Elias Faingersh, who won over Orlando fans with his award-winning “A Solo From the Pit,” is back in “The Trombone Guy’s Story” with a bounty of brassy beats and bemusing baby babble. Using just his trombone, an electronic mute and a mixing deck, Faingersh can layer a few looping musical phrases into an entire symphony. His haunting compositions are connected by funny stories (co-written with Keren Klimovsky) about the frustrations of fatherhood; if you’ve ever looked down at your incessantly screaming infant and had an almost irresistible urge to stick them in a microwave, Faingersh knows just how you feel.
Elias shares his mastery of amazing musical techniques, including multi-phonics and circular breathing, through sonic genres ranging from bombastic Bolero and buzzing Bizet, to a spine-tingling raga and a Jewish wedding dance for the Holocaust-survivor grandmother who taught him “survival of the funniest” (not the fittest). I was the only audience member who voted to hear more classical music, instead of trombone-based sex humor that will make you look at a spit-valve in an uncomfortable new way, and his Swedish accent may sometimes muddle his punchlines. But with a universal language like music, you don’t need to understand every word to catch his meaning.
Orlando Fringe Festival: Tickets and times for “The Trombone Guy’s Story”
Orlando Family Stage
This article appears in May 15-21, 2024.