Props for Brad Mehldau’s Esplanade show -

Props for Brad Mehldau’s Esplanade show

by boonkiat on Mar.23, 2009, under Concert review

American genre-breaking jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, here in Singapore two weeks ago to perform in the Mosaic Music Festival with his eponymous jazz trio group, is an oddity in today’s jazz scene: someone who innovates not by changing jazz into a different form, but by steadfastly sticking to traditional jazz sensibilities.

He is like bass clarinet and sax maestro Eric Dolphy in that way. The latter – perhaps Mingus’ most talented sideman ever, and who was struck down cruelly at the prime of his life by undiagnosed diabetes in 1964 – was a free-spirited soul who slashed at jazz boundaries with his fearless invention of jazz choruses that shout advantgarde and free jazz but are really deeply grounded in the best of jazz traditions.

Mehldau, in the same way, uses hallowed jazz spirit to redraw jazz boundaries with classical, pop and rock music as his fodder.

His take, in a sublime concert performance here at the Esplanade Concert Hall two Sundays ago, of tragic British folk icon Nick Drake’s River Man was case in point; a sonic experience to behold. For other evidence of his pioneering spirit and raw genius, check out his treatment of Exit Music, Paranoid Android and 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, from his earlier albums. Simply put, Mehldau makes Radiohead and Paul Simon sound like they were cut from the same cloth as Irving Berlin and Thelonious Monk.

If you have not heard of this genius of a musician, and if you love jazz or classical piano, please, please do check him out. The albums “Day is Done” and Mehldau’s live recordings at the Village Vanguard are great places to start exploring. Come back and play for us again, Brad!

:Jazz

1 Comment for this entry

Luigi Fulleron
June 4th, 2010 on 9:47 am
So looking forward this!

1 Trackback or Pingback for this entry

Joanna MacGregor vs Yuri Bashmet @ Musicgoondu
June 21st, 2009 on 1:17 pm
[...] revelations about New York’s musical norms may explain why Brad Mehldau presented himself with extreme classical reserve to Singaporean audiences earlier this year at the [...]

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