Metheny Mehldau Quartet – Nonesuch

by | Mar 19, 2007 | Jazz CD Reviews | 0 comments

Metheny Mehldau Quartet – Nonesuch 104188-2, 73:14 ****:
(Pat Metheny, guitar; Brad Meldau, piano; Larry Grenadier, bass; Jeff Ballard, drums)

Marian McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” with guest Brad Mehldau – Broadcast of 9/12/1996 – The Jazz Alliance TJA-30154-2, 56 min. ****:

This brand new release is a followup to last year’s acclaimed disc, which was titled simply Metheny Mehldau – without the Quartet – since it was basically a duo of the bright young jazz pianist and the older guitarist who was one of the musicians who made Mehldau want to play jazz from an early age. Metheny had also known about and appreciated Mehldau’s keyboard chops since the mid-90s, when saxist Joshua Redman turned him onto the young piano player. They met and eventually set a date for a recording session together. They decided to try both the duo and quartet settings.

Metheny observed that from the first time they played together, they had a musical dialog – a “long conversation that we both seemed to have been waiting to have with each other over these years of knowing and following each other’s music.”  The sideman come from Mehldau’s trio, and seven of the tracks are Metheny originals, three from Mehldau and they jointly wrote one tune. The quartet is currently on a 27-city North American tour.

The Sound of Water strikes a different, ethereal sonic with Metheny playing a 42-string guitar. Cool sound – was sorry this was the shortest track on the CD; I wanted it to go on longer. Another different acoustic is heard in Don’t Wait – the only track of the set with Metheny playing acoustic guitar. A more typical Metheny sound is in evidence on the two tracks which feature his guitar synthesizer. Towards The Light has the dreamy electronic sound more typical of Metheny’s own recordings, and features a lovely Mehldau solo in which he spins out seemingly endless melodic development. Santa Cruz Slacker depicts its title dude with a slightly funky, smart-alecky sort of almost-melodic line. Silent Movie is another quite slow and laid-back ballad of several on the disc. Nice, but any connection with the track’s title was lost on me. It appears that the best melody on the CD was saved for the final track. It’s the very slow Marta’s Theme which comes from a Metheny score for an Italian film “Passagio per il Paradiso.” In the graphic design of the CD Metheny Group Productions appears to be trying to emulate the spare landscapes pioneered by ECM in their photography. Nice try, but it doesn’t work – just looks like a bunch of rocks.

For a more developed impression of keyboard innovator Mehldau you may also want to pick up the latest release in the continuing series of CD versions of Marian McPartland’s great Piano Jazz series heard on NPR. The meeting of the two pianists demonstrates how jazz cuts across differences of age, experience, and culture. This was their first meeting and yet shortly into the program they are improvising together a swinging version of Stella By Starlight. In the conversations between the tunes each of them play separately and the two duos, Mehldau talks about his appreciation for the 19th century German compositional approach and how he often follows a more classical structure and form in his playing than most jazz artists – “more towards baroque than bop” is how the liner note writer puts it. McPartland, who was playing at NYC’s Hickory House decades before Mehldau was even born, comes up with a surprising story about his parents having come in to hear her. Hearing Mehldau in the unaccompanied solos makes it easier to follow his unique improvisational style. Truly a fascinating hour program, as are all of McPartland’s efforts over the past decades!

TrackList, Metheny Mehldau Q.: A Night Away, The Sound of Water, Fear and Trembling, Don’t Wait, Towards the Light, Long Before, En La Tierra Que No Olvida, Santa Cruz Slacker, Secret Beach, Silent Movie, Marta’s Theme.

TrackList, Piano Jazz: From This Moment On, Ron’s Place, Stella By Starlight, I Get Along Without You Very Well, When I Fall in Love, Our Love Is Here to Stay, I See Your Face Before Me, No Particular Blues.

– John Henry

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