David Lanz Takes a Fab Trip to Liverpool

And on Cristofori's Dream, the landmark 1988 album that topped Billboard's very first Adult Alternative/New Age chart for an astonishing 27 weeks, Lanz reworked Procol Harum's magisterial "A Whiter Shade Of Pale." A stunning reinvention of the 1967 Summer of Love hit, many consider Lanz's adaptation of the song second only to the original (no doubt due, in large part, to the participation of original Procol organist Matthew Fisher on the track).

But, says Lanz, "Liverpool is the first time I've gone in this deep just with Lennon-McCartney, who were my first role models as a songwriter." For the recording, pianist and keyboardist Lanz is joined by flutist Gary Stroutsos, cellist Walter Gray and a number of guest musicians, among them the celebrated session musician Larry Knechtel, who passed away just weeks after contributing a Hammond organ part to "Rain Eight Days a Week," a composite of two familiar Beatles tracks. Produced by David and his brother, Gary Lanz�who also plays autoharp on the opening track, "Liverpool," David's sole original on the album�Liverpool finds Lanz taking music that has long been ingrained in popular culture and doing the impossible with it: allowing us to hear it anew.

"I don't try to play the songs just like the Beatles' records," he says. "I try to internalize the music and make it my own as much as possible. So the challenge is to make it feel like it fits on the piano, because most of these songs were played on guitars with vocals. The end result that I'm hoping for is that people will hear the song and go, 'Oh, that's David Lanz and that's a Beatles song.' It isn't super-obvious that it's a Beatles song but I don't eliminate the original melody either."

The idea for Liverpool came about, says Lanz, when he heard a meditational arrangement by Stroutsos of the Beatles' "Within You, Without You." Says Lanz, "I started thinking it would be really cool to do a whole Beatles-inspired record that went a little deeper into the zone. So I started off on that road and then six months later I pulled out after I probably tried a couple hundred Beatles songs. The ones I chose had to be right and they had to fit into my stylistic approach. I didn't go for any of the big hits. That was intentional."

Liverpool consists of several melodies that will be instantly recognizable to anyone who's delved into the Beatles' catalog beyond the most obvious and popular tracks: "Things We Said Today," "Lovely Rita," "Norwegian Wood," "Yes It Is" and a couple of medleys whose titles should make their content apparent to even casual Beatles fans, "Because I'm Only Sleeping" and the aforementioned "Rain Eight Days a Week." The album begins with the title track�introduced with the sounds of Liverpool's own Mersey River�and concludes with "London Skies," a suite built around a handful of John Lennon's most poignant compositions: "Tomorrow Never Knows," "Across the Universe" and, as the album nears its end, "Give Peace a Chance," the song that sums up the Beatles' message so profoundly. In between, preceding "Lovely Rita," sits a brief interlude titled "Teatime for Rita," featuring the voice of Richard Olivier, the son of the brilliant actor Sir Laurence.

For Lanz, the decision to record the album in a trio format with Stroutsos and Gray was a no-brainer. The album marks the third time that Lanz and Stroutsos have paired up for a project, while Gray, an original member of the renowned Kronos Quartet, has been a member of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra for some 30 years. The mesh of the three individual musical voices is seamless. Bass and drums also add spice as needed.

The album was recorded in Bellingham, Washington over a six-month period in 2009. Once it was completed Lanz, accompanied by Stroutsos and photographer Carole May, made their way to the birthplace of the Beatles, the city that gives the album its name. There Lanz was treated to a special tour that took him inside the childhood homes of Lennon and McCartney, and to such now-iconic sites as Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields and the Cavern, where Beatlemania began.

Following the release of Liverpool Lanz began planning tour dates to showcase the music from the album. Still pumped up with Beatle juice, he will return to the studio with the trio and cut even more of the quartet's classics�"I Am the Walrus," "Penny Lane," "Please Please Me" (in a ballad version) and "Here Comes the Sun�to be released on an EP, and pieced together a DVD on the making of Liverpool.

There is one Beatles song that David Lanz didn't record for Liverpool, but perhaps he might want to return to the studio once again and consider it. Its sentiment, after all, perfectly sums up the motivation and inspiration behind this breathtakingly beautiful homage. That song, of course, is "All You Need Is Love."

For more information, visit LiverpoolCD.com and DavidLanz.com.

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