Quartet (Nonesuch)
Metheny / Mehldau
Released March 13, 2007
NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll Top 10 2007
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About:
“Individually, the performers are as sharp as you would expect, but it is their interplay that sets this release apart. Mehldau’s knack for probing away at the structure of a tune and Metheny’s fleet-fingered flights of fancy complement each other beautifully.”—Independent (UK)
Nonesuch releases the second collaboration between guitarist Pat Metheny and pianist Brad Mehldau—Quartet—on March 13, 2007. The record features seven tracks written by Metheny, three by Mehldau, and one jointly written tune. Mehldau’s bandmates, drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier, play on seven of the songs, while the remaining three are duets. The four musicians go on a 27-city North American tour—including stops in Los Angeles, Berkeley, Chicago, Boston, Washington, and New York—March 15–April 15.
Quartet follows the 2006 release Metheny Mehldau, which primarily was a duet record (with Ballard and Grenadier on two tracks), and also featured original compositions by Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau. Jazzwise (UK)called that album “the jazz event of the year by some distance.” “I have followed Brad’s career closely as he has emerged as the major young jazz musician of his generation,” Metheny says. “Somehow it always seemed like we would do something together. From the first note of the first take of the first tune we played, we both could just play pretty much full out.”
Mehldau agrees: “When you do a collaborative project with someone, one thing that you hope is that neither of you will have to adjust too radically to make the other person comfortable. In this situation with Pat, it was the opposite.” He continues, “Having the chance to make music with Pat Metheny has been nothing short of a dream come true for me. Pat is one of the musicians who made me want to play jazz from an early age.”
Track Listing:
1. A Night Away (Metheny/Mehldau) 7:59
2. The Sound of Water (Metheny) 3:53
3. Fear and Trembling (Mehldau) 6:56
4. Don’t Wait (Metheny) 7:08
5. Towards the Light (Metheny) 8:10
6. Long Before (Metheny) 6:57
7. En La Tierra Que No Olvida (Metheny) 7:43
8. Santa Cruz Slacker (Mehldau) 6:09
9. Secret Beach (Mehldau) 9:07
10. Silent Movie (Metheny) 6:03
11. Marta’s Theme (from “Passagio per il Paradiso”) (Metheny) 2:31
Personnel:
Pat Metheny: guitar (1, 3, 6-8, 10, 11), 42-string guitar (2), acoustic guitar (4), guitar synth (5, 9)
Brad Mehldau: piano (1-11)
Larry Grenadier: bass (1-11)
Jeff Ballard: drums (1-11)
Produced by Pat Metheny
Recorded December 2005 at Right Track Recording, New York, NY, by Pete Karam
Assistant Engineers: Hyomin Kang, Angie Teo, Justin Schturtz
Mixed by Rob Eaton at Right Track Recording
Additional Mixing by Pete Karam
Mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, New York, NY
Guitar Tech: Carolyn Chrzan
Production assistance: David Oakes
Design by Doyle Partners
Cover photograph by Arild Danielsen
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz
Review:
In many ways Quartet—the second disc culled from the December, 2005 collaboration between iconic guitarist Pat Metheny and the younger but increasingly influential pianist Brad Mehldau—is the record that Pat Metheny Group’s final Geffen album, 1996’s Quartet, should have been. While the Metheny Group record had its charms, it was the closest thing to a contractual obligation record that the guitarist has ever made, and the relatively sketchy nature of much the record makes for an uneven listen.
The more duet-centric Metheny Mehldau (Nonesuch, 2006) demonstrated a remarkably deep chemistry, especially considering this was a first encounter. But Metheny Mehldau’s two quartet tracks with the pianist’s regular crew—bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard—were its clear highlights, as well as a promise of better things to come when it was announced that this second release would focus more on the quartet.
Seven of these eleven tracks feature the quartet, and the duets on Quartet work much better than those on Metheny Mehldau. They provide textural and emotional contrast to the more expansive quartet tracks in the same way that “Into the Dream” provided both a welcome relief from the powerful one-two punch of “Imaginary Day” and “Follow Me,” and a thematic segue into the more relaxed “A Story Within a Story” on the Metheny Group’s Imaginary Day (Warner Bros., 1997).
While the opening “A Night Away” is co-written by Metheny and Mehldau, its initial changes are so familiar that it could easily be found on a Metheny Group record. But like the best Metheny Group collaborations with keyboardist Lyle Mays, Mehldau’s personality is equally prominent as the longer-form theme in this piece unfolds and the pianist builds a solo that’s as lyrical as anything Mays has done, but goes to more unexpected harmonic territory.
What makes Quartet beg comparison to the Metheny Group’s Quartet is its relatively minimal production. There are few, if any, overdubs to be found, and none of the more lavish orchestrations for which Mays is so renowned. Metheny brings out his horn-like guitar synth on only two tracks—his atmospheric yet propulsive “Towards the Light” and Mehldau’s Latin-esque “Secret Beach.” The guitarist adopts a more aggressive and distorted tone on Mehldau’s strangely sparse yet fiery “Fear and Trembling,” but for the balance of the quartet tracks, his tone is clean and warm, most notably on his equally spare but considerably gentler “Silent Movie.”
The sequencing of Quartet is a significant improvement over Metheny Mehldau; the four duet tracks (all written by Metheny) ranging from the ethereal (“The Sound of Water”) to the poignant (“Don’t Wait”). The duo’s take on Metheny’s understated “Marta’s Theme (from Passagio per il Paradiso)” provides a wonderful coda to Quartet’s resonant narrative. It may not be as texturally expansive as Metheny Group recordings, but in its sparer instrumentation, greater spontaneity and immediacy, it’s certainly a thoroughly compelling alternative.
John Kelman (All About Jazz)
