No, it’s not the 101 Strings Orchestra doing Beatles Muzak. Quite the contrary; cellist Maya Beiser uses her “axe” with a Lazy Susan mixture of rockers and delves into the blues, rock and progressive rock. Except for a spoken wisp on Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog,” all of the tunes such as “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd and Zep’s “Kashmir” are taken as instrumentals, with Beiser’s plugged in bow doing amazing things. Clever arrangements by Evan Ziporyn bring out some fantastic colors from blues standards like “Moanin’ at Midnight” and Louisiana Blues,” and Janice Joplin’s version of “Summertime” is an opus all by itself. Deep and complex harmonies are elicited out of Hendrix’s “Little Wing” and even King Crimson gets into the act, with the prog rock bands “Epitaph” sounding better than the original. Beyond gimmickry, this is worth hearing even if you don’t already know the tunes.
Innova Records