''All We Are Saying...'' is an album by American guitarist and composer

Bill Frisell William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist. He first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts, notably as a participant ...

that was released in September 2011. It consists of songs written by

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

, both as a member of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

and as a solo artist, arranged and performed in Frisell's definitive style. The album also features violinist Jenny Scheinman, pedal steel and acoustic guitarist Greg Leisz, bassist Tony Scherr, and drummer Kenny Wollesen. The title comes from the first line of the chorus to Lennon's 1969 single "

Give Peace a Chance "Give Peace a Chance" is an anti-war song written by John Lennon (originally credited to Lennon–McCartney), and recorded with the participation of a small group of friends in a performance with Yoko Ono in a hotel room in Montreal, Quebec, C ...

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

assigns ''All We Are Saying'' an aggregate score of 69 out of 100 based on 6 critical reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In his review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, Thom Jurek awarded the album three stars, stating that "almost none of these 16 tunes are radical reinterpretations of Lennon's songs; most stick close to the original melodies even at their most adventurous." Jurek also writes:

Opener "Across the Universe," with its twinning of Frisell's electric guitar and Leisz's pedal steel as Scheinman's violin picks up the lyric melody and extrapolates its harmonic aspects, is indicative of the recording's M.O., offering a close examination of Lennon the ''composer''. The interplay between the three principals is remarkable, such as on the intro to "Nowhere Man," where Scheinman's ostinato tenses up in advance of the changes, and Leisz grounds her fluidly while Frisell pulls his lower strings to wind up, allowing the track to begin then flow into more open areas without losing sight of the melody.Jurek, T

accessed October 13, 2011.

Track listing

Across the Universe "Across the Universe" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song first appeared on the 1969 various artists' charity compilation album ''No One's Gonna Change Our W ...

" ( Lennon, McCartney) – 5:53 #"

Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

" (Lennon, McCartney) – 3:50 #" Nowhere Man" (Lennon, McCartney) – 5:14 #" Imagine" (Lennon) – 4:51 #" Please, Please Me" (Lennon, McCartney) – 2:06 #"

You've Got to Hide Your Love Away "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. It was written and sung by John Lennon (though credited to Lennon–McCartney) and released on the album ''Help!'' in August 1965. Composition and recording Len ...

" (Lennon, McCartney) – 5:10 #" Hold On" (Lennon) – 3:56 #"

In My Life "In My Life" is a song by the English Rock music, rock band the Beatles, released on their 1965 studio album, ''Rubber Soul''. Credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership, the song is one of only a few in which there is dispute ...

" (Lennon, McCartney) – 4:05 #"

Come Together "Come Together" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song is the opening track on the band's 1969 studio album ''Abbey Road''. It was also a double A-side single in the U ...

" (Lennon, McCartney) – 5:10 #"

Julia Julia may refer to: People *Julia (given name), including a list of people with the name *Julia (surname), including a list of people with the name *Julia gens, a patrician family of Ancient Rome *Julia (clairvoyant) (fl. 1689), lady's maid of Qu ...

" (Lennon, McCartney) – 3:31 #"

Woman A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or Adolescence, adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functi ...

" (Lennon) – 4:21 #" #9 Dream" (Lennon) – 3:42 #"

Love Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment (psychology), attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most su ...

" (Lennon) – 2:18 #" Beautiful Boy" (Lennon) – 3:27 #"

Mother A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

" (Lennon) – 6:52 #"

" (Lennon) – 3:38

Personnel

– guitars *

Greg Leisz Gregory Brian Leisz ( ; born September 18, 1949) is an American musician. He is a songwriter, recording artist, and producer. He plays guitar, dobro, mandolin, banjo, lap steel and pedal steel guitar. Biography Leisz grew up in the garage ba ...

– steel guitar, acoustic guitar *

Jenny Scheinman Jenny Scheinman is a jazz violinist. She has produced several critically acclaimed solo albums, including ''12 Songs'', named one of the Top Ten Albums of 2005 by ''The New York Times''. She has played with Linda Perry, Norah Jones, Nels Cline, ...

– violin *

Tony Scherr Tony Scherr is an American jazz and folk rock bassist, guitarist, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Biography Scherr was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and is a graduate of the Hammonasset School. He played with Woody Herman as a teenage ...

– bass *

Kenny Wollesen Kenny Wollesen (born 1966) is an American drummer and percussionist. Wollesen has recorded and toured with Tom Waits, Sean Lennon, Ron Sexsmith, Bill Frisell, Norah Jones, John Lurie, Myra Melford, Steven Bernstein, and John Zorn. He is a fou ...

– drums *

Lee Townsend Lee Townsend is an American independent music producer, curator, artist manager and co-owner of Songtone (Songline/Tone Field Productions), specializing in recordings of singer-songwriters, contemporary composers, improvising musicians, and cross ...

– producer *Adam Munoz – recording and mixing engineer *Greg Calbi – mastering engineer

References

{{Authority control 2011 albums Bill Frisell albums Savoy Records albums John Lennon tribute albums