Awesome analysis, but I thought you would mention the fact that there's a sometimes veiled sometimes overt quotation of Jobim's Waters of March, including in Mehldau's title
Wow, never noticed! Now I hear it in the chords and in the melody! Especially the Eb-B at the end of the 1st, 2nd and 4th phrase of the theme is obvious, that's kind of the nucleus of Waters of March! Cool, thanks.
Awesome episode! I watch these every morning. First thing I do when I wake up. This tune wasn't my cup of tea at first but the solo blew my mind. These podcasts are great for exposure to jazz I've never heard before
It's interesting for me to think about my experience with this. I picked it up in August 2002 and this album was so different from his previous albums. It's also interesting to hear the album now with the added perspective of what's been recorded since 2002.
The most interesting part of his solo I think is that he is having a very pastoral and legato track which in itself would fit really well in the ECM catalog, but he plays really staccato and angular. There is no point in his solo where he plays a line or phrase in a legato way, every note he does is pointy and clearly defined as such, playing around with the metric too. If you see the transcription, it will be obvious straight from the paper how much thematic development is in there (and it's a great case study). The other thing seems that he is playing only with his right hand. If there is piano playing (I can't remember hearing it there), it is just playing the chord scheme in the triplet feel but I suspect they are two separate recordings. Production wise, I think that is where the magic of this record lies. Mehldau heavily experiments in both his ensembles, his playing, and the production. There is lots of effects treatment, overdubbing, and sonic colouration. From subtly saturating the drums (as you can hear on this track) to ring modulating parts and adding deliberate artificial reverbs as if it indeed were pop/rock tracks. I can imagine it is a difficult record for some as stylistically it is kind of all over the place. If the trios from the 90ies are your thing (like on The art of the trio series), this is something different. Honourable mention for his arrangement of Radiohead's Paranoid Android here. His solo piano versions are quiet well known as he played them on many occasions (and have been included on various recordings over the years) but the full ensemble version brings something completely different to the table.
Thanks for this!! Couleur you Point more precisely at which notes you consider being more of a mistake? E.g. by giving the time stamp. Beautiful solo, indeed. That balance of out and inside.
"A question followed by a question followed by a question." Is that talking about how Mehldau continues to build tension where one would expect him to resolve it?
Yes. When they mentioned it, it was when he built a lot of tension, and then when the tonic came back around in the chord progression, he didn't resolve until after beat 1
I remember when this album came out, and it just floored me. Still holds up. This was really wonderful! Thanks guys!
Awesome analysis, but I thought you would mention the fact that there's a sometimes veiled sometimes overt quotation of Jobim's Waters of March, including in Mehldau's title
Wow, never noticed! Now I hear it in the chords and in the melody! Especially the Eb-B at the end of the 1st, 2nd and 4th phrase of the theme is obvious, that's kind of the nucleus of Waters of March! Cool, thanks.
Awesome episode! I watch these every morning. First thing I do when I wake up. This tune wasn't my cup of tea at first but the solo blew my mind. These podcasts are great for exposure to jazz I've never heard before
It's interesting for me to think about my experience with this. I picked it up in August 2002 and this album was so different from his previous albums. It's also interesting to hear the album now with the added perspective of what's been recorded since 2002.
The most interesting part of his solo I think is that he is having a very pastoral and legato track which in itself would fit really well in the ECM catalog, but he plays really staccato and angular. There is no point in his solo where he plays a line or phrase in a legato way, every note he does is pointy and clearly defined as such, playing around with the metric too. If you see the transcription, it will be obvious straight from the paper how much thematic development is in there (and it's a great case study). The other thing seems that he is playing only with his right hand. If there is piano playing (I can't remember hearing it there), it is just playing the chord scheme in the triplet feel but I suspect they are two separate recordings.
Production wise, I think that is where the magic of this record lies. Mehldau heavily experiments in both his ensembles, his playing, and the production. There is lots of effects treatment, overdubbing, and sonic colouration. From subtly saturating the drums (as you can hear on this track) to ring modulating parts and adding deliberate artificial reverbs as if it indeed were pop/rock tracks. I can imagine it is a difficult record for some as stylistically it is kind of all over the place. If the trios from the 90ies are your thing (like on The art of the trio series), this is something different.
Honourable mention for his arrangement of Radiohead's Paranoid Android here. His solo piano versions are quiet well known as he played them on many occasions (and have been included on various recordings over the years) but the full ensemble version brings something completely different to the table.
Thanks for this!! Couleur you Point more precisely at which notes you consider being more of a mistake? E.g. by giving the time stamp.
Beautiful solo, indeed. That balance of out and inside.
Lawsuit wednesdays
what's the track that plays in the outro of the video?
"Emotion in Motion" by Peter Martin. You can check out the whole tune here: open.spotify.com/album/2JGW2LrkEQxXHrzldmXs4K
"A question followed by a question followed by a question." Is that talking about how Mehldau continues to build tension where one would expect him to resolve it?
Yes. When they mentioned it, it was when he built a lot of tension, and then when the tonic came back around in the chord progression, he didn't resolve until after beat 1
This was far from an analysis :/ Love your channel anyway tho!