Music: Frampton Goes Pops

It would seem that there’s very little left for Peter Frampton to accomplish in his storied career. He was a star at 16 with The Herd, an international sensation with Humble Pie at 19, and his solo career will forever be associated with one of the best selling albums of all time, his 1976 multi-platinum concert document Frampton Comes Alive.

With so many significant bullet points on his curriculum vitae, it might seem as though the British superstar would prefer watching sunsets from his Indian Hill home here in Cincinnati and basking in the glow of an amazing career. Fortunately, he’s not wired for retirement and he’s always looking for his next great musical challenge. Frampton Conducts Alive, anyone?

This Saturday, Frampton and his band will stand in front of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and together they will present symphonic versions of selections from his voluminous catalog in a world debut performance, thereby fulfilling one of the guitarist’s most longstanding dreams.

“The symphony idea has been brewing for many, many years, but it’s always (about) getting the time to do it,” says Frampton from his basement studio. “The orchestral thing we knew needed booking very far ahead, but it also needs charts, and that’s something you have to take the time to do for the orchestra or there is no show. We basically started talking (to the Symphony) and the possibility of this quite a few years ago. They suggested Steve Reineke would like to do the charts and conduct, then we seriously started talking about it.

We’ve been honing in on it for the past 10 years, before I even moved here. It was just one of those things that naturally fell into place.”

Frampton and conductor/composer Reineke began their collaboration over coffee at the Madeira Starbucks, which then led to a listening session in Frampton’s home studio to begin the process of picking material to arrange for the Symphony. Although Frampton made the ultimate decision on the symphonic set list, his band’s opinions figured heavily in the final analysis.

“It was me and the band, basically,” Frampton says of the selection process. “It’s me, and then while I’m choosing, whether it’s a set list or whatever, I’ll always e-mail the guys (drummer Shawn Fichter and bassist John Regan) and say, ‘What do you think?’ There’s always the band to ask because they know the flow of the show. We’re a pretty close band when it comes to that.”

The initial plan called for Frampton and Reineke (who recently performed the same symphonic duties with Collective Soul) to collaborate on a brand new original song that would have its debut in the symphonic format, but Frampton’s busy touring and recording schedule made that idea one of the first to be jettisoned. In its place, Frampton chose “Float,” a ballad and one of his favorite tunes from his upcoming instrumental album, Fingerprints, which will be released in September. While Frampton assures that a good many familiar fan favorites are represented in the symphony set, he promises a few surprises as well.

“We’ve picked a couple of numbers that people wouldn’t have necessarily thought we were going to do, like a lullaby-type thing from my first solo record, ‘Oh For Another Day,” says Frampton. “It was slightly orchestrated on the original record, but obviously I’ve given Steve liberties, because there are 68 of them playing.”

Thankfully, the original song idea hasn’t been completely abandoned. Frampton is positive that he and the band will be back to perform with the Pops again at some future date and that he and Reineke are committed to writing together for that eventuality.

Even for a workhorse like Frampton, the preparation for the Pops concert has been taxing. This week will find him performing two or three complete runs-through of the material with the band and the orchestra, and then one complete day with Reineke to revise anything they feel isn’t working, then a sound check and another run through the day of the performance.

“Well, the thing is, Steve knows the orchestra and I know my band,” says Frampton. “You can’t, because of cost, just get the orchestra together. They don’t come over just to come over. It’s got to be done like this. It’s like when you record an orchestra; you’ve got to get them in and out. That’s why you get them, because they’re so good. And this will be an honor to play with such a great orchestra; to start off this way is amazing.”

The idea of Frampton with an orchestra has obviously resonated with a lot of people, as he and the band will be repeating this program next month with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and then on a couple of tentative dates this winter. Frampton admits that he will, at some point, either record or film one of these performances for CD or DVD release, but feels the first one needs to stand on its own as simply an event.

This is obviously a big year for Peter Frampton. The Pops concert will be the culmination of a longtime dream, as is the imminent release of Fingerprints, the instrumental album that he has envisioned for just as long, if not longer. Both works loom very large for Frampton on a personal level.

“I think it’s just another challenge that I hope I rise to the occasion,” he says of both ventures. “The satisfaction of riding each challenge out is a great feeling of accomplishment afterwards. It’s all made me realize I can do stuff I didn’t think I could, which is a great feeling.”

This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2006.