Steve Markoff & Patricia Lazzara – “Stairway To Heaven” Feat. Dave Malyszko

Steve Markoff & Patricia Lazzara – “Stairway To Heaven” Feat. Dave Malyszko – Single Review

There are so very few rules in music, and though most of them are unspoken even still – we all know what they are.  Number one on that list?  THOU SHALT NOT COVER STAIRWAY, NOT NOW, NOT EVER.

And yet here we are.  Steve Markoff & Patricia Lazzara have decided to be one of the few that have been bold enough to defy one of music’s most universally understood rules.  As to why, I do not know.  Well, I mean…I know – we ALL know WHY someone would want to cover “Stairway To Heaven” – it’s a sensational song, and probably still the best that’s ever been written by us mere mortals down here.  That being said, I’m pretty positive that being one of the few to cover this tune comes along with its own special curse to accompany anything else ya might do afterwards…so beware Steve, Patricia, and Dave.

Anyhow.  Do I like what I hear?  Sure!  Is it Led Zeppelin?  No!  Did a cover of “Stairway To Heaven” by two flautists have any chance of being Led Zeppelin?  Of course not, so it’d be silly to expect that.  It’s pleasant though, no argument there.  Even if it ruffles my feathers anytime someone out there gets the notion that it’d be a good idea to cover this song, I’m still an objective set of ears at the end of the day.  Steve & Patricia do a solid job adapting this legendary moment in music’s history to an all-flute/piano rendition…and heck, I’d suspect they do a better job in doing that than most would likely be able to.  That’s the good stuff I’ve got to say.  The rest is pretty much me grumbling about how certain songs should remain untouchable as there will be no way to make them any better than they already were.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m actually all for cover tunes – but there are definitely a few untouchables, and I feel like Steve & Patricia have decided to take one of those on this time around, and dragged poor Dave into it to receive part of my VICIOUS WRATH.  Okay, look…I like these people.  You can read other reviews I’ve written on the music of Steve Markoff & Patricia Lazzara in the past, and you can tell I have a soft spot for these wonderful young flautists.  I’ve even had a few opportunities to talk with Steve behind the scenes, and I can tell ya firsthand the man has a wonderfully wry sense of humor.  So NO – I don’t want to pee in their proverbial cornflakes in reviewing their cover of “Stairway To Heaven” if it can be avoided, and thankfully, I feel like they’ve taken enough care with it that I don’t really have to.  In fact, for the most part, I do really enjoy how they’ve approached this.  It ain’t easy to tackle the world’s most recognizable song y’all…so credit where credit is due, I do think they’ve done a decent job in what has to be one of the hardest tasks they’ve taken on to-date.  They score the bulk of their wins early on into this cover, where you’ll find the first five & a half minutes or so ends up hitting the bullseye fairly square.  As for the finale…I think we can probably debate that a bit…I need more depth, low-end, and audible drama there, and it felt like their version of “Stairway To Heaven” played it a little on the lighter side of sound.  The skills are there, and they play to their own strengths…ultimately, it’s a stylistic choice that may or may not resonate with the people out there listening.  They’re hitting all the key notes and such, and that’s really all you can do.  Dave’s doin’ his level best to add a bit of that drama I’m looking for through the piano…but I don’t know if I was quite convinced it was enough to get that same intense feeling you’d get out of the way Zeppelin ended this masterpiece.  Not that I’m saying they HAD to do that…I mean…covers are what they are…there are no rules in that particular regard, you’re allowed to do whatever you want to, as long as you’re of the understanding that you will indeed be MERCILESSLY SCRUTINIZED for every decision you make and that listeners will ALWAYS compare you to the original no matter what you do.  I genuinely admire the way they’ve played their way through the melody with such precision throughout the bulk of this tune, and how they were able to create such an emotionally convincing performance when it came to the sincerity of the melody.  Key moments like around the 2:35 spot for example…that’s a good spot in this tune for Steve & Patricia, where they demonstrate that they can still provide the passion you wanna hear in the way the melody fluctuates at that point in Zeppelin’s song.  Overall, I felt like they didn’t leave me all that much to complain about, and I appreciate that.  To think of the millions of ways an all-flute/piano cover of “Stairway To Heaven” could have gone totally south is somewhat staggering…and generally speaking, they’ve avoided so many of the pitfalls they could have easily stumbled right into.  Credit where credit is due, they’ve done that by really remaining faithful to the original melody as it was written, and allowed the fact that we’re listening to this song being played on the freakin’ flute to establish the majority of the difference in what we hear.  Of course, there’s no Robert Plant to sing it as well, but you get what I mean…in the instrumentation, they’ve really allowed the song to remain the same (see what I did there?) and kept the melody as intact as possible.

Steve and Patricia have made no errors in this cover that I can hear, and bring their professionalism & passion to it.  Dave kept the song’s core structure & melody on a steady path…all-in-all, I feel like I’m about as happy as I could have been in listening to a couple flautists & a pianist break THE golden rule of music.  Ultimately, Zeppelin’s song is as timeless as they come…and while we might collectively try to discourage anyone from covering it, each time it has happened simply provides more confirmation of the incredible songwriting that went into the original, and how that’s still able to translate with each iteration.  Even here in flute-form, “Stairway To Heaven” continues to mesmerize us from start to finish with its exceptionally enchanting sound…and to be entirely fair, I’m thankful that the players were as competent as we know Steve & Patricia to be, otherwise there would have been a major possibility that a cover in this style would have fallen completely flat.  As it stands, I feel like they’ve done a great job with it & that their cover shows they’ve taken care with the source material, and truly respect it as well.

Find out more about about Steve Markoff & Patricia Lazzara from their official website at:  https://www.lazzarkoff.com

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