A fitting homage to Sgt. Pepper
Canadian pop stars put wonderful twist on Beatles classic
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Art of Time Ensemble With Steven Page, Andy Maize, John Mann and Craig Northey Ottawa Chamberfest Concert Series Dominion-Chalmers United Church Reviewed Thursday, Nov. 28 Call it the Happening on O’Connor Street.
If the shades of John and George were hovering in the ceiling of the old church Thursday night, they would have heard an homage to their record Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band that was much more than a simple regurgitation.
The idea of Andrew Burashko, the artistic director of the Toronto ensemble Art of Time, was to take the music of the Beatles and bend it, shape it, make it all over. This was no Hollywood Strings plays the Beatles pap. There was real musical meat on the bone. And it worked wonderfully well for the most part.
Really, though, how could it go wrong? The show featured performances by four of the leading lights of Canadian pop music: Steven Page, who once led the Barenaked Ladies to superstardom; Andy Maize, one of the founders of the Skydiggers; Craig Northey of The Odds; and John Mann of Spirit of the West. Now that’s a Canadian boy band.
Each singer took on a classic or three.
Page took his turn belting out a rousing rendition of the title track. He also gave a lot of oomph to Lovely Rita. But his version of She’s Leaving Home was poignant and potent.
In an interview, Maize said he was a bit worried about one of the songs he had to sing — A Day in the Life. The John Lennon tune has long been considered one of the darkest and deepest on the album. He needn’t have worried. His version was top-notch.
Mann delivered a lighthearted vaudeville version of When I’m 64 that would have pleased his favourite Beatle, Paul McCartney, and brought a rousing round of applause from the audience, many of whom were approaching that very age.
And Northey stretched his voice to reach Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.
As with any album these days, there were some bonus tracks, including the two songs that were trimmed from the final version of the album, Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane. Northey opened the show with a slinky version of Fields and Page closed it with a desultory take of Penny Lane. Finally the evening ended with a rousing audience singalong of All You Need is Love.
Running underneath each of the classic melody lines were new arrangements, some with a jazz feel, others with a more classical sensibility with the odd hint of marching band tossed in. Burashko was on the piano Thursday night, leading a mixed strings, brass, percussion and guitars ensemble that included the likes of Gryphon Trio cellist Roman Borys. They mixed it up musically while still respecting the original. As Burashko has said in interviews, he’s a massive Beatles fan.
This concept concert was first performed in Toronto in the summer of 2012, 45th anniversary of the album’s release in 1967. It is Ottawa’s good fortune that it got a second go-round. Here’s hoping for a third performance somewhere. If that doesn’t happen, there is a CD available from Art of Time at artoftimeensemble.com.