Rubber Soul Quartet - Something (2022)

The musicians in Rubber Soul Quartet have at least four things in common: We love The Beatles, we love to play jazz, we love to have fun on stage and we love to travel. Our second album, Something, is a kind of a “what if”-project, where we musically move Beatles’ tunes around the world, to see if our harmonic and rhythmic “filters” can produce new versions of these fine English standards. With respect for the great compositions, we re-arrange them in a new style or combine them with parts of American jazz standards that we like. We take some of Lennon’s, McCartney’s and Harrison’s melodies on a jazz-journey, starting in New Orleans, making a few stops in various places in the USA, South America and France, and ending up in West Africa.

The main intention with our band is to experiment with the repertoire made by these gentlemen from Liverpool, having fun playing their beautiful songs live. Like The Beatles, Rubber Soul Quartet has a guitar-based sound. But it is more acoustic, using upright bass, reed instruments and hand percussion. As with our previous album, Blackbird (2020), the goal is not to copy, but to improvise and swing; to disassemble the musical building blocks – and put them back together again.

Hope you enjoy the journey!

Bård Helgerud electric & acoustic guitars, vocals (5, 7, 11)
Håvard Fossum tenor & soprano saxophone, flute, clarinet
Andreas Dreier double bass, background vocals (5, 7, 11)
Torstein Ellingsen drums & percussion, trumpet (11)