When James Rosenbloom sits down at his piano with empty sheet music and a pencil, it’s just another day at work.
After years of writing, the University alumnus and composer released an album of instrumental music titled “Small Things With Great Love.”
Rosenbloom returned home to Baton Rouge after a stint in Nashville, where he spent time freelancing, writing and recording with a variety of film and large ensemble composers. As efficient as their computer-generated compositions were, Rosenbloom took a more natural approach when working on his album.
“Creations are like children, and you can’t just be efficient with your children,” Rosenbloom said. “You have to do things efficiently for them, but you have to love them, nurture them, lose sleep over them, yell at them and all kinds of things. If you’re not doing that with any of your art, then I would argue there’s a part that you could do better.”
In today’s fast-paced world, Rosenbloom said people still notice the difference between instruments recorded simultaneously in one room and synthetic instruments on a computer, which is why he chased after a “grassroots” creative process.
Grassroots is a movement geared toward keeping the production of something classic in style.
Rosenbloom is also no stranger to the instruments he incorporates into his classical-style music. The 26-year-old composer has played the cello for 19 years, but also plays the bass, upright bass, guitar, mandolin and banjo, just to name a few. He played both the cello and bass on the album, but that’s the only overdubbing throughout the eight tracks.
Whereas many artists record each instrument separately and layer each track together, Rosenbloom and his fellow musicians crowded into a room and went to work.
Several pieces are choral works, and instead of recording those in Nashville, Rosenbloom contacted alumni from the LSU School of Music to accompany him for a recording at Most Blessed Sacrament Church in Baton Rouge.
“For this style of music, for something that I nurtured from pencil to plastic, I had to make sure that I had a community involved,” Rosenbloom said.
Rosenbloom also enjoys singing, but instrumental music is where his passion lies. He will occasionally sing or compose small works for weddings, and he can even sing a little opera. But as far as his musical influences, he listens to everything from Sufjan Stevens to The Who.
“I listen to absolutely everything,” Rosenbloom said. “If you look at my shuffle while I’m running or something, you’d think that I was just insane because it’ll bounce from Verdi to Jay Z to Jethro Tull. I think I’m the youngest person to know who Jethro Tull is.”
After Rosenbloom graduated from the LSU School of Music in 2011, he immediately re-enrolled into the business college and earned a second degree, which he said helped him immensely when it comes to budgeting, especially during the process of producing and marketing his album.
It started out as a project on Kickstarter with an $11,000 goal, but he eventually raised more than $14,000.
Before he moved to Nashville, Rosenbloom toured sporadically with various artists for months at a time while playing several of his instruments.
He has plans to visit Washington, D.C., Nashville and Atlanta for shows this year.
“I’ve got a cello on my back, a bass, a mandolin, a pedalboard and there’s clothes scattered all between the cases because I can’t afford a suitcase,” Rosenbloom said. “It ends up looking like quite a show.”
A friend of Rosenbloom’s, studio art and art history senior Norman Faucheux designed the album cover for “Small Things With Great Love.” He said Rosenbloom asked him to plan something that coincided with the premise of the album.
The cover depicts St. Isidore the Farmer — who was often kind and generous to others — in a mixture of styles, including both Renaissance and American Regionalism, among others. Faucheux said the image’s theme matched well with Rosenbloom’s work because the ultimate goal of the album was to promote its beauty and goodness, rather than solely its monetary value.
“You don’t have to do these overly ambitious, grand things full of emptiness — then it’s for yourself,” Faucheux said. “If you’re doing every little thing throughout your whole life with love behind it, then it can send a ripple effect across the world.”
Wherever Rosenbloom’s music takes him, he said he plans to keep his production process wholesome in an industry which focuses on perfection through techniques like cutting, splicing and tuning. He said he considers the imperfections in individuals to be the most beautiful, which is why he carries these methods over to his music.
“We need to listen to things that are timeless,” Rosenbloom said. “They happen in all genres, and this stuff is going to be around for hundreds and hundreds of years. You gotta put good food in your body, put good music in your ears, and get beautiful art in your eyesight. Feed your soul.”
Listeners can purchase Rosenbloom’s instrumental album through iTunes for $7.99.
You can reach Greta Jines on Twitter @TheGretaJines.

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Charles Champagne

LSU alumnus James Rosenbloom released an albumn of instrumental music called Small Things With Great Love.