With Shabaka Hutchings, Mary Halvorson, Makaya McCraven, Onyx Collective and Wildflower.
The iconic Beatles album from 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Group has been reinterpreted by 13 artists and jazz groups in a new album titled A Day in the Life: Pepper Impressions.
The double album debuted as a variant of Record Store Day Black Friday 2018 in a limited edition, before its standard release in January 2019.
According to the Verve label: “What you hear on this record are not covers, but impressions of these iconic songs. A small part of a melody, a subtle bass riff inspired these artists to create something new.
Shabaka Hucthings, speaking about the ancestors’ reinterpretation of ‘Good Morning Good Morning’ explains, “I took melodic fragments from the whole song and used them as starting messages for my imagination to complete the sentences as I read it. ‘heard. I tried to see the hit as a mine of raw materials through which I extract essential musical information and then process it into what I define as beauty.
While Mary Halvorson, who covered “With A Little Help From My Friends,” shares, “My approach… was largely based on memory and nostalgia; rather than sticking tightly to the original, I tried to focus on the song’s sense of timelessness, drawing on the power of melody and memory, and incorporating distortions that may have arisen over time.
Order a copy of A Day in the Life: Pepper Impressions Black Friday variant here, and check out the track list below.
List of tracks
1. The sergeant. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (performed by Antonio Sanchez)
2. With a little help from my friends (performed by Mary Halvorson)
3. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (performed by Makaya McCraven)
4. Improve (directed by Wildflower)
5. Fixing A Hole (performed by Cameron Graves)
6. She Leaves Home (performed by Keyon Harrold)
7. Be for the benefit of Mr. Kite! (performed by Brandee Younger)
8. Inside you without you (performed by Onyx Collective)
9. When I’m Sixty-Four (performed by Sullivan Fortner)
10. Lovely Rita (performed by Miles Mosley)
11. Good Morning Good Morning (performed by Shabaka & The Ancestors)
12. The sergeant. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (performed by Antonio Sanchez)
13. A day in the life (performed by The JuJu Exchange)
