It's said that when John Lennon began learning how to play the guitar in the mid-1950s, he actually detested jazz.
This can be dismissed as an adolescent prejudice. At the time in postwar England, traditional jazz, or “trad" as the Brits called it, was vying with rock 'n' roll for the affection of both clubgoers and aspiring musicians. The young Lennon, whose inspirations were Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and Elvis Presley, had sworn allegiance to that particular team.
But 10 years later, when Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono began recording albums of avant-garde compositions, they invited some of Europe's furthest-out free jazz players to participate, not to mention the entire Ornette Coleman Quartet.
I can't imagine what Lennon would have thought of Beatlejazz, a band masterminded by the pianist Dave Kikoski and the drummer Brian Melvin, who are celebrating the release of their latest album, “All You Need," this week with a performance at Iridium on Sunday.
Jazz musicians have been playing and singing the music of the Beatles virtually since the Fab Four broke through in 1963-64: Ella Fitzgerald couldn't buy love, but she bought a lot of groceries with her chart hit on “Can't Buy Me Love"; Duke Ellington wanted to hold our hand; Buddy Rich gave “Norwegian Wood" an anatomical implication; Wes Montgomery covered “A Day in the Life" and “ Eleanor Rigby," and Count Basie made two entire albums in a Beatle bag.
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This can be dismissed as an adolescent prejudice. At the time in postwar England, traditional jazz, or “trad" as the Brits called it, was vying with rock 'n' roll for the affection of both clubgoers and aspiring musicians. The young Lennon, whose inspirations were Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and Elvis Presley, had sworn allegiance to that particular team.
But 10 years later, when Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono began recording albums of avant-garde compositions, they invited some of Europe's furthest-out free jazz players to participate, not to mention the entire Ornette Coleman Quartet.
I can't imagine what Lennon would have thought of Beatlejazz, a band masterminded by the pianist Dave Kikoski and the drummer Brian Melvin, who are celebrating the release of their latest album, “All You Need," this week with a performance at Iridium on Sunday.
Jazz musicians have been playing and singing the music of the Beatles virtually since the Fab Four broke through in 1963-64: Ella Fitzgerald couldn't buy love, but she bought a lot of groceries with her chart hit on “Can't Buy Me Love"; Duke Ellington wanted to hold our hand; Buddy Rich gave “Norwegian Wood" an anatomical implication; Wes Montgomery covered “A Day in the Life" and “ Eleanor Rigby," and Count Basie made two entire albums in a Beatle bag.
Continue...
For more information contact All About Jazz.
