Revolver: A New Spin [Explicit Lyrics]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Just when it was starting to look like Cassandra Wilson was the only jazz singer able to avoid redundant repertoire and typical instrumentation, along comes Ann Dyer's Revolver: A New Spin. On her self-titled first CD, she and original Fairies Jeff Buenz (guitar), John Shifflett (bass), and Jason Lewis (drums, percussion) deconstructed chestnuts like "I Remember April" and "Green Dolphin Street" with passion, abandon, and a welcome lack of ironic distance. For this fresh take on the Beatles classic, the Fairies, fleshed out by Peter Apfelbaum (tenor sax) and Tin Hat Trio members Rob Burger (accordion) and Carla Kihlstedt (violin), fly further afield in search of a new song to sing. Dyer's study of Hindustani vocalizing helps her cut right to the heart of the Eastern influence in a tune like "Tomorrow Never Knows." Burger's accordion weaves a hint of harmonium into Lewis's tabla tapestry on "She Said She Said," completing the Indian ambience. On "I Want To Tell You," this relentlessly creative crew discards the original shuffle feel and dunks it in free-jazz dementia, held above the surface of recognizability only by the words and a rhythmically rearranged Lennon-McCartney melody. Some fans of the original tunes might have difficulty with the liberties taken on this recording; others who believe that both jazz and the Beatles represent taking chances and daring to be different will find that Dyer's carrying on another kind of tradition. --Michael Ross

Tracks:

She Said She Said
Good Day Sunshine
Eleanor Rigby
For No One
Taxman
I'm Only Sleeping
Tomorrow Never Knows
Rain
I Want To Tell You
And Your Bird Can Sing

Amazon.com

Just when it was starting to look like Cassandra Wilson was the only jazz singer able to avoid redundant repertoire and typical instrumentation, along comes Ann Dyer's Revolver: A New Spin. On her self-titled first CD, she and original Fairies Jeff Buenz (guitar), John Shifflett (bass), and Jason Lewis (drums, percussion) deconstructed chestnuts like "I Remember April" and "Green Dolphin Street" with passion, abandon, and a welcome lack of ironic distance. For this fresh take on the Beatles classic, the Fairies, fleshed out by Peter Apfelbaum (tenor sax) and Tin Hat Trio members Rob Burger (accordion) and Carla Kihlstedt (violin), fly further afield in search of a new song to sing. Dyer's study of Hindustani vocalizing helps her cut right to the heart of the Eastern influence in a tune like "Tomorrow Never Knows." Burger's accordion weaves a hint of harmonium into Lewis's tabla tapestry on "She Said She Said," completing the Indian ambience. On "I Want To Tell You," this relentlessly creative crew discards the original shuffle feel and dunks it in free-jazz dementia, held above the surface of recognizability only by the words and a rhythmically rearranged Lennon-McCartney melody. Some fans of the original tunes might have difficulty with the liberties taken on this recording; others who believe that both jazz and the Beatles represent taking chances and daring to be different will find that Dyer's carrying on another kind of tradition. --Michael Ross

Customer Reviews:

Controversial, But I Like It Anyway.......2004-01-21

For all 10 or so of you out there who have heard this, I'll bet 5 of you love it and 5 of you hate it; and nobody is in between. The reason you feel that way is that you believe that "Revolver" is one of the absolute hallmarks of the '60's (and you're right, of course); and this album takes the psychedelia of the Beatles to new heights (note what's not on this album: "Here There and Everywhere". The prettiest Beatles song ever, IMHO; and much too pretty for this album). Some of you will hate that anybody had the chutzpah to try to "out-do" the Beatles; and some of you will admire the "chutzpah" of anyone who tried and appeared to "out-do" the Beatles. So rate it without reference to The Fab Four, if you can; and on that scale, it's pretty good. Ann Dyer is not the most vocally gifted singer in the world; but she gets it done with what she has, and the end result is always interesting. Recommended.

Ann Dyer redoes the Beatles' "Revolver" as avant-garde jazz.......2003-11-29

Ann Dyer was one of the hits of the 1994 Monterey Jazz Festival and this 1999 album that provides, as the title indicates, a new spin on the Beatles' classic "Revolver" album from 1966 was her second release. "Revolver: A New Spin" puts Dyer firmly in the new wave of jazz singers who mines rock and roll for songs to cover and are just as happy to do John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison songs as they are the classic popular songs of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Cole Porter. The result is a scintillating fusion of rock and avant-garde jazz that should impress open-minded listeners of both jazz and the Fab Four. Dyer and her musicians make some bold choices, but for all of those who were less than inspired by the covers on the "I Am Sam" soundtrack, "Revolver: A New Spin" definitely represents the road not taken.

I was interested to learn that Dyer has studied Hindustani vocalizing because I mistook some of her efforts on songs like "Tomorrow Never Knows" as reflecting the Eastern influences that Harrison was starting to bring to the Beatles at that time. I found myself enjoying the longer tracks, such as the moody "Eleanor Rigby," which now has some tango elements, and runs almost nine minutes long. If those tracks prove too be too much, then something amidst the slowed down "She Said, She Said," the rather simple funk of "Good Day, Sunshine," the cabaret feel of "For No One," and/or the avant-garde version of "Taxman" might be more to your tastes. You just have to be open to the idea of reinterpretation, which is certainly central to the idea of jazz.

blasting the foundation into the stratosphere.......2001-01-28