DJANGO BATES — Saluting Sgt. Pepper (review)

DJANGO BATES — Saluting Sgt. Pepper album cover

Album · 2017 · Pop/Art Song/Folk

2/5 · 2023-12-13
Matti P

The British jazz musician -- mainly pianist -- DJANGO BATES (b. 1960) was familiar to me in advance only from BILL BRUFORD'S EARTHWORKS and SIDSEL ENDRESEN's album So I Write (1990). My first acquaintance with him as a leader certainly wasn't an ideal one, because my initial response to this reworking of THE BEATLES album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) was very negative. I patiently sat through it entirely. In the end I didn't hate listening to it, but not really enjoying it either. I kept thinking of how much better the original classic album sounds.

I'm not a dead-serious fan of Sgt. Pepper, which IMHO has some uninteresting songs too. And I have nothing against tribute albums in general, every now and then I like to borrow them from libraries or my friends, just for sheer curiosity. Sometimes they work pretty well and offer a fresh view to the familiar music, although usually they feel pretty pointless. Among the better tribute albums I've listened to, is guitarist AL DI MEOLA's instrumental set of The Beatles tunes (see my review of it).

To my surprise this run-through of the Sgt. Pepper album gained rather good reviews in music media. So why do I dislike it? Inevitably a reinterpretation of a complete album is more vulnerable to the basic problem, the balancing between faithfulness and freshness, than e.g. a Various Artists tribute compilation. Imagine another kind of a Sgt. Pepper tribute, with various vocalists, varying musical ideas and arrangements. That would be much more interesting as a starting point.

Bates was requested to arrange the 50-yr old album for the Frankfurt Radio Big Band. So, that settles much of the end product, without significant chances to sonic variety. The big band dominated by wind instruments actually partly explains my dislike. Multi-instrumentalist Bates and Stuart Hall (guitars, violin) are also accompanied by a Danish trio Eggs Laid By Tigers (a lead vocalist and a vocal-backing rhythm section). This all leads to an album interpretation that is rather faithful to the original in song forms and such, but is rooted to the soundscape of a brass/reeds-oriented big band. And that's definitely for the worse, compared to the awesome, George Martin produced hallmark of mature pop music. And as for the vocals, can't help thinking that Martin Ullits Dahl is a terribly charisma-lacking singer. He sounds like a poor version of 10cc's Eric Stewart (whom I do like, btw).

Admittedly Bates has done good arranging work, in several places also reaching rich sonic details, especially on 'Within You Without You'. After all, there is a wide variety of instruments. But still I feel that the big band form has tied his hands too much, and he's done an all too predictable and singular-sounding version of the beloved classic. At least the vocals should have been more varied and stronger. Can't give this more than two stars.