About Andrew Vogt
Andrew Vogt is an accomplished musician and composer from Chicago who, in addition to writing, producing, and performing his own original Music, collaborates and performs regularly with singers and songwriters from all genres of music. He has written and arranged over 200 pieces of music and has recorded over 300 songs (60 albums) as a performer.
On the performing side of music, Vogt has played with many world renowned jazz artists including Ernie Watts (Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, Pat Metheny), Donny McCaslin (David Bowie), Nate Watts (Stevie Wonder), Isaiah Sharkey (John Mayer, D’Angelo) and Woody Goss (Vulfpeck). He is featured on over 24 hours of music (over 35 albums) on Spotify from different collaborations and side projects.
Vogt’s first record dates back to 2014, when he released his first album as producer and primary composer under the group “The Humble Organisms”, followed in 2016 by his debut EP as a bandleader, “For Free”, and again by the album “The AV Club”, released the following year. In 2021, he released “Oihana” with musical partners B Forrest and Patrik Ahlberg which quickly ran up the bluegrass charts and playlists.
Song Review
Composer and Producer from Chicago, Andrew Vogt, creates a stunningly suave rendition of a timeless classic.
Eleanor Rigby is a song familiar to almost all serious music fans. The melancholic lyrics and classical instrumentation are so influential and iconic that it’s hard to imagine the song in any other way. However, Vogt completely revamps the song into a seven-minute ensemble of jazz musicians and a breezy night-time noir atmosphere.
Cleverly, Vogt revitalizes the lyrics’ flow into the tenor sax sound, which immediately plunges you into the classy, streetlight ambiance of the track. The bass adds more depth to the tenor’s mood and the piano nicely balances it out with lighter-sounding keys.
At around the 0:50 second mark, the song starts to rise on its own two feet and take even more creative reign, slowly building up the pace until the 2:00 minute mark when the rest of the instruments suddenly burst into life. After this short and beautiful outburst, the sax and piano slow to a gentler pace, it’s this part where the song truly forms its own identity and turns a familiar classic into something completely brand new.
The dramatic nature of the original Eleanor Rigby fits the pinstripe suit of jazz perfectly and gives the song new life. Listening to this, I imagined the tragic stories of Eleanor and Father Mckenzie in the brooding atmosphere of a big city like New York or Chicago, instead of the grey skies of Liverpool. It breathes a new perspective into the song while maintaining what made it great, a rarity for covers.
The song ends in a jazz traffic jam of instruments all sounding off as the tale of Eleanor reaches a close, in truth, I was dreading the 7:03 minute mark at which point I knew I would have to step out of Vogt’s noir Chicago world and back to reality.
Listen Below
Score/Outstanding: Vogt gives a jazz spin to a classic song, and it pays off tenfold. The atmosphere, the composition, and the work of the musicians are all flawless. A creative stroke of ingenuity that was an absolute pleasure to review.
[I rank music on a scale of: Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, Outstanding]
Written by Jake Campbell
The post Andrew Vogt: Eleanor Rigby (Music Review) appeared first on Music Review World.
