Album Notes

Leading Tone Records has released the live recording from the March 2006 concert where The Paul Hemmings Trio put their singular stamp on the classic Beatles album "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band." Playing to a packed house at New York’s Anne-Marie Klein Auditorium, Hemmings and his Trio were joined by special guests and performed the entire album in a continuous stream from the title opener to the final rousing crescendo on "A Day In The Life." The concert was presented as part of the Third Street Music School Settlement’s Friday Night Concert Series.

“I wanted to put together a show for this series that was really accessible to a wide range of people but was still true to my style and vision,” explains Hemmings. “To me jazz is really a philosophy of how to approach making music and not a defined style where you have to play certain tunes and make it sound a certain way. So instead of playing a bunch of obscure standards, I decided to use the "Sgt. Pepper’s" album as a springboard for this concert that would be mostly improvised music.”

The result was an inspired performance that was clearly influenced by the original recording without trying to simply recreate it. “When I was writing the arrangements,” Hemmings adds, “I was very taken with the whole perspective of the original "Sgt. Pepper’s" album in that it was the Beatles taking on the persona of this other band. It’s kind of liberating to try and step outside of yourself and pretend to play as though you’re somebody else.”

In addition to his regular duties on guitar, Hemmings also plays ukulele (on "When I’m Sixty-Four") and Cuban tres (on a solo arrangement for "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"). He is joined by Adam Issadore on drum kit and percussion and Justin Hosek on electric and upright bass. Special guests accompany the trio on several tracks and provide the broad palette of sounds that help color the imaginative arrangements. They include Tom Abbott playing various woodwinds, Jeff Peretz on oud, Efrat Brown on violin, and Lisa Whitfield on viola.

Born in Huntington Beach, California, Paul Hemmings has spent the last six years living, performing, and teaching in New York City. During that time he has performed both nationally and internationally with the Paul Hemmings Trio; "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Live!)" is their second album for Leading Tone Records and is available online at www.cdbaby.com and at various other online retailers including the Apple iTunes Store.