Long Ago and Far Away (Impulse! Records)
Brad Mehldau / Charlie Haden
Released October 26, 2018
The Guardian 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2018
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPyfPnocsBmQaoSn-nV-Vza0p8cBnv1PR
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6hfdhHRPHihIadHlqaMlUe?si=rKIk0SrpQLaYxNi24O-xsw
About:
Hello everybody, hope you are all well and just wanted to mention that there’s a new live duo recording of the late great Charlie Haden and I that’s been recently released. It’s called Long Ago And Far Away. The music comes from a concert at the EnjoyJazz festival in Mannheim, Germany from 2007. It was a special night with a fantastic audience. Their focused listening, I believe, helped the music unfold at a meditative pace. It’s a strong testament, I think, to Charlie’s completely free way of playing, on tracks like the title track or the Bird blues Au Privave. This kind of harmonic freedom was only possible with Charlie and it was exhilarating to interact with him musically when he was around. He was also an important mentor for me.
Charlie lived in Malibu, California in the time I knew him and his wife, my dear friend Ruth Haden (who was largely responsible for shepherding this record into existence, with warm thanks to Impulse France for releasing it), is still there. As many of you probably know, one of the fires in California, known as the Woolsey fire, is still burning in Malibu. We send our prayers to Ruth and all of the people in the beautiful state of California who have already suffered from these devastating fires, in towns like Paradise further north as well. I am so sorry for the loss and pain that people have endured and wish them strength.
Brad Mehldau, November 2018
Track Listing:
1. Au Privave (Charlie Parker) 09:55
2. My Old Flame (Sam Coslow / Arthur Johnston) 09:13
3. What’ll I Do (Irving Berlin) 12:00
4. Long Ago and Far Away (Ira Gershwin / Jerome Kern) 15:05
5. My Love and I (Johnny Mercer / David Raksin) 12:59
6. Everything Happens to Me (Thomas Adair / Matt Dennis) 12:37
Personnel:
Charlie Haden: bass
Brad Mehldau: piano
Recorded live on November 5, 2007, at the Enjoy Jazz Festival, Christukirche, Mannheim, Germany
Producerd by Ruth Cameron Haden and Brad Mehldau
Concert Engineer: Patrick Destandeau
Mixed by Jay Newland
Mastered by Mark Wilder
Cover Art: Luc Leestemaker
Art Direction: Gilles Guerlet
Review:
Brad Mehldau’s association with the late Charlie Haden
began in 1996 with his collaboration in a trio lead by altoist Lee Konitz.
Their performance at the Jazz Bakery in L.A. was captured on record and issued
as “Alone Together” and “Another Kind of Blue”. Although I personally found the
music curiously detached as though the instrumentalists were out of sympathy
with each other, the relationship between the bassist and pianist obviously
blossomed and resulted in this re-union commissioned by the Enjoy Jazz Festival
in Heidelberg, Germany, recorded live in the hallowed setting of an art nouveau
church and performed before a seemingly reverential audience-no whistling or
whooping, just polite applause.
The sanctity of the venue seems to weigh heavily on the music which rarely
moves above mid-tempo but notwithstanding this reservation there is much here
that will appeal to those whose musical tastes favour the reflective muse.
Mehldau, for his part, reigns in his characteristic displays of headlong
virtuosity, whilst Haden, never a superficially showy player, provides a deep
sonorous pulse through-out achieving a similar effect as the pedal notes on a
pipe organ. The vividly clear recording captures their dialogue to perfection.
The playlist consists entirely of standards plus a bop classic as an opener.
`Au Privave` is rendered as a sort of elongated fugue over a plodding bass
line, completely drained of its be-bop vitality but curiously intriguing and
reminding me of Lennie Tristano’s similarly attenuated `C Minor
Complex`. The standard ballads that follow are delivered `sotto voce`
and without any radical re-arrangement or embellishment but subtle re-harmonisations
draw the listener in to what ultimately turns out to be a rewarding if somewhat
reserved listening experience. The recital concludes with their reading
of `Everything Happens to Me` topped off with a beautiful extended
coda by Mehldau to which Haden adds a final punctuation; a poignant last word
from a magisterial talent who left us far too early.
Euan Dixon (JazzViews)
