From time to time, the world belies itself (is that the right word, "belies"?) and reveals that there is indeed just a little bit of justice in this world, at least every once in awhile, that is!
He got off the heroin in 2000 and has pretty much been on a tear ever since. (Urban legend has it that Larry Grenadier simply locked him in his apartment for a month.)
Well done, Brad m'boy. Well done, sir. Score one for the good guys.
Bonus track, yet again, for you diehards. (You know who you are.)
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Sounds nice, but I think it has about 80 or so too many chords.
Keifus, you are impossibly wrong! If you're talking about 50 Ways, it's just 3. I think they're playing it in A, so it's just A, C and D, back to A.
And they're just playing the vamp, in 4/4-3/4 time, which they call 7/8. Brad's trio didn't invent that time feel, but they've certainly come to perfect and own it.
Oh, swit, you're such a fan boy. It's positively cute.
Just remember, tia, you can say you were there, at a midlevel music venue in a strip mall in Burlington, Vermont, in, what, 2000? Remember how speechless I was until we started talking about Richard Rorty, and then Rorty turns up in the liner notes of his next record? Coincidence? I think not.
Nice.
How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
"It's a long story."
Couple more for you...
Blackbird
Paranoid Android
Exit Music (For a Film)
September 5th, 2010
Petrillo Band Shell
Chicago, IL
Brad Mehldau Trio
That would be South on 75 to 70. Take 70 west to Indy where you grab 65 North. Follow 65 north to 80 around Gary. While dodging the gunfire, grab 80 west to 94 and go north. Follow 94 north until you get to the sign that says 55/Lake Shore Drive. Head east until you see the big lake in front of you. That's Lake Chicago. Stop there. Now make a left (north) and proceed to Grant Park Parking. Park your car, grab your blanket, cooler, etc. and find a place to spread out aforementioned blanket. Bask in the music and look around at the place where Obama gave his acceptance speech, as well as the large stainless steel bean on a sidewalk.
Depending on your routing, it's anywhere from 265 to 310 miles.(above is approx 300) Figure 5 hours.
All right, so only one chord too many. (What, you were expecting an intelligent comment? Shit's far beyond me.)
I was listening to River Man actually, which might also only have three-ish chords. (Four? I just listened to the original too, and the progression is much easier to hear, even if I feel there's something essential about it I'm not quite grasping, which is normal. Also, I saw your icon.) It's much harder for me to concentrate on the structure when Brad plays it, especially when he starts riffing on the melody line later on.
Smutty, I've seen him in Burlington, Vermont, at a college outside of Atlanta, Georgia (the acoustics were so good they didn't use any amplification), and here in The Ham at our performing arts center. Seeing them in Grant Park seems almost too good to be true, and it's not much of a drive.
Keif, I count 3ish chords in River manas well: D, F7, Bflatmaj7, and D, with an occasional #11 thrown in. Lovely song, They also do, as smutty noted, a lot of Radio Head. The ballads are heartbreaking.
Worth the drive bud.
It's the most gorgeous month of the year here Switters. Just beautiful at night.
Definitely not much of a drive really (4 1/2 hours if I'm wheeling.) So you leave Ohio at 7, you're here by noon. That gives you 5-6 hours to wander around Millenium Park, the Lurie Gardens (fab) maybe even pop by the Art Institute, which is a 3 minute walk up Michigan Ave.
Stop me if you know all of this already.
The Petrillo Bandshell is also the site of the Chicago Blues Fest. Great acoustics.
A glance to the west gives you the most dynamite view of the skyline that there is. The Magnificent Mile is to the north, Lake Chicago/Buckingham Fountain is to the east, Field Museum/Soldier Field to the south.
Oh and, did I mention that the concert is free? That's a very reasonable price in my opinion. I imagine you can purchase seats down there by the stage, but the regular folks like the blanket and wine area, back on the grass. That's Smutty heaven there.
PS- Driving south on the Outer Drive, a limo customer once asked me "Exceeeews me, but is that Lake Chicago?"
"Uh, no ma'am, it's Lake Michigan. One of the "Great Lakes."
"Oh, okay. Thanks."
(A google search informed me that it used to be called Lake Chicago. I'm going with it.)
I'd like to imagine that "50 Ways" got into one of their sets because Larry was fooling around with Simon's intro on the bass, and they were in the middle of a soundcheck, and he starts playing the opening in 7, Jeff kicks in, and then Brad plays the melody, and it just sort of unfolds.
When they do play it, it's interesting because it starts off with Larry's vamp, then a bass solo, then a piano solo, then on his last chorus Brad finally plays the actual melody. Then a a cadenza, in strict time, then the vamp. Pretty cool.
That should be a perfect venue for them in the park. It's a tough life, but Brad makes a very comfortable living. He ought to. Not only has he paid his dues; he is, and will be, the greatest jazz pianist of all time.
Still don't know the story about the break off with original drummer, Jorge Rossi. Artistic differences, I suspect. Jorge is, after, Spanish. And I think we all know just how swarthy those spics can be. Still a shame. He's a genius in his own right. So I almost don't want to know.
Thanks for the itinerary. I'll make some calls. But I don't think I'll have much of an income at that point.
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