Claire Martin sings "But not for me"(George & Ira Gershwin)

John Harris Trio,"You would be so nice to come home to"(Cole Porter).

Recorded at The Basement, 02/06/10 by Niall Burke.

Brad Mehldau, Solo Concert, Wigmore Hall, 4 June

Seeing Brad Mehldau around the corner from the Wigmore Hall, he looked distracted, as though he'd gone out for some air and forgotten how to get back to the artists' entrance. Which jazz musician wouldn't feel distracted at the thought of a solo recital in a classical music venue?

Brad began his set with the opener from his new record, Highway Rider - John Boy ("after Johannes Brahms and John Boy Walton"). The piece set the mood for the evening - bubbling left hand patterns, strong melody in the right hand and a restless creativity at work in the improvised sections. Brad and the enormous Steinway filled the stage and, although we were at the back of the gods, we could see and hear everything. The sound that filled the hall was beautiful - rich and subtle, bringing out the full range of ideas Brad worked through in the lower middle and upper registers.

Brad's approach brings together his key musical influences: the many years of piano lessons studying the classical canon and, presumably, German romanticism in particular; the jazz standards he has dedicated much of his professional jazz career to (No Moon At All, Get Happy, How Long Has This Been Going On, My Favourite Things); and his passion for the best in modern pop and rock (Tom Waits' Martha, Jeff Buckley's Dream Brother, Nick Drake's Day Is Done).

He made the most of playing solo in that he was able to take the improvisations where he wanted to go without worrying about leaving the rhythm section behind. My Favourite Things probably went furthest out, using the simple melody to explore some dark and sombre place in the way the Mahler might. Fragments of the melody appeared in odd places, were transformed, transfigured and transmogrified. Completely caught up in what he was doing, slowly rocking back and forth, he seemed to hold nothing back.

I've heard Brad solo on his Tokyo record and have seem him live on quite a few occasions. What I liked about this performance was the heavy pounding of the left hand has been replaced by something altogether lighter and more subtle. As left hands go, it has to be one of the best in jazz. Each hand is separate character with distinct personalities, constantly at play with each other. The articulation is consistently beautiful and clear, as though he has worked hard to eliminate any possible weaknesses in his technique. That said, at no point is the playing flashy or the musical choices kitsch.

Within an hour the set was over. It was clearly not enough for the audience, or for Brad, as we were then treated to six or seven encores (we lost count) and were given almost and hour's more music. And the highlight of the encores was a version Ray Davies' Waterloo Sunset that made the hairs stand on end - summer evening, London, twilight, "Terry meets Julie, Waterloo Station, every Friday night". Perfect.

ERSATZ: Alex Wood Hall, Norfolk St, Cambridge (early 1980)

Photos courtesy of Suzanne Mcdonald-Walker

John Harris, (DJ) Harvey Bassett, Adrian Tierney-Jones, Hugh Ashton

Adrian (foreground), John (background)

Link to previous ERSATZ post

Video of Bobby Wellins: It Never Entered My Mind

Niall Burke filmed It Never Entered My Mind at the recent Brunswick gig reviewed below. Sublime.

Some reflections on the New York trip

New York is small and densely packed. All the players I saw were energetic and decisive. Just because you're playing in a small place - Smoke, Vanguard, Smalls, Arturo's, Earl's front room - doesn't mean you shouldn't play your ass off. The standard of people like Peter Bernstein and Joshua is something to aspire to and to prevent me from getting complacent. There's no shortage of things to practice and master. It would be good to go back annually to be reminded of the intensity of players in that environment and to have the opportunity to play with some of them.

It's a competitive environment. It must be hard earning a living just by teaching and playing. New York has a great history of jazz but with the ever increasing expense of living in Manhattan, more and more players must be leaving for Brooklyn, Jersey, upstate, Europe. It's no longer possible to be "livin' high on nickels and dimes" in the way Joe Lee did back in the day. Fashion, art, media. finance and tourism seem to typify New York now. Hopefully jazz will always have a home in New York, though you wonder what will happen to The Vanguard when Lorraine if no longer around. New York seems an exceptionally safe place and all the people we met were polite and helpful. It's not longer the big bad place that it was - certainly welcoming if you can afford it.

New York Trip - Day 4

The first stop was the Flatiron buildings for photos, then a trip up the Empire State Building for panaromic views of the Island. Back at West 26th Street, a block from our hotel, is The Jazz Record Centre, an Eight Floor apartment packed with vinyls, CDs, DVDs, posters and bookers. We spent a good hour browsing before I settled on three CDs (as vinyl is not an easy option when flying) - a recording by New York guitarist Peter Leitch, a Joe Lee Wilson recording featuring Japanese guitarist Ryo Kawasaki (who also played in the Gil Evans orchestra) and the latest Brad Mehldau double CD featuring Joshua Redman.

In the afternoon we met Joshua outside the Public Library with mother & daughter artist team Bea and Adrienne who we had met at the house party on Saturday, for a subway trip to Coney Island. Coney Island is on the brink of a major redevelopment to convert it from Brooklyn's version of Hastings/Margate/Blackpool to exclusive beach side condos. We stopped at Nathan's hotdogs for a snack (clams, hotdog, fries) and then wandered the boardwalk past the ghosts of the amusement park: Shoot The Freak (which involves shooting a live midget with a paintball gun; the Cyclone, a wooden rollercoaster reputed to be the scariest ever; and the huge Wonder Wheel, big wheel with sliding cars. Like the Empire Diner (which closed at the weekend), a piece of history about to disappear.

We ended up in Brighton Beach, or Little Odessa, packed with Russian shops and restaurants and used as a location in The French Connection. We found a very good Russian Restaurant - no frills, Russian clientele - bought some vodka at the liquor store and had a delicious (& very cheap) meal of dumplings, herring, mackerel, stuffed cabbage, pureed aubergine, coffee cake and Napoleon cake.


Back at the hotel we bid farewell to our host, to the D'Angelico (which I have grown very attached to) and then headed out to Dylan Thomas' favourite watering hole, The White Horse tavern, for a nightcap. I'll certainly miss Joshua's warmth, his anecdotes & sharp wit.