Last year marked the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ Abbey Road released on September 26, 1969. To celebrate, the Art of Time ensemble had performed a concert that went track by track through the album. Thursday evening, Andrew Burashko and his select group of musicians gave a repeat performance. No wonder. I expect they’ve been hounded all year to do this. It was one of the most entertaining concerts I’ve been to in years.
AOT followed the method they’ve used for their annual Songbook concert. See my review of Steven Page’s The Singer Must Die for an example. They take a selection of popular songs then commission composers/arrangers from a variety of genres — jazz, pop, classical — to create covers. Only these aren’t covers in the ordinary sense. More like re-imaginings which push the boundaries of what is possible for popular music and challenge the listener to encounter the music in new ways. This is subject to one proviso: the result must remain true to the spirit of the original.
And so we have Abbey Road performed in the stunning Koerner Hall, part of the recent renovations to Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music building. Out walks Martin Tielli with a goofy hat, dark glasses and a bullhorn to sing Come Together. Most of the time he sings into the mic but punctuates things with vocalizations into the bullhorn. This is as “straight” a cover as we get all evening. But already I know this will be an amazing concert.
Next up is Sarah Slean, an AOT favourite who has already completed one Songbook for them and is slated to perform another next May. She walks onto the stage barefoot, dress draped around her and off one shoulder, and gives us George Harrison’s Something. While I’ll take my Sarah Slean any way I can get it, I actually prefer her singing in the second half when she has a chance to show off the dusky lower register of her voice.
Then comes a surprise. John Southworth. When you take his theatricality, eyebrow cocked, arm raised, stage lit in red, and meld that with an arrangement that shifts Maxwell’s Silver Hammer into a minor key and ads “Psycho” violins screeching each time Maxwell strikes and … well … I hope this gets released on CD soon. I nearly pee my pants listening to this one. This is exactly the kick Paul McCartney’s “granny song” needs.
How will we ever top this? I wonder as Steven Page mugs his way to centre stage for Oh! Darling. Could it be that Page has become the Pavarotti of Pop? His chest seems to have expanded and his voice is larger than ever. With just the right amount of angst and torment, he fills the hall with a big, big sound. Men whistle. Women throw their undergarments at the stage. Did they ever do that for Pavarotti?
As Page leaves, he passes former band mate, Kevin Hearn, on the way in to give a sweetly understated rendition of Octopuss’s Garden complete with a bubble gun. Koerner Hall’s seats wrap around the stage and more than any of the other performers, Hearn makes a point of drawing in those who sit behind the stage.
And then. And then. And then. Oh my! Alejandra Ribera barefoot in a red dress. I try my best to keep my wife from noticing me drooling as Ribera delivers “I want you (she’s so heavy)”. As with Southworth, she brings a sense of theatre to her performance, playing it as an almost obsessive, stalker chick whenever she sings “I want you” — the kind of woman you might half hope and fear wanting you. The arrangement builds and builds in an agonizing wall of sound, and then silence.
After the intermission, for the first time, we meet Andy Maize of Skydiggers fame, dressed in dazzling white suit and singing Here Comes the Sun. He sings it light and bright (like his suit), a nice contrast to Ribera’s thick and heavy.
I prefer the first half to the second. It takes me a while to figure out why that is. I think it has to do with the fact that Abbey Road’s Side B songs are medleys and ensemble pieces, but these are all solo performers. The side A songs are much better vehicles for solo performers. This is especially apparent when Steven Page sings with the more subdued voices of Maize and Hearn. Page has a voice that’s made to soar, not to blend with a backup chorus.
At some point, I expect the show will be released as a CD. When that happens, get it.