Brad Mehldau on Fresh Air

[Sam Mullins]

Brad Mehldau was on NPR Fresh Air today talking about new album of Beatles covers and his career in general.  Here is web site for reference although today's show isn't posted yet (should be by tomorrow):

 

https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/

 

He also has a memoir about his early life and career coming out next month.

 

 

[Sam Mullins]

Link is up now:

 

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1154786539

 

Interesting discussion of McCartney's musical devices...

[bill5]

Never heard of the guy until he did an album with Pat Metheny. Def checking this out 

[jazzpiano88]

2 hours ago, bill5 said:

Never heard of the guy until he did an album with Pat Metheny. Def checking this out 

 

I must admit I come at Brad from a skeptic's perspective, first having heard of him as Pat Metheny's pianist.   To me, he comes across in this setting more as a shredding competitor to Pat than a collaborator like Lyle was.

 

His Beatles reharms are wonderful in this interview.    However, his Tom Sawyer reharm is atrocious, so I have to question his judgement.

 

NPR declares him has the most influential jazz pianist in the last 20 years.   I disagree.   I don't know of anyone who is playing Brad Meldau standards.   But I would love to be corrected if someone can document his lineage.

 

 

[bill5]

25 minutes ago, JazzPiano88 said:

I must admit I come at Brad from a skeptic's perspective, first having heard of him as Pat Metheny's pianist.   To me, he comes across in this setting more as a shredding competitor to Pat than a collaborator like Lyle was.

Yes, exactly, and I think Pat had that thought going in. 

 

 

Quote

His Beatles reharms are wonderful in this interview.    However, his Tom Sawyer reharm is atrocious, so I have to question his judgement.

Tom Sawyer-? I assume you don't mean the Rush song, but that's all I can think of. 

 

 

Quote

NPR declares him has the most influential jazz pianist in the last 20 years.   I disagree.   I don't know of anyone who is playing Brad Meldau standards.   But I would love to be corrected if someone can document his lineage.

If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's don't discuss three things:

1. Politics

2. Religion

3. Who is the most or best this or that. This applies to music, sports, etc

 

 

[jazzpiano88]

1 minute ago, bill5 said:

Tom Sawyer-? I assume you don't mean the Rush song, but that's all I can think of.

 

Yes, I'm referring to the Rush song.

What else would I be referring to, Bill??  

[bill5]

lol that was my thought exactly, it just seemed bizarre to me that a jazz pianist would cover that. What's next, Free Bird? 

[Sam Mullins]

35 minutes ago, JazzPiano88 said:

 

I must admit I come at Brad from a skeptic's perspective, first having heard of him as Pat Metheny's pianist.   To me, he comes across in this setting more as a shredding competitor to Pat than a collaborator like Lyle was.

 

His Beatles reharms are wonderful in this interview.    However, his Tom Sawyer reharm is atrocious, so I have to question his judgement.

 

NPR declares him has the most influential jazz pianist in the last 20 years.   I disagree.   I don't know of anyone who is playing Brad Meldau standards.   But I would love to be corrected if someone can document his lineage.

 

 

Yeah, I ignore statements that start “best” or “most”.  But my take is that he has been pretty influential on younger generation. The radiohead covers alone probably turned lots of young ears towards him 10-15 years ago.  I’m not sure playing of his songs as standards is a sure fire indication of influence. Plenty of great influential players throughout history who didn’t contribute much in compositions.  
 

I’m a fan but not everything he does thrills me.   He has a pretty wide range of offerings from straight-ahead to experimental.  The prog album with the Rush cover is interesting but I didn’t listen more than a few times.  I like his trio and solo straight stuff. But my favorite is the more structured compositional stuff like Largo and Highway Rider.  

 

 

 

 

[jazzpiano88]

6 hours ago, Sam Mullins said:

Yeah, I ignore statements that start “best” or “most”.  But my take is that he has been pretty influential on younger generation. The radiohead covers alone probably turned lots of young ears towards him 10-15 years ago.  I’m not sure playing of his songs as standards is a sure fire indication of influence. Plenty of great influential players throughout history who didn’t contribute much in compositions.  
 

I’m a fan but not everything he does thrills me.   He has a pretty wide range of offerings from straight-ahead to experimental.  The prog album with the Rush cover is interesting but I didn’t listen more than a few times.  I like his trio and solo straight stuff. But my favorite is the more structured compositional stuff like Largo and Highway Rider. 

 

Thanks for these suggestions.  I'll check them out.

 

[BluMunk]

2 hours ago, JazzPiano88 said:

NPR declares him has the most influential jazz pianist in the last 20 years.  

I think this is because they really like playing his arrangements of popular tunes as interstitial music.

 

Seriously, sometimes I feel like they must have some kind of contractual obligation to play a cut of his music between segments at least twice a day.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Saw this clip of Mehldau discussing and performing his arrangement of "I Am the Walrus." Took my breath away. His sensitivity and ability to build intensity while playing lightly is really something to behold. He's one of my favorite players, to be sure, though I can't say I'm anywhere near his neighborhood when it comes to technique and harmonic vocabulary.

 

 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

11 hours ago, bill5 said:

lol that was my thought exactly, it just seemed bizarre to me that a jazz pianist would cover that. What's next, Free Bird? 

That's sort of Mehldau's MO. He's been reinterpreting rock tunes as "standards" for his whole career. 

 

I hadn't heard the aforementioned Tom Sawyer and had to check it out. A little bit of a different beast from his solo/trio takes on Radiohead, to be sure... I understand why the arrangement would be divisive, but it is a big ol' journey to hear Brad Mehldau and Chris Thile (!) just totally have their way with the tune.

 

 

[allan_evett]

I listened to the Brad Mehldau interview on Fresh Air, while driving home from teaching last night.  Though I've been aware of him for several years, last night's NPR segment brought Brad and his music clearly into focus for me.  His coversational style was very warm and appealing; he's lived through a lot, and I can hear it well in his playing.  A lot of sublety and dynamic there.

 

Comparisons are a mostly a dead end, and often self defeating.  Been doing it most of my life, and have realized the profound downfalls in the past few years.  I enjoyed hearing Brad Mehldau's music last night - both recorded and live segments. 

[Analogaddict]

I saw him live back in 1998 or 1999. It was a stellar experience - some of the best piano playing I’ve heard live. 👌🎹

[yannis D]

7 hours ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

He's one of my favorite players, to be sure, though I can't say I'm anywhere near his neighborhood when it comes to technique and harmonic vocabulary.

 

 

My exact thoughts.

I've seen him live twice and the second time, he brought tears in my eyes playing only ballads and blues with his trio. Maturity 100%... He is a staple player for any jazz musician i think and really established a piano school, after Jarrett.

And... nobody's near his neighborhood 😉 His technical command is out of this world 

 

[MAJUSCULE]

#1 is always a personal choice, but you'd be hard-pressed to come up with five pianists from the last 30 years who've left a bigger imprint on the genre than him. A big influence for me, even if a lot of what I do these days takes less from him than others. I'm going to listen to this episode right now, but also say that his Piano Jazz episode with Marian McPartland is also fantastic. Might just listen to it afterwards.

[Doug Robinson]

For those who have never or only recently heard of him, I can only say that you're missing an already huge and influential body of work from this amazing cat! Listen to the song below, an original composition called Unrequited. Make sure you stay for his solo and tell me how many brains, arms and fingers he has going at the same time, and yet...it's still so musical.

 

My least favorite Meldhau projects are the ones with Metheny, not sure why. Both are my faves.

 

 

 

And here is an unsentimental yet poignant version of I'll Be Seeing You:

 

 

 

And check out his confounding killer solo on this tune based There Will Never Be Another You--all of the solos are great, but his takes the cake and starts at 2:30:

 

 

[Sam Mullins]

2 hours ago, Doug Robinson said:

My least favorite Meldhau projects are the ones with Metheny, not sure why. Both are my faves.

Same...never clicked with me although I love both artists.

[Sam Mullins]

Back on Brad's pop cover explorations...I like this version of Elliott Smith's Independence Day he did with Chris Thile:

 

 

 

[Josh Paxton]

In the early '00s I was hired to transcribe a handful of his tunes for a book. It was, and remains, some of the most difficult transcription work I've ever done, mostly because his touch made it nearly impossible to decode some of his chord voicings. There was a lot of "Am I really hearing that note, or just imagining it?" Anyway, when I was in the middle of the project he did a gig in my town, and I made some phone calls and got to meet him. So I told him I was the guy transcribing his stuff for the book, and that it was some of the toughest transcribing I'd ever done. I think he thought I was trying to suck up to him, because he demurely said "Oh no, that's not true." Without really thinking, I replied "Oh yes it is, and I don't necessarily mean it as a compliment." It came out sounding way harsher than I meant it to, and he was clearly not expecting to hear it. So hey, follow me for more tips on how to make an encounter with one of your generation's most influential pianists exceptionally awkward.

[Doug Robinson]

Oh my goodness--that snippet from the ending of I Am the Walrus in the interview!

[Joe Muscara]

On 2/7/2023 at 8:34 AM, SamuelBLupowitz said:

Saw this clip of Mehldau discussing and performing his arrangement of "I Am the Walrus." Took my breath away. His sensitivity and ability to build intensity while playing lightly is really something to behold. He's one of my favorite players, to be sure, though I can't say I'm anywhere near his neighborhood when it comes to technique and harmonic vocabulary.

 

 

Wow - that is really, really cool.

 

I saw him a few years ago around the time he released Seymour Reads the Constitution! It was a great show. I've been hoping the revived Redman/Mehldau/McBride/Blade quartet would come to town but no such luck yet. RoundAgain is a great album.

[Sam Mullins]

Beatles record is out now. Most surprising is a rollicking boogie-woogie version of “I Saw Her Standing There” that I would never have guessed was Mehldau on a blindfold test. 
 

 

[Al Quinn]

I think I first heard Brad on Joshua Redman’s 1994 album Mood Swing with Christian McBride and Brian Blade. It’s such a wonderful recording. They were all so young and amazing. I’ve seen Brad in concert a few times since. He’s been a big inspiration and influence. I hear his influence in a lot of younger players. 

[TWizzle]

Jazz pianists have been using popular music as vehicles for inspiration for quite a long time. Tunes of the American Songbook are simply the pop music of earlier generations. Herbie Hancock strays pretty far from the American Songbook classics on "The New Standard" and I love that album.

 

I love Mehldau's covers... "Black Hole Sun" and "Wonderwall" are standouts for me. I agree that Brad's style, not necessarily his tunes, are what pianists of later generations (myself included) have found to be influential. I hear a lot of Brad in Aaron Parks and Shai Maestro, for example.

 

I've really enjoyed his collaborations too. "Mehliana: Taming The Dragon" with drummer Mark Guiliana was a really cool foray into modern fusion.

[Joe Muscara]

1 hour ago, Al Quinn said:

I think I first heard Brad on Joshua Redman’s 1994 album Mood Swing with Christian McBride and Brian Blade. It’s such a wonderful recording. They were all so young and amazing. I’ve seen Brad in concert a few times since. He’s been a big inspiration and influence. I hear his influence in a lot of younger players. 

I've seen all four of them live in concert, just not together!  

[Dave Bryce]

I ordered the Beatles record after hearing the interview. 😎

 

dB

[TommyRude]

On 2/6/2023 at 6:47 PM, JazzPiano88 said:

NPR declares him has the most influential jazz pianist in the last 20 years.   I disagree.   I don't know of anyone who is playing Brad Meldau standards.   But I would love to be corrected if someone can document his lineage.

Sure, no problem.*

 

Brad Mehldau is an American jazz pianist and composer who is known for his virtuosic playing and his innovative approach to jazz. He is considered to be one of the leading jazz pianists of his generation, and has had a significant impact on the jazz world through his recordings and performances.

 

In terms of musical lineage, Brad Mehldau is often associated with the post-bop and contemporary jazz movements. He draws inspiration from a wide range of musical styles and traditions, including classical music, folk music, and rock music, as well as from the works of other jazz greats like Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, and Wayne Shorter.

 

Mehldau's music is characterized by his complex harmonic structures, his intricate and inventive improvisations, and his ability to take well-known popular songs and reinterpret them in new and interesting ways. His music often reflects a deep emotional intensity and a strong sense of introspection, and his recordings and performances have won widespread critical acclaim and a large and devoted following.

 

*this is from Chatbot.  I have no more knowledge or opinions of my own, everything from me now comes from Chatbot.  Chatbot far exceeds my own thoughts, and does it very quickly. I love Chatbot.

[Doug Robinson]

6 hours ago, Dave Bryce said:

I ordered the Beatles record after hearing the interview. 😎

 

dB

Me too....I have to say that if it is growing on me, it's doing so very slowly. I don't know, I think it's just my grumpy mood right now, but aside from moments of obvious brilliance, I'm feeling like he could have picked songs I would have liked him reharmonizing more. Let's see how I feel after my second listen.

[Dave Bryce]

25 minutes ago, Doug Robinson said:

Me too....I have to say that if it is growing on me, it's doing so very slowly. I don't know, I think it's just my grumpy mood right now, but aside from moments of obvious brilliance, I'm feeling like he could have picked songs I would have liked him reharmonizing more. Let's see how I feel after my second listen.

 

Excellent feedback, brother Doug - thanks!  Mine hasn’t showed up yet…

 

dB