Last night, I left from work and drove to Knoxville to experience another performance at The Tennessee Theatre featuring John Scofield and The Brad Mehldau Trio.
Brad’s music is easy to find on the Net and I’ve run through just about all of his work in the past few months preparing for this concert.
I’ve been amazed by his dexterirty on the piano and envious especially for his left hand which seems to perform in equal strides as his right hand.
I was a little down because I coul;dn’t get anyone to go with me to the show and decided to sit by myself. I had a few Corona’s on the way down and arrived about 7.45.
John Scofield, a verve recording artist opened the show and I have to admit that I wasn’t planning on staying for the show if he played last, but I was surprised to find out that he was first on the ticket and I’m glad.
Turns out that Scofield has played with Miles, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Charlies Mingus and Medeski Martin and Wood. He opened the show with an impressive tro performance with bassist Steve Swallow (Art Farmer, Gary Burton and he Paul Bley Trio) and drummer Bill Stewart.
This trio was as one review stated was ‘arife in spontaneous invention.’ John played a red Gibson 335 and it was easy to hear his Wes Montgomery legacy along with several tones that sound like Pat Methany. A Berklee alumni, this guy knew his chords and was unmistakingly one of the best players I’ve ever heard.
The band played for about 45 minutes and gave way to Brad Meldau shortly after nine.
Earlier in the evening, some of the folks sitting in front of me commented that they had never heard of Brad and I blurted out that they were ‘in for a treat.’ The auditorium was about half full and plenty of seats were open for the evening, but those that weren’t there missed out.
Mehldau came out in a pair of black pants and black shirt along with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy. They entered the stage looking like young musicians, but as they unveiled their music before this stunned audience everyone seemed numb to the harmony and rhythem mysticism that this trio performed.
The band performed Gershin, Lennon and McCartney, a version of Ray Charle’s ‘You Don’t Know Me’, Cole Porter and others. I was impressed by the musicians in his group, but more importantly by the effect and accuracy of his notes. Brad plays jazz, but his classical training seemed fluid with his experitse of alternative chords and abstract left handed chords that lifted the music between heaven and hell.
I was overwhelmed by his talent and will look forward to watching his art develop over the years.
The concert was over about 10.30 and remember walking to the parking lot behind the Tennessee and Brad was talking to fans outside the back stage door. I was in a hurry to get home and dream of practicing more than I do.