Jazz

BeatleJazz - A Bite Of The Apple (2000)

2014-08-04T20:26:12Z

BeatleJazz - A Bite Of The Apple (2000)


1. Junk
2. Come Together
3. It`s Only Love
4. Love
5. If I Fell
6. Eleanor Rigby
7. I Am The Walrus
8. Within You/Without You
9. Mother Natures Son

Dave Kikoski - Piano 
Brian Melvin - Drums
Boris Kozlov – Bass

Most nightclub trios don't take requests. Those that do, however, probably know each of these songs inside and out. Many of us grew up with 'em. They're beautiful songs that take us somewhere special every time we hear them. BeatleJazz laces each familiar tune with new spices. It's the kind of swinging improvisation that comes out naturally and quite differently each time. On "Let It Be," for example, the trio lays down the melody with a loping, laid back feel. And how can you not recognize that opening harmony? After Charles Fambrough rambles through a tasteful solo, David Kikoski changes the mood seamlessly. Exciting and full of life, the trio's interpretation sweeps away the customary and introduces the singular. "Blackbird" gets re-harmonized and "Julia" gets a rhythmic facelift. BeatleJazz bops hard along "Blue Jay Way," then drummer Brian Melvin provides a fascinating tabla-like thrill throughout the dreamy "Tomorrow Never Knows." They pull a switch on "Michelle" by starting out with a disguised version. Kikoski remains true to the song's lovely appeal, however, as he caresses the melody again and again without resorting to mere replication. Finally, as the end nears, the pianist delivers the song straight up. BeatleJazz takes the pretty and the familiar and returns it as classic acoustic improvisation. The absence of lyrics would seem to hinder such a project; but it's the close bond that we've developed over the years that makes this project work. Hopefully, they'll keep on taking bites of the apple for years to come. ---Jim Santella, allaboutjazz.com

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Beatlejazz - With A Little Help From Our Friends (2005)

2011-11-11T09:49:34Z

Beatlejazz - With A Little Help From Our Friends (2005)


1.Yes It Is
2.Piggies
3.Imagine
4.Strawberry Fields Forever		play
5.I Will
6.Working Class Hero
7.Hard Day’s Night, A
8.Across the Universe
9.Lovely Rita
10.And I Love Her
11.End, The					play
12.Chains

Personnel:
Dave Kikoski – piano, synthesizer
Brian Melvin – drums, tabla
Larry Grenadier – bass instrument
Boris Koslov – bass instrument
Mike Stern – guitar
John Scofield – guitar
Michael Brecker – saxophone
Randy Brecker – trumpet

Let me be the first to admit that I am prejudiced against jazz musicians covering the Beatles. This is in no way related to the source material: like all sentient mammals on the Planet Earth, I adore pretty much every note the Fabs recorded. It's just that their material is so weighted with cultural and nostalgic baggage that (unlike standards like, say, "All the Things You Are ) it retains too much of its Beatleness to be just a set of chords: it's them. Or it's us—Abbey Road and Revolver have inhabited our collections so long that they're intertwined in our lives.

It only took Dave Kikoski's gorgeous piano intro and Brian Melvin's hypnotic tabla pattern on "Yes It Is, the opening track of BeatleJazz's third CD, With a Little Help From Our Friends, to confound my cynical expectations. BeatleJazz is composed of Melvin on drums and tablas, Kikoski on piano and synth, and Larry Grenadier on bass. The core group is augmented by the "friends of the CD's title: John Scofield and Mike Stern on guitar; Mike and Randy Brecker on tenor sax and trumpet, respectively; and on four tracks, Boris Koslov substituted on bass. The results are for the most part delightful. Many jazz-covers-rock albums allow the musicians to sleepwalk through bland, jazz-lite arrangements, content to let the familiarity of the material sell the product. Not here: the performances teem with deep concentration and the arrangements are imaginative and very, very smart.

For example, "Strawberry Fields Forever sheds the baroque studio experimentation of the 1967 single but is otherwise played straight. Kikoski's piano does the melodic heavy lifting, and when the group plays the coda (Grenadier's bowed bass taking the place of the groaning strings of the original), one is struck dumb by how wonderful, how novel that section of the song is. The lack of harmonic development on John Lennon's solo rant "Working Class Hero is dealt with by going pedal-point: Mike Brecker and Kikoski channel Coltrane and McCoy Tyner, respectively, and remake the song as a searching, beseechingly modal ten-minute prayer.

Not everything is that wonderful. Randy Brecker and Kikoski do their best on Lennon's "Imagine, and very nearly pull it off—not surprisingly, as a ballad—but here the song is just too intractable. Even though it's a solo Lennon composition, its utopian sentiment makes it the most Beatle number here in the way it signifies so much more than its words or melody. Brecker's playing that melody so faithfully, right down to the two notes of Lennon's vocal "you-hoo, doesn't help. On the other hand, John Scofield absolutely nails "I Will ; this Paul McCartney number's chords lend themselves well to jazz and Sco's solo is the best he's done in some time—sweet, spacious, and wise.

It's a tribute to the quality of this album that my unfortunate bigotries could be so thwarted. Too bad BeatleJazz can't immediately do another CD: I'm eager to hear their versions of "All Things Must Pass and "She Said She Said. ---Paul Olson, allaboutjazz.com

Drummer Brian Melvin and pianist Dave Kikoski probably know every Beatles nuance in the book. So it's surprising With a Little Help From Our Friends, their third set of Fab Four interpretations largely ignores the originals' charms.

The first two Beatlejazz discs kept the group to a piano trio. This time, in addition to bassists Larry Grenadier and Boris Koslov replacing Charles Fambrough, the jazz fabs invited along Michael and Randy Brecker as well as guitarists John Scofield and Mike Stern. With saxophonist Michael Brecker, the group casts John Lennon's angry "Working Class Hero" in an early-'60s John Coltrane mold. The simple melody works well here, first with the trio playing rubato underneath it and later as a vamp that holds its own for 11 minutes. Lennon's "Imagine" becomes a warm ballad with Randy Brecker's muted trumpet.

But the actual Beatles songs sound as if the band opened a fake book and read the notes off the page, instead of learning them from the records. With all the extra color that the original "Strawberry Fields Forever" gained from strings, brass and lead guitar, the group plays a by-the-numbers version, save for a few odd chord substitutions. "I Will" and "Across the Universe" sound like staid, cocktail hour jazz. Only "Yes It Is" takes risks. Here, Melvin plays tablas and the group states the melody slowly after starting in a Latin-type groove. --- Mike Shanley, jazztimes.com

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Jazz and Beatles (2010)

2010-11-02T10:05:57Z

Jazz and Beatles (2010)


1. Intro 	M.P.R. 	0:20
2. Day Tripper (Feat. Deborah Dixon) 	Jazzystics 	3:12
3. Here Comes The Sun 	Sarah Menescal 	2:32 
4. Yesterday 	Betty Says 	2:33                            play
5. Honey Pie 	The Bryan J. White Quartet 	2:37 
6. Oh! Darling 	The Cooltrane Quartet 	3:59
7. A Hard Day's Night 	Deborah Dixon & Les Crossaders 	2:53
8. Something 	Scubba feat. Sarah Menescal 	2:38 
9. Blackbird 	Eve St. Jones 	2:18 
10. Intro (Part II) 	M.P.R.
11. Let It Be 	Richard Eastwood 	3:45
12. Come Together 	48th St. Collective 	3:11    play
13. All You Need Is Love 	Jamie Lancaster 	3:26
14. Hey Jude 	Renauld & The Smooth Jazz Quintet 	3:34

As the music of the Beatles grew increasingly complex, more jazz artists were compelled to tap into and investigate these brilliant compositions, beautiful melodies, divine harmonies, and unconventional harmonic and metric complexity. The Beatles’ music is truly timeless, as demonstrated by the new jazz generation’s continued interest in their songbook. Throughout the years, there have been successes and failures; many jazz Beatles covers are throwaways or lame attempts to cash in on a popular hit. Some sound like they were arranged in a few seconds at the end of an exhausting late-night session, and others feature insipid instrumentalists buried in sheet music bored by the absence of 16th notes and flatted 13ths. However, for each disappointment there are many other highly enjoyable performances that will satisfy, inspire and remind us that great music knows no boundaries.

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Jazz and Beatles (Double Edition) [2012]

2013-01-11T17:36:35Z

Jazz and Beatles (Double Edition) [2012]

CD1
01. Jazzystics ft. Deborah Dixon – Day Tripper
02. Sarah Menescal – Here Comes the Sun
03. Betty Says – Yesterday
04. The Bryan J. White Quartet – Honey Pie
05. The Cooltrane Quartet – Oh! Darling
06. Deborah Dixon & Les Crossaders – A Hard Day’s Night
07. Scubba ft. Sarah Menescal – Something
08. Eve St. Jones – Blackbird
09. Richard Eastwood – Let It Be
10. 48th St. Collective – Come Together
11. Jamie Lancaster – All You Need Is Love
12. Renauld & The Smooth Jazz Quintet – Hey Jude

CD2
13. Astrid Bergman – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
14. Deborah Dixon & Les Crossaders – She Loves You
15. Stella Starlight Trio ft. Lizette – Can’t Buy Me Love
16. The Bryan J. White Quartet – Penny Lane
17. Celso Mendes ft. Lua – Revolution
18. 48th St. Collective – I Feel Fine
19. Mandy Jones – Paperback Writer
20. Scubba ft. Sarah Menescal – Ticket to Ride
21. Jazzystics ft. Deborah Dixon – Get Back
22. Les Crossaders ft. Julie Benson – The Long and Winding Road
23. Sarah Menescal – In My Life
24. Francis Trevor & Michelle Simonal – I Want to Hold Your Hand

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