Milos Karadaglic – Blackbird: The Beatles Album (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Milos Karadaglic – Blackbird: The Beatles Album (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 44:57 minutes | 839 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mercury KX

After delighting audiences with the core-classical heritage of the guitar, award-winning guitarist Milos Karadaglic makes a thrilling departure performing new arrangements of songs by the Beatles he collaborates with celebrated artists including Tori Amos, Gregoy Porter, Anoushka Shankar, Sergio Assad and Steven Isserlis. Sons include “Blackbird”, “Come Together”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Eleanor Rigby”, “Fool on the Hill” and many others.

Quite a few of The Beatles’ songs are based on harmonically sophisticated guitar parts, so it’s surprising how few treatments there are for classical guitar. Guitarist Miloš Karadaglić helps fill the lacuna with this collection, which has many straightforward treatments that work well. All the arrangements are by the Brazilian player Sergio Assad, although they are not specifically Brazilian in style. Karadaglić excels in the title track, and you could sample track 2, Come Together, for a novel but natural treatment in which Karadaglić reproduces the blues percussion rhythms on the song on the body of the guitar. Several tracks are rethought more extensively, such as All My Loving (track 14); these are also effective. Guest stars of the celebrity of Tori Amos may help to sell albums, but the steps necessary to incorporate them detract from the overall quality; the arrangement of She’s Leaving Home doesn’t make any sense, and that of Let It Be, featuring Gregory Porter, indulges in a sentimentality (true, it’s there in the song itself) that Karadaglić mostly avoids. In The Fool on the Hill (track 3), there is a subtle, barely-there string accompaniment that works well, but Eleanor Rigby and Here Comes the Sun suffer by comparison with the originals. Of the guest-star turns, only the final one, with Anoushka Shankar contributing an Indian aspect to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (not, interestingly, to one of the more heavily Indian-influenced Beatles tunes), works really well: it keeps Karadaglić in the foreground in a real duet with Shankar. Generally Karadaglić is strongest when he plays solo or accompanied by just a double bass; these pieces have a lived-in quality that reflect the years of study and experimentation Karadaglić put into them. Recommended, and superbly recorded at (natch) Abbey Road Studios. ~~ AllMusic Review by James Manheim

Tracklist:
01. Milos Karadaglic – Blackbird (02:32)
02. Milos Karadaglic – Come Together (02:23)
03. Milos Karadaglic – The Fool on the Hill (03:09)
04. Milos Karadaglic – And I Love Her (02:36)
05. Milos Karadaglic – While My Guitar Gently Weeps (03:32)
06. Milos Karadaglic – Let It Be (feat. Gregory Porter) (03:16)
07. Milos Karadaglic – Eleanor Rigby (02:31)
08. Milos Karadaglic – Yesterday (03:02)
09. Milos Karadaglic – Something (03:03)
10. Milos Karadaglic – She’s Leaving Home (feat. Tori Amos) (04:15)
11. Milos Karadaglic – Michelle (feat. Steven Isserlis) (02:34)
12. Milos Karadaglic – Here, There and Everywhere (02:48)
13. Milos Karadaglic – Here Comes the Sun (03:02)
14. Milos Karadaglic – All My Loving (02:20)
15. Milos Karadaglic – Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (feat. Anoushka Shankar) (03:48)

Personnel:
Miloš Karadaglić, guitar
Chris Hill, double bass (#1,2,4,9,10,15)
Gregory Porter, vocals (#7)
Tori Amos, vocals (#10)
Steven Isserlis, violoncello (#11)
Anoushka Shankar, sitar (#15)
String Ensemble: (#3,7,13)
Christopher Austin, conductor
Kristina Balanas, violin I
Roberts Balanas, violin II
James Boyd, viola I
Tim Ridout, viola II
Louisa Tuck, violoncello I
Brian O’Kane, violoncello II
Stacey Watton, double bass
Navarra String Quartet: (#6)
Magnus Johnston, violin I
Marije Johnston, violin II
Simone van der Giessen, viola
Brian O’Kane, violoncello

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