Jacob’s Ladder (Nonesuch)
Brad Mehldau
Released March 18, 2022
Grammy Nominee for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album 2023
Jazzwise Top 20 Releases of 2022
70th DownBeat Annual Critics Poll Top 20 Album of the Year
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_md4fbspSrfczqCxzAfuWekoylKL18nado
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About:
Brad Mehldau’s Jacob’s Ladder features new music that reflects on scripture and the search for God through music inspired by the prog rock Mehldau loved as a young adolescent, which was his gateway to the fusion that eventually led to his discovery of jazz. Featured musicians on the album include Mehldau’s label mates Chris Thile and Cécile McLorin Salvant, as well as Mark Guiliana, Becca Stevens, Joel Frahm, and others.
Mehldau explains, “We are born close to God, and as we mature, we invariably move further and further away from Him on account of our ego. Jacob’s Ladder begins at that place closer to God with the voice of child, and then moves into the world of action. God is always there, but in our discovery and conquest, and all the joys and sorrows they bring, we may lose sight of him. He sets a ladder before us though, like in Jacob’s dream, and we climb towards him, to find reconciliation with ourselves, to stitch up all those worldly wounds and finally heal. The record ends with my vision of heaven—once again as a child, His child, in eternal grace, in ecstasy.
“The musical conduit on the record is prog,” Mehldau continues. “Prog—progressive rock—was the music of my childhood, before I discovered jazz. It matched the fantasy and science fiction books I read from C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle and others at that time, aged ten through twelve. It was my gateway to the fusion of Miles Davis, Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra and other groups, which in turn was the gateway to more jazz. Jazz shared with prog a broader expressive scope and larger-scale ambitions than the rock music I had known already.
“The prog from Rush, Gentle Giant, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer here only hints at the genre’s conceptual, compositional and emotional range. These bands and others have continued to influence newer groups that bring prog impulses into the arena of hard rock and screaming math metal, like Periphery, whose music is included here, and also inspired the screaming vocals on ‘Herr und Knecht.’ I tried to avoid a direct tribute approach to all the songs, and opted in some cases for excerpts, or reworking of themes.”
Although Brad Mehldau is best known as a jazz composer and improviser, he has made several albums that fall outside of the mainstream jazz genre, including his 2001 Largo, produced by Jon Brion. Wide-ranging in texture and big in scale, it features woodwind or brass ensembles are on several tracks, as well as a heavy emphasis on powerful drums. In 2010, Nonesuch released his second collaboration with Brion, Highway Rider, which includes performances by Mehldau’s trio—drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier—as well as drummer Matt Chamberlain, saxophonist Joshua Redman, and a chamber orchestra led by Dan Coleman. Mehldau also orchestrated and arranged the album’s fifteen pieces for the ensemble.
Mehldau’s 2014 collaboration with Mark Guiliana, Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, featured Mehldau on Fender Rhodes and synthesizers and Guiliana on drums and effects, playing twelve original tunes—six by the duo and six by Mehldau. His 2019 album Finding Gabriel featured performances by him on piano, synthesizers, percussion, and Fender Rhodes, as well as vocals. Guest musicians included Ambrose Akinmusire, Sara Caswell, Kurt Elling, Joel Frahm, Mark Guiliana, Gabriel Kahane, and Becca Stevens, among others.
Track Listing:
1. maybe as his skies are wide (Alex Lifeson / Geddy Lee / Neil Peart / Pye Dubois) 3:43
2. Herr und Knecht 7:48
3. (Entr’acte) Glam Perfume 5:45
4. Cogs in Cogs, Pt. I: Dance (Derek Shulman / Kerry Minnear / Ray Shulman) 4:11
5. Cogs in Cogs, Pt. II: Song (Derek Shulman / Kerry Minnear / Ray Shulman) 4:02
6. Cogs in Cogs, Pt. III: Double Fugue (Derek Shulman / Kerry Minnear / Ray Shulman) 4:31
7. Tom Sawyer (Alex Lifeson / Geddy Lee / Neil Peart / Pye Dubois) 7:44
8. Vou correndo te encontrar / Racecar (Alexander Bois / Casey Sabol / Jake Bowen / Matthew Halpern / Misha Mansoor / Spencer Sotelo / Thomas Murphy) 5:05
9. Jacob’s Ladder, Pt. I: Liturgy 1:27
10. Jacob’s Ladder, Pt. II: Song 11:30
11. Jacob’s Ladder, Pt. III: Ladder 4:19
12. Heaven: I. All Once — II. Life Seeker — III. Würm — IV. Epilogue: It Was a Dream but I Carry It Still 10:07
Personnel:
Brad Mehldau: Steinway D grand piano (1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 12), glockenspiel (1), Akai S-950 Sampler (1), Korg MS-20 synthesizer (1, 5, 7, 8, 10-12), Yamaha CP-80 (2, 7), Moog modular synthesizer (2, 3, 6, 7), Emu Emulator II (2, 4, 5, 7), Dave Smith OB-6 (2, 6, 8), Wurlitzer electric piano (2), Therevox (2), Steinway C grand piano (2, 5, 7, 10, 12), Mellotron (3), Fender Rhodes (4), harmonium (4), Moog Little Phatty synthesizer (4, 7, 10), Hammond organ bass pedals (4), xylophone (4), drums (4, 8, 12), tambourine (4), vocals (4), Musser Ampliceleste (5, 12), background vocals (5, 12), Dave Smith Prophet 08 (7), Roland Juno 60 (7, 12), additional vocals (7), English vocals (8), tambourine (8), spoken word (9, 11), Mellotron Mk VI (10), Yamaha Upright Piano (10), sleigh bells (10), Musser Ampliceleste (10), tenor voice (11), wind machine (11), orchestral bells (11), Fender Rhodes, Dave Smith Pro2 (12), Crumar Performer (12), Casio Casiotone 101 (12), shaker (12)
Luca van den Bossche: treble voice (1, 7, 11), spoken word (9), vocals (12)
Mark Guiliana: drums (1, 2, 5, 7, 10, 12), electronic drums (10)
John Davis: Elektron Octatrack (1)
Joel Frahm: soprano saxophone (2, 7), tenor saxophone (7)
Tobias Bader: screaming metal Hegel vocals (2)
Becca Stevens: vocals (3, 5), additional vocals (2, 12), spoken word (9), soprano voice (11)
Tinkerbell: additional vocals (2), high voice at end (8)
Lavinia Meijer: harp (3, 12)
John Davis: drum programming (4, 5, 7)
Motomi Igrashi-de Jong: lirone (5, 10)
Chris Thile: vocals (7), mandolin (7)
Pedro Martins: Portuguese vocals (8), acoustic guitar (8, 12), electric guitar (12)
Safia McKinney-Askeur: spoken word (9), vocals (10, 12), alto voice (11)
Timothy Hill: spoken word (9), bass (11)
Damien Mehldau: spoken word (9)
Joris Roelofs: bass clarinet (11)
Fleurine: spoken word (11)
Cécile McLorin Salvant: opening wordless vocals (12)
Paul Pouwer: subby heartbeat bass drum (12)
Produced by Brad Mehldau and John Davis
Recorded, Engineered, and Mixed by John Davis at The Bunker Studios in Brooklyn and Paul Pouwer at Power Sound Studio in Amsterdam, between April 2020 and January 2021
Mark Guliana’s drums recorded at home in Los Angeles
Becca Stevens’s vocals on “Jacob’s Ladder I,” “Jacob’s Ladder III,” and “Heaven: II – Life Seeker” recorded at home in Brooklyn
Safia McKinney-Askeur’s vocals recorded at Gecko Studios in Wivenhoe, England by Jasper Trim, Mike Trim and Oliver Stack
Timothy Hill’s vocals recorded at Area 52 Studios in Saugerties, NY by Dave Cook Cover Art by Brad Mehldau
Photography by Sofie Knijff
Graphic Design by Lawrence Azerrad for LADdesign Inc.
Review:
By now readers should have become well-acquainted with Brad Mehldau’s radical departures from the art of contemporary acoustic piano trio jazz, the setting in which he made his name. This new release though might be his most far-out project to date. Yet it feels like a natural evolution as well as an amalgamation of two of his most exceptional recordings from the past decade: duo Mehliana’s synth-prog driven 2014 release Taming the Dragon and 2019’s Grammy award-winning Finding Gabriel. Jacob’s Ladder is the closest the pianist-composer has come to a full-on prog-inspired concept album: a texturally expansive, kaleidoscopic mishmash (on paper) of influences, use of symphonic-like and fugal form plus a giant bank of analogue synths, too long to list here, that rivals even that of Keith Emerson (an early childhood inspiration of Mehldau’s) in his heyday. Conceptually speaking, the album could be the ‘Finding God’ to his previous Finding Gabriel.
The central three-part suite starts with a reading of the titular passage of Jacob’s divine prophecy from Genesis by a spoken-word voice choir. Indeed as with Finding Gabriel the voice is again central: Luca van den Bossche’s opening soprano mantra on the mesmerising ‘Maybe as his Skies are Wide’ later emerges on a consciously middle-of-the-road version of Rush’s ‘Tom Sawyer’ as sung by Nonesuch label mate Chris Thile. Elsewhere Tobias Bader’s antagonistic metal vocal is an update on Mehldau’s retro prog references, while Safia McKinney-Askeur/Becca Stevens’ wordless and folky Pentangle-ish vocals take their place in a witty and cohesive dialogue between instrumental and song. Nevertheless Mehldau’s signature as a pianist, even if it’s more Beatles, Bach and Brahms than Bud Powell, is all over the recording. On Jacob’s Ladder Mehldau gives you both something to think about as well as musically get your teeth into. Those are indeed rare qualities.
Selwyn Harris (Jazzwise)
