Wayne Alpern, Standard Deviation | The Vinyl Anachronist

The contemporary jazz scene is almost evenly divided between original compositions and covers from the Great American Songbook. When something falls outside of those two groups, what does that music sound like? I feel like there’s more to this nebulous group than applying jazz fundamentals to songs from other musical genres, but when that happens–for example, in the new Wayne Alpern album Standard Deviation–it immediately stands out from the crowd. Wayne Alpern, a composer and arranger, has tackled this concept before. His first album Skeleton took pop, rock and even country tunes and stripped them down to their bones. From there they were rebuilt into jazz standards in a way that makes you question whether these were ever anything but jazz standards, played and revered for decades and decades. Need some examples from Standard Deviation? Wayne Alpern applies his magic touch to songs from Michael Jackson (nothing less than “Thriller”), and other songs such as “Ode to Billie Joe,” “She’s Not There” and even Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.”) Alpern has gathered a large cast of performers–including vocalists–to create a flexibility that allows these familiar tunes to survive these transformations. “My music is neither radical nor experimental,” Wayne Alpern explains. “Its […]