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Saturday, Mar 20, 2010
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Beatle Jazz plays old Beatles favorites at Jazz Alley |
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| Beatle Jazz plays old Beatles favorites at Jazz Alley | ||
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by E. Joyce Glasgow -
SGN A&E Writer BEATLE JAZZ DECEMBER 4 & 5 DIMITRIOU'S JAZZ ALLEY The main obstacles to choosing to specialize in only playing the music of the Beatles are, first of all, your audience is likely to be Beatles fans with high expectations of hearing rousing versions of their old favorites, and second, you'll have audience members (like myself and my guest) who are great jazz fans and really interested in seeing what wonderfully creative arrangements you will delight with, utilizing great Beatles tunes. Unfortunately, Beatle Jazz did not live up to expectations. It's a nice concept, but many musicians do really exciting things with Beatles tunes all the time (for example, Bobby McFerrin's great accapella version of "Blackbird"), so if you are going to format your act with only Beatles tunes, your musical arrangements had better be superlative! Beatle Jazz's set at Jazz Alley neither showed off superlative jazz arrangements nor even replicated familiar Beatles arrangements for traditionalists. The set was disjointed, featuring an aimless solo in between pieces by Brian Melvin on trap drums, with sluggish, random rhythms that neither led out of a song arrangement nor as an intro for an upcoming piece. It wasn't even a good solo that could have blown you away, Beatles-related or not, with its virtuosity. I kept thinking, what does this have to do with the Beatles? Melvin also played a frame drum and Indian Tablas very well as a solo in between songs, but again I wondered, what's the point of this? All three of the musicians are accomplished professionals, so I was really expecting them to rise to the occasion. Pianist David Kikoski, whose playing I usually enjoy, saved several tunes with his wonderful, individual, lyrical approach on the acoustic piano, but he didn't seem to have his heart that into it and didn't impress on the synthesizer. Peter Barshay, on acoustic bass, gave a good performance with a couple of short but pleasant solos. The show did contain some highlights overall. The set included an interesting abstracted version of "Lady Madonna," a tasteful and lyrical "Fool on the Hill" followed by a playful reggae take on "Let it Be," then a very interesting medley of "Girl," starting out with a classical sounding, reflective piano solo and then going into an elegant and bluesy trio version of "Imagine." They played a very energetic, straight- ahead version of "Eleanor Rigby" and a lively "It's Been a Hard Day's Night." I was most impressed by a country-ish rendition of "All Things Must Pass," which really showed some creativity in its arrangement and sounded lovely. For a schedule of upcoming performances at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, visit: www.jazzalley.com |
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