head-spinning sensation onstage at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Gravity-defying breakdance crew the Soul Mavericks are popping, locking and backflipping to a classic hip hop soundtrack with a thrilling twist.
These unmistakeably funky numbers, from the Incredible Bongo Band’s seminal block party anthem ‘Apache’ to Zapp’s electro-laced ‘More Bounce To The Ounce’, have been sleekly reworked by contemporary classical ensemble the Heritage Orchestra. Alongside the brass and strings sections are percussive collaborators Ghost-Note, world champion scratch turntablist Mr Switch and guest vocalists.
These are The Breaks, a hip hop/classical showdown originally presented as part of the famous BBC Proms season and now channelled into an acclaimed album. At the helm is conductor, arranger and Heritage Orchestra co-founder Jules Buckley; he cuts a dapper figure, even though he’s casually T-shirted for this date. It’s unconventional, irrepressible and characteristic of the musically expansive Buckley.
“My heart lies in one-off projects, where the audience won’t have experienced anything like it before and you can’t simply recreate it,” Buckley explains, from his Berlin home. “When I work on a project, I have an innate instinct to go as far as possible – maybe it’s to keep me challenged and stimulated.”
Buckley, now 41, regularly works with world-famous collectives including the BBC Symphony Orchestra as well as heading up two celebrated ensembles: the UK-based Heritage Orchestra and Holland’s Metropole Orkest (which he leads as Chief Conductor). These ensembles have swept virtuosic orchestral performance away from staid stereotypes into seemingly limitless territory, across club venues to concert halls, festivals and 20,000-capacity arenas.
His projects have yielded numerous multi-flavoured highlights, both on stage (such as the Heritage Orchestra’s sublime performance of Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack, the laser-blazing Ibiza Classics shows with DJ Pete Tong and a 2021 orchestral Prom with US indie singer-songwriter Moses Sumney) and on record (orchestral ‘remixes’ of 21st-century artists including club duo Basement Jaxx and neo-soul star Laura Mvula). He’s earned Grammy Awards for works including an album with US instrumentalists Snarky Puppy and a jazz-folk union with Brit artist Jacob Collier. His ethos has also proved widely influential in an age where orchestral repertoires and audiences are both proving increasingly diverse.
“It doesn’t matter if genres seemingly clash; if the concept is strong, you can make anything happen,” he insists. “A great remixer can take any track and make something fresh out of it. This is my approach to orchestral work.”
Growing up in Aylesbury in southeast England, Buckley’s early influences ranged from the punchy, upbeat ’80s pop he heard on commercial radio to hard rock and jazz. He took up the trumpet aged nine, via the town’s youth-focused Music Centre, and went on to play in local big band outfits. He recalls the epiphany of getting a Walkman and a turntable from his father, whose own “kickass” record collection also made an impression.
“I could plug my headphones in and go into my own world and figure out why I loved the music – all the elements that made a track really resonate,” he says. “I’m still fascinated by how sounds connect with audiences.”
Around summer 2004, Buckley and his friend and musical collaborator Chris Wheeler decided to develop a night at Shoreditch DJ/performance venue Cargo, which was an innovative hotbed within East London’s club scene. The event’s music policy was “a mix of leftfield beats and legendary artists”. It was also the live birthplace of the Heritage Orchestra, a ‘renegade’ ensemble to counter musical constraints, and it marked the beginning of Buckley’s conducting adventures. “To be honest, I learned by trial and error,” he admits. “I wasn’t immediately going in and conducting Bartok and Stravinsky; it was a gradual immersion into that world.”
Then, in 2005, he attended a summer school at LA’s Henry Mancini Institute – an experience he describes as lighting the fuse for his creative visions. “The course mentors included Quincy Jones and Vince Mendoza, who’s one of the greatest arrangers in the world,” he says. “Vince actually introduced me to the Metropole Orkest. I loved bringing something to that group and they were lifting me up through their performance as well. The collaborative side really developed through both Heritage and Metropole Orchestras.
“I don’t perceive ‘control’ as a negative thing,” he adds. “There are always a million variables in orchestral projects and the elements of conducting include: how are you going to problem solve; how are you going to get on with people? I realised that I was starting to work more like a producer, but live, and that gained the trust of the players.”
Buckley describes a “kinship” with international events such as the annual BBC Proms and the North Sea Jazz Festival. At the former, he’s presented orchestral concerts dedicated to his aforementioned music/production “guru” Quincy Jones (with the legend himself in attendance), grime music and New York disco as well as The Breaks.
“The Breaks was a relatively straightforward project, in that it’s music I really love,” he explains. “I’ve always been such a fan of hip hop, soul, funk and disco and I’m drawn to really original artists and amazing vocalists, so it made sense to set up a back-to-back, non-stop exploration. I guess one challenge was trying to decide what to include or omit, and considering what is a break? It’s not just about [US pioneer and James Brown collaborator] Clyde Stubblefield’s drumming, so we encompassed old school and modern classics.
“There was an element of freestyle with that performance. Although the concert structure was planned, there was definitely wiggle room for the breakers to make sure that they didn’t feel constrained – otherwise it’s a 90-minute endurance test! Breaking is such an incredible art form, all over the world.”
Despite the ongoing uncertainties of live music schedules, Buckley is set for a creatively restless 2022 with multi-genre concerts including a London date with US indie-folk artist Father John Misty and Britten Sinfonia, further collaborations with the BBC Concert Orchestra and the symphonic headrush of Ibiza Classics.
“When we hit Ibiza Classics for the first time, it broke down a ton of barriers for people and it countered the conservative image of a ‘traditional’ orchestra,” he says. “It’s more accessible and fun.
A generation of clubbers who are older now can hear the music they love, presented in a different way. When I was growing up, a lot of my school buddies thought that classical music was ‘elitist’. On an educational level, it still is very homogenous, and that needs to be challenged more.”
This year, Buckley will also be working on his first solo record. “I couldn’t really say yet what it’s going to be,” he says, “but it feels like the missing piece of the jigsaw.” Whatever shape this “missing piece” takes, it’s likely to be an exciting gateway rather than an end-note – in Buckley’s musical vision, every one-off expression leads to fresh possibilities.