“There’s nothing potentially more terrible than a Beatles’ covers project.” by By Emma Clayton -telegraphandargus
Thankfully, he’s pulled it off with an innovative score that is far from terrible. Ethan provides the music for Pepperland, a new production from the acclaimed Mark Morris Dance Group, which includes six reinventions of song on the album, including Penny Lane and With A Little Help From My Friends, performed by a seven-piece band, led by Ethan on piano.
Described by the New York Times as the “most successful and influential choreographer alive”, Mark Morris founded his company in 1980 and many of its 150 works are considered masterpieces.
The New York-based contemporary company was asked to create the piece by the City of Liverpool to mark the 50th anniversary of Sgt Pepper.
“The score is played by remarkable jazz musicians, the best in the world. They need to be as it’s an incredibly complicated album. Your average bar band couldn’t play covers from it. It’s almost symphonic in scope.”
Recently The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper was reworked by jazz musicians:
Released digitally, a new album called A Day In The Life: Impressions Of Pepper features a number of ‘new jazz’ artists from The Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely
It includes Sons Of Kemet’s Shabaka Hutchings tackling “Good Morning Good Morning” (with The Ancestors), Onyx Collective covering “Within You Without You” and Makaya McCraven taking on “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”. by Sam Richards - Uncut.co.uk
Explains Hutchings: “I took melodic fragments from throughout the song and used these as starting posts for my imagination to complete the phrases as I saw fit. I tried to see the tube as a mine of raw materials whereby I extract core musical information then process it into what I define as beauty.”
Onyx Collective added: “Recording ‘Within You Without You’ was a very humbling and uplifting opportunity. Of all the great songs on the album, this one felt the most serendipitous for us to vibe out on. We now perform it as a part of our live repertoire.”
Listen to the full album below. A Day In The Life: Impressions Of Pepper will be released on vinyl in January.
Just this week A psychedelic painting created as the original album artwork for The Beatles classic Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is up for sale at Sotheby’s.
