Like many who came of age in the early 1960s, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell remembers watching the Beatles make their U.S. debut on television. Now he’s fronting an all-star ensemble offering a contemporary take on John Lennon’s classic songs.

“I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show just before my 13th birthday, right when I was getting into guitar,” Frisell recalled. "It was massively huge in the effect it had on my whole life. … John Lennon's music has been with me, the band, everybody, the world ... it seems like forever. The songs are part of us. In our blood."

The 61-year-old Frisell brings the show “All We Are Saying” to The Ark Tuesday night. An album was released last September. For the project, he assembled an ensemble consisting of Jenny Scheinman (violin),Tony Scherr (bass), Greg Leisz (guitars) and Kenny Wollesen (drums).

‘It seems like generation after generation keeps discovering that music all over again. It’s so integrated in the way everybody hears music,” Frisell said during a Father’s Day phone call from his Seattle home.

The show includes tunes from Lennon’s Beatles and post-Beatles career, among them “Please, Please Me,” “Revolution,” “Nowhere Man,” Come Together,” “In My Life,” “Beautiful Boy,” “Mother,” “Love” and “Give Peace a Chance.”

“There’s so much music, it’s insane,” Frisell said. “We could do probably 2 or 3 more albums of just john Lennon stuff. We could do albums of Paul McCartney stuff, albums of Ringo’s stuff, George Harrison stuff—it’s just outrageous how much music there is.”

The focus on Lennon came about somewhat by accident, Frisell recalled.

“This wasn’t some sort of conscious effort. Like so many things I do in music, a lot of things just appear in front of me … A few years ago in Paris, on some anniversary of John Lennon’s birth or death, they were doing this exhibit in a museum and doing all this John Lennon-related stuff and they asked me to do a concert of that music. That’s what got it started.”

Reception to the show was so positive, said Frisell, he decided to continue presenting the program.

“Everyone involved with this has their own personal‚ deep‚ long‚ relationship to John Lennon's music. It connects us all and brings us together,” Frisell said.

Fans of Lennon’s music should know there was no attempt to jazz the tunes up or otherwise put Frisell’s spin on them.

“There wasn’t anything to change. The songs are perfect,” he said. “I wanted to be the closest I could get to what the original material was. I didn’t want to rearrange them or reharmonize them. … The only stamp I’m putting on it is just that we’re playing it - I’m playing with my closest friends and we all have our own personal, deep, long relationship with this music.”

Although he hasn’t heard from Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, about the project, one of Lennon’s drawings graces the cover of the CD.

“The fact that they let us use that drawing on the cover, I get the feeling they are OK with it,” Frisell said.