{"id":16702,"date":"2019-07-13T05:30:02","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T09:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=16702"},"modified":"2019-06-10T16:21:42","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T20:21:42","slug":"every-sound-there-is-asheville-music-school-takes-on-the-beatles-revolver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/13\/every-sound-there-is-asheville-music-school-takes-on-the-beatles-revolver\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Sound There Is: Asheville Music School Takes on the Beatles’ ‘Revolver’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Created in the space of just over six years, the Beatles\u2019 body of work ranks among the most important and influential music ever made. And for the fourth year in a row, teachers, friends and students of Asheville Music School come together to present a benefit concert, performing one of those albums start to finish. AMS presented the Beatles\u2019 Revolver<\/i> in concert at Isis Music Hall on Thursday, May 2.<\/p>\n

The Revolver<\/i> band for the benefit show is made up mostly of teaching artists. The nine-piece core ensemble features well-known musicians from the Asheville scene including Rich Brownstein on keyboards; guitarist Alec Fehl; vocalists Ryan Furstenberg, Kylie Irvin and AMS student Simone Weirich; drummer\/percussionist Jon Lauterer; bassist and band director (and AMS Executive Director) Ryan Reardon; and multi-instrumentalists Gabrielle Tee and Matt Williams.<\/p>\n

Because Revolver<\/i> is such an eclectic and deeply textured album, additional musicians are necessary on some tracks. The original version of Paul McCartney\u2019s \u201cEleanor Rigby\u201d doesn\u2019t, in fact, feature any Beatles instrumentation; a string octet arranged and conducted by producer George Martin performs the music on the Revolver<\/i> track. The AMS benefit show would re-create that ensemble \u2013 four violins, two cellos and two violas \u2013 with local musicians, including students Ruby Carlson and Jayhawk Reese-Julien.<\/p>\n

\"\"

A photo from AMS’ 2018 performance of ‘Sgt. Pepper.’<\/p><\/div>\n

Similarly, the soul pastiche \u201cGot to Get You Into My Life\u201d \u2013 another McCartney number \u2013 would feature a five-person horn section, again following the original recording. That group features two students, trumpeter Toby Schuetze and saxophonist Julia Steininger. \u201cWe happen to have some really talented students who are up to the challenge of playing Beatles music,\u201d Reardon says.<\/p>\n

Alan Civil\u2019s French horn solo on Revolver<\/i>\u2019s \u201cFor No One\u201d would be approached in a slightly different manner. On a break between tours with Michael Bubl\u00e9, Asheville musician Justin Ray played the solo on flugelhorn. <\/p>\n

Mounting a complete album performance is a challenge for any group. This year marks the fourth time an AMS benefit show has centered around a Beatles record. \u201cThe first one we did was Abbey Road<\/i>,\u201d Reardon recalls. \u201cAnd it kept growing from there: \u2018What else is really good?\u2019\u201d For their second annual album concert, they tackled Magical Mystery Tour.<\/i> \u201cThere are tons of horns and strings on that record, so we could get even more students and more teachers up there and have a 25-piece band,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

1967\u2019s Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/i> was an obvious choice for last year\u2019s show. \u201cWe thought, \u2018we did Magical Mystery Tour<\/i>, so how could we not do Sgt. Pepper<\/i>?\u2019\u201d Reardon says. Revolver<\/i> from 1966 made sense as well. \u201cIt\u2019s the perfect middle ground between the Beatles\u2019 early instrumentation and Sgt. Pepper<\/i>,\u201d Reardon says. <\/p>\n

Revolver<\/i> is often thought of as the first Beatles album to make use of the recording studio as an instrument. The album\u2019s innovative, experimental nature is evident on tracks as varied as the singalong \u201cYellow Submarine\u201d and the droning, psychedelic \u201cTomorrow Never Knows,\u201d a John Lennon composition. And one of three George Harrison songs on the LP, \u201cLove You To\u201d makes extensive use of Indian instruments like tambura, sitar and tabla. <\/p>\n

The technology didn\u2019t exist in 1966 to present that kind of complexity onstage at a rock concert, and the Beatles \u2013 who ended public performance with an August 1996 set at San Francisco\u2019s Candlestick Park \u2013 didn\u2019t even try. In fact none of the Revolver<\/i> songs would ever be played live onstage by the group. The Asheville musicians will make use of modern technology to bring those textures and sounds to the stage. \u201cThe reverse guitar on \u2018I\u2019m Only Sleeping\u2019 is tricky, too,\u201d Reardon says. \u201cBut Alec has got it really dialed in; he\u2019s found a new pedal that\u2019s going to help with that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Proceeds from the benefit concert go toward keeping studio space rental costs affordable for the teachers. \u201cOne of our big goals is for these teachers to be able to make a living teaching music,\u201d Reardon says. Funds also support student scholarships and ongoing programs like AMS band trips to perform for organizations like Blue Ridge Home and ABCCM\u2019s Veterans Restorations Quarters. Last year\u2019s event raised $22,000; this year\u2019s goal is $25,000.<\/p>\n

Reardon sums up the enduring appeal of the Beatles\u2019 music with an example close to home. \u201cA parent at the music school was saying that he\u2019ll listen to his son\u2019s music [choices] sometimes, like when they\u2019re in the car,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty eclectic; there\u2019s modern music, but he says that there\u2019s always some Beatles on the playlist. And I think that\u2019s a testament to the fact that the Beatles were always dedicated to their art and craft, especially starting with Revolver<\/i>. They could have made the same [kind of] record over and over, but they didn\u2019t; they went the other way. And it shows. And like any great art, it\u2019s stood the test of time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Created in the space of just over six years, the Beatles\u2019 body of work ranks among the most important and influential music ever made. And for the fourth year in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,44],"tags":[237,3845,278],"class_list":["post-16702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-live-shows","tag-asheville","tag-asheville-music-school","tag-beatles","cat-41-id","cat-44-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16705,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16702\/revisions\/16705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}