Playing and recording covers is a common thing among musicians. Actually it is one of the stages in learning how to play, compose, arrange and perceive music. Almost every great musician in the history of popular culture has played in cover bands early in the career, mastering the stage and the instrument by playing the music of his idols. The Beatles played rock’n’roll hits in clubs in Hamburg, The Rolling Stones released three albums consisting primarily of covers before recording one with their own original material and playing common songs or “standards” is a regular practise in jazz. On the other side, there are cover bands that created their own unique style while playing other people’s songs - Apocalyptica, Nouvelle Vague, Dread Zeppelin or Richard Cheese for example.
In recent times there are many remakes across genres, although it wasn’t an unknown practise even in the sixties. Most of them, to be frank, sound banal and unable to recapture the spirit, the mood or the emotion of the original. Some of them are good and few of them are as good as the original, in their own respective way. One of the most creative remakes I have come across in the past decade is “Jazz Side of the Moon”, an album produced by the American organist and pianist Sam Yahel together with Mike Moreno on guitar, Ari Hoenig on drums and Seamus Blake on tenor saxophone. As the title suggests, it is a jazz remake of “The Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd, legendary album that remained in the charts from 1973 to 1988 and is considered to be one of the most influential records of all times on multiple levels. So, what would be the first difficulty that comes across when making an instrumental cover of this particular album? Well, of course - you wouldn’t have the suggestive power of Roger Waters’ epic lyrics, dealing with conflict, greed, insanity and passage of time. Then there is the problem with the richness of Floyd’s sound, considering all the effects, overdubs, back-up vocals etc. But those are difficulties only if you try to recapture the original spirit of the particular music. What Sam Yahel and his companions did here is something else - they re-imagined The Dark Side of the Moon. It still holds some of the elements of the original - its obscure atmosphere, the cathedral seriousness and the bluesy overall feeling. But it is different, it is not psychedelic, it is not cerebral and it certainly isn’t epical. It sounds as if it is really coming out from Philadelphia in 2008 and not London in the 70’s. Oh, it’s faithful in interpreting the themes, one can always tell which song is on (if he knows the originals), so it is standing as a collection piece for audiophiles and Pink Floyd fans, but also on its own as a fine jazz suite for jazz-lovers .
Listen to the whole album here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0emVwtw4R9UCGaPTX_u6d166Qdmh_7P7
