Musician Johnny Iguana is a fan of the show, “The Bear.” That’s fortunate since the music he composed is heard throughout the FX/Hulu series’ three seasons.
Along with his music partner JQ (Jeffrey Qaiyum), he has written new original music for the score of “The Bear,” a show which recently won 11 Emmy awards, including Best Comedy.
With his band The Claudettes, Iguana will return to The Venue at 21 S. Broadway Ave. in downtown Aurora for an 8 p.m. show Oct. 5.
The Claudettes are a hard-to-define band that plays “a revelatory blend of jazz and blues, stirred with punk brio,” according to former Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot.
Iguana is the pianist and songwriter. He was a 2021 Blues Music Award nominee for Piano Player of the Year and a 2022 Living Blues Award nominee for Outstanding Musician: Keyboard. He has toured with Junior Wells and Otis Rush and was the piano player on albums featuring Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, Junior Wells, Derek Trucks and Shemekia Copeland, to name a few.
As the show “The Bear” has gotten more acclaim and attention, bigger names have come aboard to contribute music. Season three was full of music by Trent Reznor, Eddie Vedder, REM and Smashing Pumpkins.
“Season two was the one where JQ and I had the most new original pieces that were all over the season,” Iguana said. “And we had a bunch in season one. Season three was a little scant, they really went more the soundtrack direction. They had a lot of soundtrack selections but very little in the way of new themes and scoring. It’s how the season came together.”
He points to season three’s episode seven, “Legacy,” when Abby Elliott’s character Sugar is in the Restaurant Depot buying C-folds and about to go into labor as a moment when his music is heard.
When the show first started, the creators would tell Iguana and Qaiyum what they wanted the music to sound like. In the second season, Iguana and Qaiyum sent the creators several files of themes in advance, he said.
“A bunch of them made it into scenes that we didn’t explicitly write for, which was a really cool process because then when I watched the season I was like, ‘Hey! I remember standing at the keyboard composing this thing and there it is,’” he said. “We had one theme in season two that was used in four separate episodes, including the first several minutes of the finale. Basically where there’s the high-tension kitchen scene, it’s our theme.”
He hasn’t heard anything about season four of “The Bear” yet but has his fingers crossed they get called again.
“I live within walking distance of Kasama and Lao Peng You which were both in some of the restaurant scenes around town,” he said. “Kasama – now, you go by there any day of the week and there’s an hour-long line.”
He was thrilled when “The Bear” won 11 Emmys recently, beating its own previous record of 10.
“I feel completely lucky that the show JQ and I got asked to do that music for fully blew up,” he said. “It’s unspeakably fun. Who doesn’t like a good story and film production and then getting to do that music that takes it further in the direction it wants to go? It’s really rewarding.
“The Claudettes too, the music is very cinematic,” he said. “I’m always mindful of those chord choices and production to make something evocative and bring those images to mind.”
He grew up in New Jersey and went to high school and college in Philadelphia before moving to Chicago for what he thought would be three years tops. It has since been 30.
“I’ve gotten to do the blues scene here playing piano, I’ve gotten to do the Middle East, Indonesia, South America, played all over Japan and Europe more times than I can count,” he said. “I’m going to Europe for six weeks this fall playing piano. Moving to Chicago has brought me a lot of great opportunities. And for me, getting to play music – especially your own music – combining it with traveling to corners of the world you wouldn’t get to go to otherwise is what makes the world go ‘round for me.”
One of his favorite things to do is play with his band The Claudettes, with their six-foot-tall female lead singer from Texas, Rachel Williams.
“The Claudettes started off as a duo, just piano and drums, and we’ve grown into a local band,” he said. “Rachel has been singing with us since 2022 and everyone who sees us is bewildered that we’re playing small venues because she’s such a star. She’s an incredible performer and soulful singer and she has a theater background. She has been stalking the stage in a way that has peoples’ mouths open. She’s so entertaining. With her heels and her mohawk, she’s like six-four.”
They have come to The Venue in Aurora at least once a year for the past four or five years, he said. The Venue is a fun room to play in because of the vibe and energy, he said.
“People really come there to hear music,” he said. “It’s a great-sounding room and people know that.”
Audiences can expect to hear new material – look for a new album in 2025 – as well as some fun covers at the upcoming show, he said.
“I think the band is uniquely entertaining. It’s hard to pin down which makes things difficult because you’re supposed to fit neatly into a box, which is why I had to come up with the term ‘garage cabaret’ as our genre,” he said. “I feel like we’re part ‘60s garage rock and like part chanteuse-lying-on-the-grand-piano jazz club band. That’s how I feebly try to describe us.
“We also make an effort to make sense to people who love American roots music. We’re grounded in blues, jazz and soul. It’s a piano-based drums and vocal band … the music we make is hard to name, but real easy to enjoy.”
Tickets for the performance cost $20-$25. For information, call 331-212-8490 or go to themusicvenue.org.
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the Beacon-News.