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This is an email I received from a friend. This email was sent to Down Beat I believe and appeared in February. Hey, I'm only your friendly coduit to the alternate opinions (which I do subscribe to). Not the magazine just the opinion. I don't know the author personally. Am I covered okay?
Caro Down Beat,DB's Brad Melhdau feature in the new issue is full of narcissistic overload
and hyperbolic "JIVE". Per esempio: He says he didn't listen to Bill
Evans much. Mi dispiace, for if Brad heard the Eddie Costa "GUYS and
DOLLS" CD re-issue with Evans as a sideman(1958 recording), both he and
Matheny would forever hold their arrogant, haughty, supercilious tongues.
Evans' playing on this recording redefines what it means to "SWING" and
Melhdau would have stayed in the "shed" a few more years to fully absorb
this genius.I don't think Melhdau and Matheny know their Jazz History very well, let alone understand and absorb its significance to their own development!!
Evans is America's Chopin. His music timeless will out last Mehldau's and Pat's.
Matheny revealed his lack of a discerning musical psyche when DB quoted him
as saying he didn't care for Evans' music!! It's tantamount to saying
Chopin is now a footnote in the evolution of Western Classical Music.Everyone's entitled to an opinion. But the truth is true always. Evans'
music is the Truth.Such ramblings of two ego maniacal lesser talents should have been dismissed by
DOWN BEAT.Respectfully Yours,
GIOVANNI PETRANICH....TORINO, ITALIA
bgs
Follow Ups:
I'm a BIG lover of Evans. I like some of Mehldau's stuff quite a bit, and have never "warmed" to Metheny's music particularly.Having said that, I just wanted to add that I think the following lacks logic: that Metheny is essentially saying that Evans (or Chopin) is an evolutionary footnote does not follow from his saying he doesn't care for Evans' music (and, of course, maybe he doesn't care for Chopin's either). One has to do with to do with history, evolution, influence, development, impact, etc. The other is simply about personal taste.
Interesting to me, too, that the fellow called these guys "ego maniacal", but signed his letter "Respectfully..."
.....I can honestly say that I don't know any jazz players, at least in the crowd that I do know which is pretty extensive, that likes BM's playing. In fact his name is hardly mentioned. I realize that is not a reason for me not to appreciate his work. I chose not to on my very own. There is also a generational difference in how jazzers act now as opposed to how they were in my salad days. I think Rick's post about dissing other cats was much more prevalent years ago, in fact guys like Miles and Lester Bowie were pretty decent examples. It doesn't happen as much now in public as it used to. It happened a lot years ago including on the stage and in the mags like Down Beat and Metronome. I also know some critics who write one thing for publication and say other things in private. Maybe the cats are nicer now but I also know that it's harder to get a gig if you say too much about other players.I don't think there's anything wrong in expressing a negative opinion. It doesn't preclude others from digging the player that you don't dig. Besides that, I posted that email because there was no jazz chatter happening on this site at the time and it did get something going. Maybe it's madness but it did stir the pot!
Respectfully?
Sure...I don't have a problem with negative opinions. I personally don't enjoy reading stuff in which people are called names, however; that's all, and I think it's disrespectful of the fact that most of us are pretty much doing the best we can in life. Your post didn't strike me as disrespectful in the least, by the way.In any case, my main point had to do with the logic of that particular part of the guy's post. I merely think that Metheny's taste has nothing to do with evolution, Chopin, or anything else (at least as far as I can tell : )
Thanks for the response; and also for the information about jazz players' opinions about Mehldau's playing. I like some of it, and don't like some of it.
.....although it's nice that Mr. Mehldau is playing in CA.
Now I open myself up as usual because I will be putting some music on my site. It's time again.
In case anyone's interested, The Brad Mehldau Trio is playing at Pepperdine University in Malibu this Saturday, 5/5/07 at 8:00 p.m. Info at the link below.
xo
I didn't read that interview (or blind test, if that's what it was), but if Metheny/Meldau merely stated that Evans wasn't a major influence for them - as opposed to actually dissing his contribution to jazz - then I don't see what the big deal is.Miles absolutely ripped Freddie Hubbard several times in interviews. Lester Bowie wasted Herbie Hancock in an interview. One of my major influences was Jackie Mac, but several excellent musicians I know don't dig him at all, and certainly weren't influenced by him. I wouldn't expect Kenny Garrtett to site Dolphy as a major influence, nor do I detect much 'Trane influence in Turrentine's playing.
I don't happen to be much of a Metheny or Meldau fan, and at least so far I don't believe they will ever approach the import of Evans. I think sometimes people - including musicians - kind of forget that Evans, along with his trio mates, had a great influence on trio playing and rhythm section interplay, not just piano playing. Whether Meldau and Metheny realize it or not they've likely been affected by that, even if its through some other jazzer who was influenced by Evans. But usually when asked, musicians site people who've had a direct influence on their instrumental style as major influences. There's really no reason to expect every jazz piano player to site Evans as a major influence. Andrew Hill is mentioned below. Anybody hear much Evans influence in his *piano playing*, or Tyner's, or Chick's?
I don't have a problem over an artist being deemed as "important" at face value. I don't care if it's Beethoven, Charlie Parker, the Beatles, or Eminem, in this regard.What I do have a problem with is when this "importance" is then applied as factual basis to demean the worth of other artists and/or the musical tastes of other enthusiasts.
...that it was an interview and not a blind thing and it was a dissing. That is based on the the preamble to the emails I received. I could have been misinformed but there were actually 2 emails to me. I agree with you about the difference between influence and put-down and I believe that is the point and is probably the only point. I couldn't care less if Brad is cranky or not. By the way, Bill Evans was not cranky and you didn't write Matheny which removed some of my crankiness.Thank you Rick!
Opps... Sorry Grandpa.
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
xoxo
just checkin yer eyes. ;-)
dh
xoxo
This guy is saying DB should have shown them the door as soon as they said they weren't huge Evans fans. That's just silly. Can you imagine if they had a policy like that from the beginning? Half the shit in the magazine's history--true or not--would never have been printed.
dh
... that Brad has just gotten tired of being compared to Evans, which is understandable, given that the similarities between them are pretty superficial. Too many writers look at him and say, "look, he's a piano player, he's white, he slouches when he plays, he likes to play standards in a trio format, and his music is kind of introspective ... he must be copying Bill Evans!"If Mehldau was better at self-promotion, he would respond to this kind of thing by saying something like, "Wow, it's flattering to be compared to the great Bill Evans." But Brad's a bit cranky by nature, and he knows that he's more influenced by Wynton Kelly and even classical music than Evans, so usually responds by saying he isn't much influenced by Evans and doesn't even like his playing that much. Not good pr! But who really cares what the man *says*. Let's listen to what he plays!
I love Bill Evans and agree completely that every piano player of the past 40 years has been influenced by him whether they know it or not. BUT... I also like Mehldau, and think he's made quite a contribution, especially for somebody still relatively young. To mention just a couple things, I think his use of compound meters and his ability to improvise independent lines with his left hand (as opposed to just comping chords) are quite impressive.
tired of being compared to Evans; and that the comparisons made by writers are superficial. Also agree re Mehldau's contributions. I find him a lot of fun to listen to at times. A couple years ago I saw him at the Newport Jazz Festival playing solo (have also seen his trio a couple times). I was in the front row, just a few feet away. He was very impressive that day, and it was great fun watching from up so close.
You're right about the two characteristics you mentioned. I just saw Mehldau at a local jazz club this week and a neat gimmick was that while playing a complex rhythmic line with his left hand midpiano, with his right hand he would play some stuff above the left, then some below, and so on. Actually was effective, almost like three voices. Also did the same thing with his right hand playing the rhythmic background, and the left going above and below. His rhythmic drive is impressive. Where he isn't great is that he doesn't have outstanding imagination with his right hand improvisations. He did surprise me with a few choruses of pretty advanced right hand fast playing but that wasn't the norm. One original song of his, Resignation, is quite beautiful and lyrical even though the changing time signatures make it difficult to hum along.
What an ass Mehldau is. I don't know what he is playing nowadays, but his early shit was definitely influenced by Evans. And, for sure, Evans's music will outlive all our contemporaries' stuff. This is all about their ego and "legacy" that will not last. They know that. Can't do great music, but can do big-mouth talk. Marsalis is another GREAT example.
"Evans's music will outlive all our contemporaries' stuff."What!!???!!!!
I've nothing against Evans but the notion that there are no contemporaries that work at his level is absurd. You're just trading one prejudice for another. It's great that you like him that much but like anyone, he is NOT and should not be considered to be all things to all people.
Andrew Hill, for only one week now the *late* Andrew Hill, is much more interesting and involving to me. But that's because my taste veers more strongly in another direction.
> he is NOT and should not be considered to be all things to all people <Where did I say or imply that? Why are you making things up? I was talking about Evans in the context of Mehldau, and contemporary jazz.
It really is none of my business if you like Evans or not, and nor do I care for that matter, but by "contemporaries" I meant contemporary jazz artists in general, and Mehldau as their representative. He'll be forgotten, as well as hundreds of his likes. The fact that Hill played until recently, doesn't make him a contemporary jazz artist, he is/was a classic of *modern* jazz and I like him a lot.
You saved me from a rant. Evans was able to give jazz a shape and direction while Mehldau bores the hell out of me. Legacy??
Melhdau bores you? Fine, why not leave it at that? Why extrapolate your taste to some measure of absolute worth?[snip]
That duality is what I love about Brahms, so it might pop out in an improvisation or a composition of mine. One of the great aspects of jazz for me is the way you get influenced. First, you’re a fan. You get the goose bumps; you become bewitched by the music. If that process doesn’t take place, then whatever music – be it Brahms, Jelly Roll Morton or klezmer – won’t find its way into your vocabulary for very long, unless you’re on some weird mission to play music you don’t dig. Anything is fodder. With a kind of Pavlovian logic, what comes out of your horn will be your own happy bastardization of what you love the most – whatever music seduced you initially. "Should I study classical music?" is the wrong question for an improviser. If you don’t dig it, it won_t do anything for you.
[snip]
Alas, improvisation itself can be construed as a kind of interpretation: the direct, heartfelt interpretation of what’s closest to you at any given moment. But in that moment when my riff on Brahms slides out, it has no cognitive baggage. Theorizing comes later. Again, the rift between audience and player lessens in that appraisal. The pleasure I take in creating something, free of theoretical baggage, sounds very much like the non-referential, wordless pleasure that I receive from listening to music.
– Brad Mehldau, 2000
[end snip]
*
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." - Albert Einstein
Wow! That was impressive.Mehldau still bores me.
Some time ago we discussed my trip to KC and plans to see Wallace Roney at the Jazz Museum.He showed up with a quintet format (no turntable) and performed a very nice straight-ahead show. It was nice to see that he had young players on piano and bass "in school" for the performance.
A highlight for me was to see KC's Bobby Watson at the bar when the show started. He joined the band half-way through the first set and stayed on for the second set. He and Wallace acted like old buddies and jammed very well together.
*
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." - Albert Einstein
I'm happy for you because he has been using a turntablist which did turntable a lot of people off. He does much electric stuff around here. I think Watson and Roney are old buddies at least from them living around here for a while. I worked in a club in NJ (around 1980) when Bobby Watson came in with a band unannounced and asked if he and the band could play a few tunes. They did and ended up with a weekday night gig about 4 weeks after that for 1 night but was hired a couple of times after that for a night here and there. Interesting way to get a gig. Doesn't happen too often.If you have a chance look up Anat Cohen (sax) and her brother Avashai (trumpet) and her other brother Yuval (sax). She just came out with 2 new albums, Poetica and Noire. You might dig 'em.
Good luck,
bgs
work had to my mind a definite avant-garde appeal. Certainly I'm not the least surprised that Bill Evans *doesn't* rank high amongst their influences.Incidently the highlight of the show, which was amazing, was the work of drummer Jeff Ballard. I've love to get his list of influences, bet it included some very hard boppers!
his playing with Matheny is *very* Matheny influenced, the choppy nearly atonal style seem much different that other things I've heard from him.Despite that he did some beautiful playing but one did get the sense of a sustainded tension perhaps reflecting a feeling of being challenged if not the stress of being perpetually "out there"
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
I expected this kind of polarized response when Metheny and Melhdau got together, but it is a pairing I had been hoping for and was excited when I first heard about it.I saw them perform early in their tour (second or third performance) in Denver and I was very impressed. I already had the duo CD and bought the quartet release the next day. I agree there was some "tension" but it seemed to me to be due to the fact that it was early in the tour and they were still getting their legs.
I agree about Ballard. It was the fist time I had seen him play and he was very impressive. I was also very impressed with Larry Grenadier on bass. I have seen him a few times (including last summer with John Scofield and Bill Stewart) and this performance was as good as any I've seen.
Yes, "Everyone Digs Bill Evans" including Metheny and Melhdau. But they are staking out new territory, and naturally want their music to be evaluated on its own merit.
*
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." - Albert Einstein
...who is not a Beethoven fan. His taste in this area does not mean in any way, shape or form that he isn't or can't be a fine composer in his own right.There are always going to be people who genuinely don't like even the most widely admired composers and players. That's just the way life is. And of course there are plenty of people who are basically disinterested in having any intimate relationship with music as a whole. I'm nuts for most of what emerged in the late 18th and early 19thC but don't care for much Mozart. Does that prove I lack musical discernment? Hardly.
To judge somebody because they don't appreciate what you most value semms to me to be narcissistic, which is the sin for which Metheny and Mehldau are being condemned. Although most of what Metheny does is not my cup of tea I truly admired his "Song X" and the concert I saw with him and Ornette many years back was a joy.
Anyway what's all this crap about it mattering in some moral sense who's "better" and who isn't?
My interpretation of the cited quote is that the writer proves his own narraow-mindedness in the guise of critiquing others.
Elliot Berlin
My interpretation is that the writer is (maybe too obtusely) pointing out that Mehldau is so obviously derivative of Evans that it's a ridiculous statement for Mehldau to disavow any influence, let alone express a distaste.
But maybe I'm reading too much into this. That's my personal take, anyhow.
I pretty much agree with the writer here. BM and PM should transcribe some Evans sides and play 'em backwards and forwards.I didn't always worship at the Altar of Evans. I played in a quartet with a piano guy back in thr 60s who played in that sparse architectural style with a lot of way-open chords, and it drove me nuts. But that was me, groping around for changes. :-)
That cited Costa recording has Evans playing some very swinging, two-fisted, meaty ensemble work though. But there's no argument here anyway the BE advanced "the art of the trio" to a whole other level.
I heard Bill Evans back in the '50,s when he stopped in at LSU to see his brother Harry who, as you know, took the the tough way out. Bill went to college in Louisiana also. There was a session in one of the all night clubs and you could tell something was already going on with his music. Didn't know then how much was happening, though.Interesting experience.
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