Brad Mehldau - Paranoid Android
After attending an intimate concert by the Brad Mehldau Trio at LantarenVenster last Tuesday (March 7th), I thought it was time for another post about this great, innovative pianist and composer.
They started the concert with a ‘Hey Joe’ cover: not my personal favorite, but a great way for the not-so-trained-jazz listener to discover what makes a well known piece ‘jazz’.
Brad Mehldau is known for turning popular tunes into jazz, as you can also hear in today’s song ‘Paranoid Andriod’ (Radiohead) from ‘Largo’: recorded in 2001 and the first record of Mehldau that departs from either the piano trio or solo format.
Mehldau says on his site: “I heard a lot of terrific singer-songwriters there for the first time – people like Rufus Wainright, Fiona Apple, Elliot Smith and Aimee Mann. I got re-introduced to how beautiful a good pop song can be through hearing them. Its depth is more about pairing something down, chiseling it into a strong, succinct statement – very different than jazz, which for me is often about going out on a limb and staying there.”
Brad Mehldau - Piano
Larry Grenadier - Bass
Matt Chamberlain - Drums
Victor Indrizzo - Percussion
Jon Brion - Guitar, Guitar Synth, Piano Percussion
