Bill Murray releasing album consisting of songs and literary readings read over chamber music

The comedian rehearses wearing ‘a loose fitting salmon shirt and a white and black bandanna’

(AFP/Getty Images)

Bill Murray is a man of many, many talents. An entrepreneur, opening a Caddyshack-themed bar, himself a brilliant bartender. An almost identical Tom Hanks lookalike.

According to The New York Times, the Ghostbusters actor is currently working on a new project titled New Worlds, a collection of songs and literary readings read over chamber music, led by the cellist Jan Vogler.

New Worlds sees the comedian sing Stephen Foster’s ‘Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair’, various songs from West Side Story, along with readings from Whitman and Hemingway.

Vogler’s trio of musicians — which includes his wife — will perform music from the likes of Schubert, Bach and Piazzolla.

“When they start playing,” Murray told NYT after practice, “the demand is so great that if you are attending to who you are right now, it brings out something that you couldn’t have visualised or planned for.

“You hear all those other voices saying, ‘That didn’t sound like Tony Bennett,’ or, ‘That B flat’s not going to break a light bulb.’ But they’re receding. They’re gone.”

According to the report, Murray was wearing ‘a loose fitting salmon shirt and a white and black bandanna’ during the rehearsal, while Sofia Coppola wandered in at one point and shot footage on her phone.

“This is very unexpected,” the acclaimed director said. “But because it’s Bill, I’m not surprised. He is always surprising. That’s what’s fun about him.”