Ahh, To Be Brad Mehldau In The 90's
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- In this episode, Peter and Adam travel back in time to a time when things were just simpler. Think baggy pants and gel bracelets. Sitcoms on tv and dial-up internet, heck... we're talking flip-phones baby! Join in as Peter and Adam check out a live concert of Brad Mehldau playing at Parc Floral de Paris which was part of the "A Fleur de Jazz" Festival in 1997.
Peep the original concert ↓
• Brad Mehldau Trio - Li...
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Thanks Peter and Adam, Brad here! Great to hear your take on the music from the inside - as musicians. Peter, I remember the first time we met, through your St. Louis homeboy Spike Wilner. When I came to NYC in 1988, you had just gotten the gig with Betty Carter, and I was watching you a lot for sure, how you played with her. On the subject of trios, she had some really good ones...
I appreciate your comment generally on influence, Peter, when you ask rhetorically, why do folks often focus on particular influences and make assumptions, to the exclusion of other ones? You mentioned Hank Jones. There’s an influence! I watched him playing duo at Bradley’s, and that’s in me, in one way or another - his touch, his arrangemental gift, his pacing, his swing, his economy of notes. The thing is, when you go to find your own path, your influences are not as discernible - you hopefully speak your own language, but those musical building blocks are there, absorbed from those earlier great lights. For trio: McCoy on those seminal Impulse records (Reaching Fourth, Inception, among others) Red Garland with A.T. and P.C., Wynton Kelly Trio, Bobby Timmons, many more. And: the grand wizard, Ahmad Jamal, who defined a way of trio playing that has never been surpassed, by anyone. Live at The Pershing. Awakening. All those pianists, and their bands - that’s in me, whether someone hears it directly or not.
One normative narrative about piano trio in jazz begins with Bill Evans and leads to Keith. Those great giants indelibly shaped the music, but what about all the other ones? Keith was a very big piano solo model for me, but I never plugged into his trio recordings. There are probably aesthetic reasons I could qualify for that; they’re mine alone and don’t carry a judgment on the “worth" of that trio, but suffice to say: If he’s an influence, it’s indirect, and that’s for someone else to say. Bill Evans, Village Vanguard stuff with LaFaro and Motian, for sure, but also: the great trio recordings with Sam Jones, P.C., Philly Joe from a bit earlier. So deep.
I won’t get on a soapbox again, but I do think that there is an unfortunate racial trope in this piano trio narrative. Let’s stay tuned and see where you go with your Bill Evans/Larry Bird episode! When we arrived in NYC in the late 80s, the joke about Bill Evans was that he was “The Great White Hope”. Maybe that’s a good place to start - why did musicians make that joke in the first place, to whom or what did it speak? White musicians’ inferiority complex?. Underlying resentment? Dunno. There’s a lot to unpack there in any case, but it’s worth a discussion. (I was called “The Great White Mope”, which is pretty damned funny, looking back.)
When I came to NYC in 1988, piano trio was: Cedar Walton/David Williams/Billy Higgins, Kenny Barron/Ray Drummond/Ben Riley at Bradley’s. Tommy Flanagan with George Mraz or P Wash, and Kenny Washington at Sweet Basil's. That was all top of the top trio playing, and that’s what I wanted to do. It’s still a model. On that performance you looked at there, in terms of the actual harmonic vocabulary, rhythmic stuff like the metric modulation, more generally and the kind of abstraction we were exploring - it’s HERBIE big time. Herbie Hancock. The great modernizer, with a level of sophistication and ease that’s never been rivalled. The thing that I did not have at that age was the ease, the rhythmic relaxation. It’s a little jagged to hear it back.
And, to keep telling on myself: That fast lick you guys freeze-framed - I recognise it well enough as part of my thing, but it comes from McCoy, along with so much of the other fast 8th note stuff there. All the way. Earlier McCoy - his solos on those Atlantic Coltrane Quartet records, like Coltrane Plays the Blues, or those early trio records. It’s my bastardization of him. And with NO disrespect to the late great Chick Corea, I’m pretty certain, that McCoy was big for him as well. Listen to Now He Sings..McCoy Tyner was the model for a certain kind of articulated rhythmic precision that so many of us followed and still do. McCoy, like Herbie, is so ubiquitous, that you might not recognize that it’s his thing coming out in someone else. It’s an irony that when someone is so great like those two, they become undervalued to a degree. Maybe when I grow up that will happen to me. Thanks you guys and I’ll keep tuning in.
Hey Brad! You’re the best, huge inspiration to me and my friends. Was hoping to catch you in LA in November, but most of those Disney Hall concerts are out of my price point. Anyways, thanks for the comment!
Amazing comment! thank you, Brad, for your music and your openness. I love watching your interviews, you come across as a down-to-earth dude, even if your music sores the skies!
Thanks for that fascinating reply! It makes the video even better.
thank you so much for the comment and all you have contributed.
@bradmehldau4436
Thank you so much for your openness, Brad. It's always very pleasurable to read you and I especially like how you are helping demistify influence, bring back the not so often celebrated, and share genuine opinions, which have value for us who are inspired by you.
On the perceived lack of rhythmical relaxation: you sound so good on your earlier records as well, I keep going back to those: Introducing, New York - Barcelona, Art Of The Trio I and Perico -personal friend we have in common- 's Ademuz. You are swinging hard, playing high energy solos and harmonically so lush, hip and original.
I can see the way you feel differently now about the act of playing: the relaxation both physical and cerebral. I see that when I catch you live - last time it was trio at Castellón: hall with too much reverb for your format and still the clarity was unbelievable, Jeff was divinely inspired that day and you reinvented music in a free coda in, I believe, Misty.
Thank you for reminding us of albums to listen to and... just for giving so much!
Goodness, I love Brad Mehldau
I highly recommend reading Brad's memoir - Formation Part 1 - released 2023. The 90s were personally very tough on Brad with addiction; but he describes how after the addiction his creativity just flowed! And it sure did it!
Also during tho
Hey Peter and adam - great channel! And great school.
I was lucky enough to meet and hear a very young Brad Mehldau in 1988 or 89 when he attended the IAJS (International Association of Jazz Schools) convention hosted by the Taller de Musics in Vic a small town north of Barcelona. He was part of a contingent of students from the New School in NY, along with perhaps a hundred other students from jazz schools all across Europe, three or four from each school with a teacher or two. I was about 23 and from ireland and a would-be piano player. I soon rethought my career options - haha.
When i arrived in the Hotel I thought somebody was playing a herbie hancock record only to go out into the corridor and discover it was this very young guy Brad from the new School playing on one of the uprights the hosts had thoughtfully put on each floor. He sounded exactly, i mean EXACTLY, like Herbie. A couple of days later in a workshop on Bill Evans the tutor (hal Galper i think) asked brad to play some bill evans voicings for him. Brad sat down and played exactly like Bill Evans. This was more than just the voicings. You know the way the piano sounds in the Village Vanguard recordings - I had always thought this was to do with the type of piano and the way it was miked. But brad made the Piano in Spain sound exactly like that. And I heard him later make the piano sound like Ahmad Jamal. So for sure it was his choice of voicing but it was also his touch. Just like some of us can impersonate someones accent, Brad was actually able to impersonate other pianists, not just the notes but their individual sound and touch. It was really remarkable and I had never heard anything like it.
But speaking to your comments about art emerging in a vacuum - Metric modulation was very trendy in the late 80s with Steve coleman and Dave Holland looming large on the jazz scene at the time. There were a few classes over the week devoted to metric modulation and odd and compound time signatures and using them in jazz. One was given by Ronan Guilfoyle and i remember Brad sitting in the back listening. I am sure he was already doing it from his listening but perhaps these classes probably confirmed the theory for him and maybe allowed someone like him to internalise the ideas and use them very rapidly.
Over the week Every night in the Hotel bar there were these marathon Jam sessions. Brad would get on the Piano early and stay there for the next six hours till 3 am with a growing collection of beer bottles on the piano lid. As odd time signatures and metric modulation was a sort of a theme of the week the band did a LOT of that as far as I recall, at ever increasing tempos. The teachers who were giving the classes were often playing in the jam but at eighteen, Brad already seemed like an expert on the modulations and time signatures they were teaching and had absolutely no problem sounding amazing on what ever they threw at him. Brad was also already using his left hand to play counter melodies and i remember hearing him do this a couple of times during the jam sessions. And all this on Invitation in 6 over 4 at 300bpm. A lot of spainish musicians were there - Perico Sambeat, who brad later recorded with for example. Obviously the word went out about this kid because lots of local jazz musicians including Tete Montoliu turned up to have a listen. Tete was the only person to nudge brad off the piano for a couple of tunes over the week.
The 100 students were split in to ensembles and naturally Brad was in the A - team. They did a version of all the things in 7/8 I think for the end of week concert. I could hear it was remarkable for a "student" band, and swung in the odd meter with a suppleness that can be heard on Brads Art of the trio records later. I was in the Z team and brad threw me a bit of advice as we went onstage- We were doing confirmation: he said - "Oh i find if you just mess around in F that works great." I just about know what that means now, 35 years later @bradmehldau4436
Yes,but his "my favorite things "jazz at Vienne 2010,piano solo after around 6min, the preparation for go back to the theme is insane and mefistotelic.pure" trance".
This part, playing the melody in LEFT hand while the RH goes nuts!
ruclips.net/video/DzyGce9bAao/видео.html
Your title grabbed me!( love this program all the time) I clearly recall the " advent" of Brad Mehldau. I'm a pianist/ educator a few years older than him, and first heard him on Josh Redmans records. The entire atmosphere of the music would change when Brad's solos came up. ( taking NOTHING away from the other players ,of course) it was far more than just great piano playing, and was clear even then that Brad's was the next face on the " Mount Rushmore of jazz piano". ( along with Oscar, Bill, McCoy, Herbie, Keith and Chick)
okay let's just ignore tatum and moran. Not to mention earl hines???
I saw the Brad Mehldau trio with Jorge and Larry in a small club, I managed to get a seat close to the grand piano. Amazing!!! Thank You for talking about this era.
Great video, guys! I'm still bummed that Brad missed his flight to Toronto last June. Looking forward to seeing him in January.
Whenever I listen to Bill Evans playing on Symbiosis I think of Brad Mehldau and his album Places. Both share the same vibe in spots. I’ve always wondered whether Brad admired that recording (Symbiosis), and whether it influenced him in anyway. It’s full of gorgeous playing. I love Brad’s entire catalogue, and so have become very familiar with his style so when I discovered Symbiosis about five years ago I made this connection. I do not mean to suggest anything more than a possible influence. Brad has his own style-and I love it!
This is really interesting. I absolutely loved hearing this clip and listening to your comments on it, which helped me to get more into it. One thing that struck me, however is that the Brad I'm hearing these days, in my limited experience, for example the recent album of Beatles songs, and other works is a lot different than this performance, and I found myself starting to make judgments about which one I liked better, and wanting to frame Brad Mehldau in 1997 as some sort of golden period in his career, and I had to stop myself. I'm not qualified to speak competently about how good or inspiring or amazing Brad was in 1997 vs. recent years, and I really don't want to go there. The way I decided to reframe this was by considering that this performance in 1997 was a product of Brad's own journey and the culture at that time. It has a certain compelling draw to me (which I can't explain) that I am not getting from what I heard recently from Brad, and that says a lot more about me and my own journey and quest for understanding than anything. I'm absolutely sure that Brad is still putting everything he has into his performances and his music and brings things to the table in new, different and deeper ways than I can understand, and I'm going to continue listening with an open mind and focused ear to understand and appreciate his talent and his vision and the truth of his music. I'm going to continue asking myself the question "Is there more here that I'm not picking up on?" when I'm listening to Brad, and others, and always trying to pin down what I'm connecting with, what I'm not connecting with, what I like, what I don't like, and being interested and curious and being purposefully thoughtful about it.
That's probably TMI, but I do believe that it is worthwhile to give an example of what could be a limiting thought process and how one person worked to take steps to deal with it.
I'm glad to say i subscribed before the 10k mark.
Love the format with two keyboards.
Best from Barcelona!
Thank you guys for reminding me why I love this band so much
Thanks, Peter and Adam. I wish I would have payed more attention to this trio back in the '90s. I got the Live At The Vanguard CD when it came out, but didn't listen to it enough. Time to go back and dig in deeper!
I’ m parisian, i love the good words of Peter about the jazz audience in Paris
Such an amazing clip!
I’m sure a million people have pointed this out, but 19:39 sounds like major chords going around the circle of 5ths 2nd/1st inversion which gives that half up/whole down motion to the top note. Never could figure out how he makes it work over *anything* wooo!
Obviously professional pianists, saxophonists, trumpeters learn from the past and existing Masters but a few are an exception and have their sound, sense of unique timing, phrasing that comes from within them at an early age. I do not find Mehldau at all like Keith Jarrett ( as they mention in this video) as I do not find Cannonball like Charlie Parker. Mehldau has such a unique approach to the piano, the sound he gets out of it, the way he masterfully creates fugues within his solo and most of all is ability to have such independence between his right and left hand ( which are what makes him a true genius of this instrument) and play with time and groove like no one can make him a ONE OFF. To me he is the business. You also read his book that has recently come out and the way he suffered in his childhood and you understand why he is such a formidable musician, because he found music a way of escaping from the life he didn't like then...and man he did that well! As Mehldau puts it in his book: ' The Sublime I found in Jazz was my way out. It was a way of getting back at Mr Dunn, for breaking a boundary with me ( grooming). By taking back the power in the music... Jazz was about breaking the laws of beauty and making your own new law right then and there.'
And he does without sounding like anybody else but himself.
Thank you, Gentlemen 🌹⭐🌹⭐
His intro to The Way You Look Tonight sounds very informed by Charles Stepneys work on I am the Black Gold of the Sun.
Love your analysis ❤
"Bill Evans ~ the Larry Bird of Jazz". Gonna have to borrow that one!
you guys are an inspiration
Braaaadddd. He mentioned that he doesn't know how he played like this in the 90s (in a good way) when he listens back now. That'd be an interesting video, how/why does that happen and is it a natural side effect of growth as a musician? Holdsworth would say in the opposite way that he can't listen to old recordings of himself.
It’s happened to me as well, on a less virtuosic level of course, watching old videos of me playing and realising I can’t play like that anymore, mainly because my technique has changed pursuing different musical needs, that’s how I would explain that
before anyone had heard of jazz ❤❤❤❤❤
You know whats also great? Brad Mehldau solo. I own and love his Elegiac Cycle album. Any other solo Brad album I should check out?
❤❤❤❤thank you ,great topic
Back in the late 90s when I was a teenager and strictly into free jazz and metal I got a brad meldau CD from my aunt and uncle. It may as well have been Ned Flanders on the cover. and I regret snubbing my nose at it during those crucial years.
Great video guys!
For a pianist such as myself, it would be much more valuable if you could take a brief segment or two of Brad's performance and give us the actual notes, show how he modifies them, develops it, reharmonizes it, transitions to something new - something more than just gushing about how great Brad is. As it is, I am not left with anything that I can grok, latch onto, work with, open a new horizon, and advance as a musician. I want the flood to be broken down and broken up.
Thumbs up to the Larry Bird of Jazz!
Is Bill Evans the Larry Bird of jazz? LOL!
You know, you guys could go with a wider aspect ratio here. I feel like it would suit your setup here well. 2:1, for example. Or even 19.5:9, the iPhone screen.
Great show as always. Brad will be in Beaverton, Or next month. By the way will you be selling the tee shirt Peter has on, nice look.
6:06 Willie Wear!!!!👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿🤭🤭🤭
👊🏼
Have you guys seen Rick Beato's interview with Keith Jarret on RUclips?
For sure there are similarities with the angular lines and rhythms played by Keith Jarrett but I agree that Mehldau created his own sound. That piano from the 90s concert sounds way too bright and brittle but I'm guessing he wasn't in a position to travel with his own piano at that stage in his career
💥💥💥
20:07 sounds like that fourth thing is using major chords.
Any thought about comparing the bass players? I feel modern ones like Grenadier are way more conservative that older ones like La Faro, Gomez, or even Marc Johnson. At the end of the day Evans's trio was more interesting (in a way advanced?) Than this.
Why?
(Also, this is very very very Jarret, and it's great, nothing wrong with it)
Miles davis of our time
Wow intense
Peter, you have incredibly quick ears, Adam you too. How fast you pick up these licks! Peter, you mentioning the piano being out of tune made me curious to ask, do you have perfect pitch?
Just wondering if Larry on the bass is following a fixed chord scheme or just following wherever brad goes?
I hear him playing pretty consistent ii V's over the changes to the tune which looks to be in F. In the solo you hear him playing some substitutions with Larry moving but he's keeping things together and on the last A he pedals on the dominant. So...yeah, I'd say consistent and artful marking of the form by Larry!
"Hey, we don't have a mic for the piano."
"We could use a high-pass filter."
"Um... that's not a mic..."
"Yeah, but somehow I can hear the piano thru it. It's just REALLY tinny sounding."
"Tiny sounding?"
"That too. You know, Keith Jarret would've compl..."
"You're not to mention that name at this show ."
"Oh yeah. Sorry. So, we'll use the HPF instead of a mic? Fab!"
"It's not fab here - it's bien... or something, I forget"
Anyway, the question is, if you learned music in a Dyson sphere... did you learn music in a vacuum?
My theory about Keith Jarret's influences... I always just assumed he partied with Mrs. Mills, and honed his technique while entertaining those rabble rousers when the missus was taking a break to prepare canapés. Part of being a good party host is knowing when, and to whom, to delegate. However, I'm open to the possibility that I could be mistaken. But if I am, I certainly won't read any responses here, so you'll just have to make the "You know, he wasn't even the first person called Keith" video.
17:48 I kinda disagree with this sentiment. Just like with religious ritual garb, I think a baggy hoodie, or God forbid, a baja pullover🤣, and some corduroy patchwork pants, could help someone get in the right mood. C'mon, folks, I need a reason to smile today, or a hearty belly laugh.
Why does so much jazz listening boil down to "spot the musical device" or "how was that sophisticated"
and Why would anybody speed this song up to that speed? It is such a lush and rich melody, which all dissipates at this torching pace and disassembled construction.....
If you don't know the difference between plural and possessive, perhaps get someone else to do your thumbnails and titles.
dunno, can't really get into this guy,,..tried to more than a couple times,..... much prefer listening to peter/adam jam out,...
"Classy cow music" thanks Peter, I cannot now unhear that.