Review

Hearing old favourite songs redone in a totally different manner from the original can be a challenge. It’s especially true when vocal songs that are basically embedded in your DNA are turned into instrumentals. So fans of the Beatles should approach this new compilation of jazz treatments of the Fab Four’s tunes with an open mind and fresh ears, because there are some magnificent performances here. Starting right off with Chick Corea and Gary Burton’s take on Eleanor Rigby. The two master musicians are totally in sync as they turn the tune into a driving, meditative work.

Some of the covers stay closer to the originals, and they’re very nice – Gregory Porter’s version of Let It Be, for instance, is warm and sincere and feels utterly right. It’s the ones that deviate and reinvent that are among my favourites however, like Grant Green’s I Want To Hold Your Hand. It’s a swingy gas. Or when Kenny Rankin unleashes his gorgeous talent on I’ve Just Seen a Face. The arranger of the piece isn’t credited, but whoever it is poured their inventive heart into it. Diana Krall stays true to form with a lush, slowed down take of In My Life.

A couple of the tracks lean more toward easy listening than jazz, but that’s okay. When you have a combination of songwriting at the level of Lennon-McCartney and an unwaveringly talented roster of musicians covering them, it’s next to impossible to go wrong.