'Pajama Jazz' moves the Lindsey & Landon party online

With venues closed and gatherings of more than 10 people canceled or postponed, musicians across the globe are hit with the same question: What do we do with this?

For Cape Girardeau musical duo Lindsey & Landon, who perform at weddings and other venues in the region, the answer is “Pajama Jazz.”

That’s the name they’ve given to Facebook videos they’re working into a series, where the duo — Lindsey Grojean, who majored in vocal performance at Southeast Missouri State University and works for KRCU, Cape Girardeau’s National Public Radio affiliate, and Landon Schnurbusch, a music composition student at Southeast who is a pianist at Maple United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau — wear pajamas and performs jazzy tunes.

“My brides and people who’d planned private events, those are having to be rescheduled,” Grojean said. “It breaks my heart, not so much because of the financial piece, but because we love playing for people.”

“Pajama Jazz” is their substitute, she said.

It’s not really possible to duplicate the experience of a live performance, but “It’s fun in its own way,” Schnurbusch said.

The duo had always planned to try to up their social media presence with videos, and this gave them the opportunity to dive into recording.

“This break, social distancing, has forced us to connect to our digital audience a little more,” Grojean said.

So, they took existing gear, a music genre they both love, and, in Grojean’s words, got comfy.

“We want to make it look and sound really good, really clean,” Schnurbusch said. “We could set our phone up on something and use the built-in microphone, take a little video, but we’re trying to take a little bit of extra time to get good audio and video.”

Grojean handles the video editing, stringing together a blooper reel at the beginning of each video, then syncing the audio to the video.

“We’re focused on quality over quantity,” Grojean said, since poor quality would detract from the experience.

“We’re also just trying to have fun,” Grojean added. “We’re posting these videos because people need some fun, too.”

“I don’t think it’s too big a deal,” Schnurbusch said. “It’s just something kind of fun. If someone watches and thinks it’s kind of funny — ” Grojean jumped in: “If it gets a laugh, we’ve done our job.”

Grojean said she and Schnurbusch are appreciative venues are canceling or suspending events.

“I really do have concern for our older audience,” she said.

One thing Grojean misses about live performance is the connection with people.

“I miss them,” Grojean said. “Hopefully this is a good substitute.”

The duo will record four or five songs, multiple takes, and pick their favorites to air.

“Landon and I really enjoy jazz,” Grojean said. “We’re passionate about it. A lot of the songs are written about silly or mundane things that don’t seem to matter much. I think that goes with our silly aesthetic.”

“You don’t have to overthink it,” Schnurbusch said.

And it’s relaxing, and it’s a great way to keep them both practicing, Grojean added.

“What else were we going to do?” Schnurbusch quipped.

“It’s great that people are sharing their art,” Grojean said. “We really enjoy that other people are enjoying it, and it’s small enough that we can be genuine and respond to people.”

“We love to hear from people,” Schnurbusch said. “It’s nice when people tell us they enjoyed it.”

It’s also a great way to connect with family while they can’t physically be present together, Grojean said.

And, she added, it’s fun to see Jimmy Fallon and Lin-Manuel Miranda performing in their living rooms.

“They don’t look much different from ours,” she said. “We’re on the same plane, we’re all doing our best. It’s nice to feel that, and nice for people to see us in our PJs. It’s not that glamorous. We’re living life, relaxing in our PJs and taking it one day at a time.”

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