| Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau |
Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau |
Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau — Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau (Jan. 27, 2017) 
♦≡♦ Nonesuch labelmates mandolinist/singer Chris Thile and pianist Brad Mehldau played a two~night stand at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom at the end of 2015 before going into the studio to record Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau, a mix of covers and original songs due January 27, 2017, on two CDs / LPs. The vinyl edition includes a bonus performance of Fiona Apple’s “Fast As You Can.”
♦♥♦ Zprvu se zdálo, že jde o klasické album dvou virtuózů na svůj nástroj, takže dojde i na zajetí hraniční stráží se smečkou cvičených psů, protože se octnu v přísně střeženém území na hranicích nudy a pochrapávání. Opak se stal pravdou: žádný křik černých havranů (cría cuervos), žádná smečka vlčáků, jenom zábavné a příjemné chvíle u piána a mandolíny s delikátním zpěvem Chrise Thieleho. To je zážitek, vykašlat se na civilizaci a paláce multimilionářů a zaposlouchat se do ryzího písničkářství s puncem geniality. Zde není slabšího místa. Postarali se o to i skladatelé Johnny Green & Edward Heyman, Fiona Apple, Elliott Smith, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, David Rawlings & Gillian Welch, samotní interpreti (5) a Ruaidri Dáll Ó Catháin. O albu se příznivě vyjádřily: Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian a The New York Times.
B.M. birth name: Bradford Alexander Mehldau
Born: August 23, 1970, Jacksonville, Florida, United States
CH.T. born: February 20, 1981, Oceanside, California, United State
Location: Amsterdam and New York
Album release: January 27, 2017
Recorded: December 30, 2015, January 2–3, 2016
Studio: Avatar Studios, New York City, U.S.
Record Label: Nonesuch Records
Duration: 18:31 + 15:19 + 20:37 + 15:20 => 69:47
Tracks:
CD1:
01 The Old Shade Tree;
02 Tallahassee Junction;
03 Scarlet Town;
04 I Cover the Waterfront;
05 Independence Day;
06 Noise Machine.
CD2:
01 The Watcher;
02 Daughter of Eve;
03 Marcie;
04 Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright;
05 Tabhair dom do Lámh.
In details:
Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau
Side A
01: The Old Shade Tree 6:27 (Brad Mehldau & Chris Thile)
02: Tallahassee Junction 5:57 (Brad Mehldau)
03: Scarlet Town 6:07 (David Rawlings & Gillian Welch)
Side B
01: I Cover the Waterfront 7:03 (Johnny Green & Edward Heyman)
02: Independence Day 3:13 (Elliott Smith)
03: Noise Machine 4:53 (Chris Thile)
Side C
01: The Watcher 5:30 (Brad Mehldau)
02: Daughter of Eve 9:02 (Chris Thile)
03: Fast As You Can 6:05 (Fiona Apple)
Side D
01: Marcie 4:53 (Joni Mitchell)
02: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright 6:05 (Bob Dylan)
03: Tabhair dom do Lámh 4:22 (Ruaidri Dáll Ó Catháin)
Personnel:
• Chris Thile: mandolin, vocals;
• Brad Mehldau: piano, vocals.
Notable instruments:
• Gibson Lloyd Loar F5 Mandolin, (serial number 75316)
• Lynn Dudenbostel F5 Mandolin, No. 5 and No. 14
• Lawrence Smart mandola
• Flatiron bouzouki
PRODUCTION CREDITS
• Produced by Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau
• Recorded December 30, 2015, and January 2–3, 2016, at Avatar Studios, New York, NY
• Recorded and Mixed by James Farber
• Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, New York, NY
• Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz
About:
? “Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau come from different worlds but the same species,” says the New York Times. Mr. Thile “is a progressive~bluegrass pacesetter; Mr. Mehldau is the most influential jazz pianist of the last 20 years. Both are team players ... Both love Bach and the Beatles, and both have developed fan bases bigger and broader (and younger) than their genre silos can accommodate.”
? The two musicians first performed together in September 2011 as part of Mehldau’s residency at London’s Wigmore Hall. The Guardian said of that performance, “Mehldau struck up his signature rocking chord vamp over which lightly struck motifs swell to sensuous extended melodies. Thile kept cajoling him with percussive snaps, flying runs, and chords strummed fast enough to sound as seamless as a purring strings section, inducing Mehldau … to bat back the playful provocation with stinging rejoinders.”
? MacArthur Fellow and A Prairie Home Companion host Chris Thile is the founding member of Punch Brothers, which a Boston Globe reviewer called “the tightest, most impressive live band I have ever seen.” The band has released four albums on Nonesuch beginning in 2008: Punch, Antifogmatic, Who’s Feeling Young Now?, and The Phosphorescent Blues. Thile’s other releases on the label include Sleep with One Eye Open with Michael Daves; Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile and Bass & Mandolin — the latter of which won a Grammy Award; a solo record of Bach violin sonatas and partitas; and A Dotted Line with his longtime band Nickel Creek. He also recently collaborated with Yo~Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, and Edgar Meyer on the double Grammy Award–winning album The Goat Rodeo Sessions.
? Brad Mehldau’s Nonesuch debut was the 2004 solo disc Live in Tokyo and includes six records with his trio: House on Hill, Day Is Done, Brad Mehldau Trio Live, Ode, Where Do You Start, and Blues and Ballads. His collaborative records on the label include Love Sublime, Highway Rider, Metheny Mehldau, Metheny Mehldau Quartet, Modern Music, and Mehliana: Taming the Dragon. Mehldau’s additional solo albums on Nonesuch include Live in Marciac and last year’s 8~LP/4~CD 10 Years Solo Live, which the New York Times says “contains some of the most impressive pianism he has captured on record.” Earlier this year, he released a duo album with Joshua Redman, Nearness, of which the Wall Street Journal said: “Few records released this year better define what jazz sounds like today, even if there isn’t a hip noun to describe it.”
Review
By GENO THACKARA, January 16, 2017 / Score: ****
? If you blinked at the wrong time, it was easy to miss the fact that Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau had played together at all. For two such restless collaborators, each occasional encounter was one more fleeting meet~up among many others — a quick one~off in 2011, a nine~city string of duo shows in 2013 and another two~night live stand after a couple years more. That last was accompanied by a quick stop in the studio to finally give the rest of us a more lasting taste of what was going on. The mandolin/piano pairing makes for a beautifully eclectic experience on this hour~long set, spread over two CDs for reasons unclear.
? You could oversimplify by saying that Mehldau is mainly a jazz player while Thile is more rooted in bluegrass, but these fellows treat such distinctions as an irrelevant nuisance anyway. “The Old Shade Tree” (the lone co~written original here) kicks things off with a minor mid~tempo bounce that smoothly encompasses both. Rollicking piano cascades and frisky chop~strumming sound like the most natural of partners, while Thile’s vocal capering reminds us yet again that he’s much more than ‘just’ a virtuoso player.
? Beyond those primary components, their palette has just as much room for down~home country or ragtime, contemporary folk and a lovely Celtic air to close things out. Each contributes two more new songs to the roster individually, ranging from the twistingly intricate excursion of “The Watcher” to the simpler groove and chorus of “Noise Machine.” Thile’s extensive centerpiece “Daughter of Eve” manages to span several of those elements and still make space for a dreamy almost~classical interlude. As always, the duo is equally at home reinventing other material, evocatively exploring the lilting wistfulness of Joni Mitchell or the jaunty chordings of Elliott Smith.
? The affair is a vivid and fruitful meeting of minds that allows for dazzling tight interplay and delightful improv alike. Even a too~brief set can pack plenty of surprise. ? Fans of either artist doubtlessly are already set to come with open ears and unlikely to be disappointed; after all, it’s friction among such different basic elements that often sets off the more colorful sparks. ? https://www.allaboutjazz.com/
Website: http://www.bradmehldau.com/
Website: http://www.punchbrothers.com/
Label description:
Address
75 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10019
? Founded in 1964 as a budget classical label, Nonesuch Records has grown over the last four~and~a~half decades to become, in the words of the Boston Globe, “an oasis of artistic excitement,” with a broad mission that includes classical music, contemporary music, jazz, traditional American and world music, popular and alternative music, music theater and dance. Learn more about the history and evolution of the label in an extensive article.
_____________________________________________________________
| Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau |
Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau |
♦♥♦ Zprvu se zdálo, že jde o klasické album dvou virtuózů na svůj nástroj, takže dojde i na zajetí hraniční stráží se smečkou cvičených psů, protože se octnu v přísně střeženém území na hranicích nudy a pochrapávání. Opak se stal pravdou: žádný křik černých havranů (cría cuervos), žádná smečka vlčáků, jenom zábavné a příjemné chvíle u piána a mandolíny s delikátním zpěvem Chrise Thieleho. To je zážitek, vykašlat se na civilizaci a paláce multimilionářů a zaposlouchat se do ryzího písničkářství s puncem geniality. Zde není slabšího místa. Postarali se o to i skladatelé Johnny Green & Edward Heyman, Fiona Apple, Elliott Smith, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, David Rawlings & Gillian Welch, samotní interpreti (5) a Ruaidri Dáll Ó Catháin. O albu se příznivě vyjádřily: Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian a The New York Times.
B.M. birth name: Bradford Alexander Mehldau
Born: August 23, 1970, Jacksonville, Florida, United States
CH.T. born: February 20, 1981, Oceanside, California, United State
Location: Amsterdam and New York
Album release: January 27, 2017
Recorded: December 30, 2015, January 2–3, 2016
Studio: Avatar Studios, New York City, U.S.
Record Label: Nonesuch Records
Duration: 18:31 + 15:19 + 20:37 + 15:20 => 69:47
Tracks:
CD1:
01 The Old Shade Tree;
02 Tallahassee Junction;
03 Scarlet Town;
04 I Cover the Waterfront;
05 Independence Day;
06 Noise Machine.
CD2:
01 The Watcher;
02 Daughter of Eve;
03 Marcie;
04 Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright;
05 Tabhair dom do Lámh.
In details:
Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau
Side A
01: The Old Shade Tree 6:27 (Brad Mehldau & Chris Thile)
02: Tallahassee Junction 5:57 (Brad Mehldau)
03: Scarlet Town 6:07 (David Rawlings & Gillian Welch)
Side B
01: I Cover the Waterfront 7:03 (Johnny Green & Edward Heyman)
02: Independence Day 3:13 (Elliott Smith)
03: Noise Machine 4:53 (Chris Thile)
Side C
01: The Watcher 5:30 (Brad Mehldau)
02: Daughter of Eve 9:02 (Chris Thile)
03: Fast As You Can 6:05 (Fiona Apple)
Side D
01: Marcie 4:53 (Joni Mitchell)
02: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright 6:05 (Bob Dylan)
03: Tabhair dom do Lámh 4:22 (Ruaidri Dáll Ó Catháin)
Personnel:
• Chris Thile: mandolin, vocals;
• Brad Mehldau: piano, vocals.
Notable instruments:
• Gibson Lloyd Loar F5 Mandolin, (serial number 75316)
• Lynn Dudenbostel F5 Mandolin, No. 5 and No. 14
• Lawrence Smart mandola
• Flatiron bouzouki
PRODUCTION CREDITS
• Produced by Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau
• Recorded December 30, 2015, and January 2–3, 2016, at Avatar Studios, New York, NY
• Recorded and Mixed by James Farber
• Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, New York, NY
• Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz
About:
? “Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau come from different worlds but the same species,” says the New York Times. Mr. Thile “is a progressive~bluegrass pacesetter; Mr. Mehldau is the most influential jazz pianist of the last 20 years. Both are team players ... Both love Bach and the Beatles, and both have developed fan bases bigger and broader (and younger) than their genre silos can accommodate.”
? The two musicians first performed together in September 2011 as part of Mehldau’s residency at London’s Wigmore Hall. The Guardian said of that performance, “Mehldau struck up his signature rocking chord vamp over which lightly struck motifs swell to sensuous extended melodies. Thile kept cajoling him with percussive snaps, flying runs, and chords strummed fast enough to sound as seamless as a purring strings section, inducing Mehldau … to bat back the playful provocation with stinging rejoinders.”
? MacArthur Fellow and A Prairie Home Companion host Chris Thile is the founding member of Punch Brothers, which a Boston Globe reviewer called “the tightest, most impressive live band I have ever seen.” The band has released four albums on Nonesuch beginning in 2008: Punch, Antifogmatic, Who’s Feeling Young Now?, and The Phosphorescent Blues. Thile’s other releases on the label include Sleep with One Eye Open with Michael Daves; Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile and Bass & Mandolin — the latter of which won a Grammy Award; a solo record of Bach violin sonatas and partitas; and A Dotted Line with his longtime band Nickel Creek. He also recently collaborated with Yo~Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, and Edgar Meyer on the double Grammy Award–winning album The Goat Rodeo Sessions.
? Brad Mehldau’s Nonesuch debut was the 2004 solo disc Live in Tokyo and includes six records with his trio: House on Hill, Day Is Done, Brad Mehldau Trio Live, Ode, Where Do You Start, and Blues and Ballads. His collaborative records on the label include Love Sublime, Highway Rider, Metheny Mehldau, Metheny Mehldau Quartet, Modern Music, and Mehliana: Taming the Dragon. Mehldau’s additional solo albums on Nonesuch include Live in Marciac and last year’s 8~LP/4~CD 10 Years Solo Live, which the New York Times says “contains some of the most impressive pianism he has captured on record.” Earlier this year, he released a duo album with Joshua Redman, Nearness, of which the Wall Street Journal said: “Few records released this year better define what jazz sounds like today, even if there isn’t a hip noun to describe it.”
Review
By GENO THACKARA, January 16, 2017 / Score: ****
? If you blinked at the wrong time, it was easy to miss the fact that Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau had played together at all. For two such restless collaborators, each occasional encounter was one more fleeting meet~up among many others — a quick one~off in 2011, a nine~city string of duo shows in 2013 and another two~night live stand after a couple years more. That last was accompanied by a quick stop in the studio to finally give the rest of us a more lasting taste of what was going on. The mandolin/piano pairing makes for a beautifully eclectic experience on this hour~long set, spread over two CDs for reasons unclear.
? You could oversimplify by saying that Mehldau is mainly a jazz player while Thile is more rooted in bluegrass, but these fellows treat such distinctions as an irrelevant nuisance anyway. “The Old Shade Tree” (the lone co~written original here) kicks things off with a minor mid~tempo bounce that smoothly encompasses both. Rollicking piano cascades and frisky chop~strumming sound like the most natural of partners, while Thile’s vocal capering reminds us yet again that he’s much more than ‘just’ a virtuoso player.
? Beyond those primary components, their palette has just as much room for down~home country or ragtime, contemporary folk and a lovely Celtic air to close things out. Each contributes two more new songs to the roster individually, ranging from the twistingly intricate excursion of “The Watcher” to the simpler groove and chorus of “Noise Machine.” Thile’s extensive centerpiece “Daughter of Eve” manages to span several of those elements and still make space for a dreamy almost~classical interlude. As always, the duo is equally at home reinventing other material, evocatively exploring the lilting wistfulness of Joni Mitchell or the jaunty chordings of Elliott Smith.
? The affair is a vivid and fruitful meeting of minds that allows for dazzling tight interplay and delightful improv alike. Even a too~brief set can pack plenty of surprise. ? Fans of either artist doubtlessly are already set to come with open ears and unlikely to be disappointed; after all, it’s friction among such different basic elements that often sets off the more colorful sparks. ? https://www.allaboutjazz.com/
Website: http://www.bradmehldau.com/
Website: http://www.punchbrothers.com/
Label description:
Address
75 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10019
? Founded in 1964 as a budget classical label, Nonesuch Records has grown over the last four~and~a~half decades to become, in the words of the Boston Globe, “an oasis of artistic excitement,” with a broad mission that includes classical music, contemporary music, jazz, traditional American and world music, popular and alternative music, music theater and dance. Learn more about the history and evolution of the label in an extensive article.
_____________________________________________________________