You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - How Brad Mehldau Became Jazz' Greatest Genre Hacker

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

Has Brad Mehldau always been one step ahead of jazz? In this episode, Peter and Adam trace his evolution from the straight-ahead Art of the Trio series to the produced, cinematic experiments of his 2002 opus Largo. We look at how Brad’s late nights in LA, love of Radiohead, and partnership with producer Jon Brion blurred the lines between indie pop, alt rock, and jazz, creating a new “Populist Jazz.” Discover how Brad Mehldau’s Largo paved the way for a generation of genre-bending artists from The Bad Plus, to Robert Glasper, to our very own Adam Maness – and cemented his place as the greatest genre hacker in jazz.🟠 Open Studio Members -> Nerd NookTry OS Membership today! → https://osjazz.link/aboutLooking to drop a question? Want to listen to the audio pod? Look no further!https://youllhearit.com/

Hey, Peter. Hey. What do you do when it snows? I go to Jamaica. What do you do when it hails? Oh, I put on a helmet. What do you do when it rains? Mm.

And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast. Music, Explored. Explored. Brought you today by Open Studio. Go to Open Studio. Justo. Oh. Oh, your jazz.

Slesson needs. Peter gave a twirl to the lazy Suzette. The lazy Susette. it's not quite a lazy susan because it's awfully small for our listeners on our podcast we've got this ipad that we're going to be playing a bunch of tracks from today yes a bunch of brad meldow tracks and also known as bradmeldow because caleb producer caleb called him bradmeldow i think that's kind of fitting for the bespokenness of his playing he's a fancy guy he's a fan he's a fancy pianist the damn fancy in all the right ways as we're going to find out today so today we're going to be

focusing on or at least leading up to his 2002. Opus. Opus. Is very influential. What? Say that again? Izzy. Yeah. It's a new season, but same jokes. New season, same jokes. Same guys. I hope they never die, man. I hope they never die. Man, this is episode two of our brand new season, our brand new set. How great is it? To have the rhythm section, we got Bob DeBoo on the base.

Caleb Kirby. They were killing that. Killing it. We're going to do some playing later in the show, too. Oh, yeah. We're going to hit up a little, maybe a little dusty meat nugget at the end. I love that track. But yeah, we're talking about his 2002 opus, of course, Largo. And I really wanted to, Peter Focus. 23 years ago. Let's talk about that. Is that right?

That's not right. That can be. But I wanted to talk about kind of the lead up to Largo and kind of catch people up to speed. So Brad, now though, he's about your age, right? You guys are almost the same age. I think we're exactly the same age. And so some of this episode today I feel might be a little weird for you because you are around for all of this. Like you're kind of in this with him.

at this point. You guys are peers. You're coming up in the same scene. You're playing with a lot of the same people. Yeah. And I'm curious to hear your thoughts on some of this. Because I know like pianists, we never know each other that well. Right. Because we're not on the same gig. Never on the same gig. Yeah. But yeah, I think it's going to be interesting to hear your insights on that era specifically. Because that's what we're going to be focusing on is kind of like his come up and and capping it off with, I think what you might consider sort of the the end of his Brad's first era and sort of the beginning of his new era with Largo. No, I agree. And it's like, is it the end or is at the beginning? Is it a transition?

It's never that clean cut. I feel like there is like something transitional. And we'll even talk geography because there is a transitional geography that happens there. But going to the West Coast. This has some West Coast vibes, this whole record, the whole vibe of this record. Well, that's John Bryan. We'll also talk a lot about on this album. Again, so this was recorded in 2002. It was on the Warner Brothers label, which I always am gobsmacked by that. You know, we covered Josh Redmond's beyond a few months ago. Also on Warner Brothers. Huge later at the time.

Warner was huge in jazz. Matt Pearson, shout out Matt Pearson, who's still doing stuff now with several young artists, but at that time was a real promoter, obviously producer, and, you know,

in terms of directionality for jazz with Warner, was just like a huge force. And I think, Brad, like, this is really coming, I don't remember the exact timing, but all those trio records were all before this, right?

All the volumes. One, two, three, four. There's only one volume five is after this, but all one through four is before this, which we're going to play a little bit from. And what I really want to focus on in that, and I think what sets Brad apart, besides his style rhythmically, which I think sets him apart from a lot of his peers, just gives him his own sound, is that he was, to my knowledge, the most accomplished of that generation who started playing music that, you know, I was in high school when all this was happening.

And he started playing music on his acoustic trio records. Yes. That spoke to me like... Larry Grenadier bass, Jorge Rossi, primarily. Yeah. That was the first big trio, right? But before that, my first introduction to Brad Mell that was a player was in 1994 on a Joshua Redmond album called Mood Swing. This is Chill.

And I remember when I heard this because I heard some things that I really hadn't heard up to this point from modern pianists. We'll pick it up in Brad's solo here on Chill. dynamics is the first thing comes to mind. The left hand. Dynamics between the hands. So early on, he's a young dude at this point.

That distinctive, kind of floaty eighth note comes to mind. That major, minor thing that happens. Just a really distinct sound. And then from there, people might know him from his 1995, his first

trio album called Intraditional. which was a fascinating record because it featured the first. That's the first recording introducing Brad Meldow is the first recording that features... Wouldn't it imagine it's title for that one. First recording that features his what would become the known, be known as this like 90s rhythm section of Gary Grenadier and Jorge Rossi. And it also featured on half the album, Brian Blade and Christian McBride.

Oh, that's right. Interesting. I don't know whose idea that was, if that was Brad or the label, but he has this like distinctive to... parts of the record. Well, that was his rhythm section with Joshua. They were, he was still playing, because I actually came in that at the end of that year. On mood swing, that's the rhythm section, I believe. It is, but they were still touring. And I was going to start with the band earlier, but I was doing, I was playing with Roe Hardrow. Because you picked up right off, right after Brad.

Exactly. But it was with McBride and Blade. And then eventually Chris Thomas, well, actually very quickly, Chris Thomas came in. And then Peter Bernstein came at some point. Yeah. So this is introduced, from introducing Brad Meldow. This is featuring what would become to to be known as the 90s trio with Larry Grenadier and Jorge Rossi, which is kind of the iconic, the start of the iconic run. Yeah. It might as well be spring. James Farber.

This is James, got to be James Farber engineer. Engineering that. I can tell it. I'm going to go out on a limb on that one. The interplay between these three was what they became. Yeah. This sort of like loose, talkative rhythm section for each other. That's an incredible record.

And most of that, or actually all of that, besides maybe an original or two, are all like great American songbook. Right. Straight ahead. Straight ahead. Swinging. If it's grooving, it's very like... A distinctive feel for sure. But like the repertoire is still

kind of straight ahead. There's some, like, I just want to throw one thing out sort of a macro Bradism that you're going to hear up till this day. And actually, I heard him last year, right here in St. Louis at the Sheldon with Larry Grenadier. Yeah. Larry Grenadier.

Larry Grenadier right here. Still playing with them. Or, you know, it's come and gone, obviously. but this this element that you talked about the dynamics between the left and the right like that very submissive left hand greatest but but beautiful melod melody at the top of that and stuff but his great balance between the hands like that has that became a part and we're going to hear a lot on lago a part of his style you know underneath but a lot of really interesting things with that left hand bro's got the melodies bro's got an incredible left hand oh yeah an incredible left hand so next up on our on our sort of journey up to Largo

is the first album that he would title The Art of the Trio. And there would eventually be five of these. And this is the Art of the Trio, Volume 1, which was a studio album. And this is actually in 1997. Now, an important thing happens here. Brad moves to Los Angeles.

And so he's living in L.A. during this time. And this begins this incredible, like, five, six, seven-year run with this trio where they make some of the great. greatest music of the 90s. Mostly in New York. Well, but they know all over the place. Yeah, but they are, they are like road dogs.

They're all over the road. They're in the studio all the time. They're recording live albums as we're going to hear. Yeah. And on the first entry, I'm sorry, on the first Art of the Trio, volume one, is a Beatles song. Not too uncommon for any jazz musician, but he plays Blackbird in a way that would catch your attention. Change the game, would you say? For you? They don't just like, come.

cover it. They do it with the same sensitivity that they would do. It might as well be spring. Yeah. Or any great American song, one standard. And there's incredible solos. The arrangement here, you might think, you know, it would be easy to say, oh, there is an arrangement. They're just playing it. But this is a very distinctive, very deliberate, very intentional arrangement. The foundation is that Larry Grenadier sitting. Everything is going on the left hand. Jorge just grooving on the brushes. Larry's played one note so far.

What's a good note? It's a good note. It's in tune. That's easy to do on a G. Come on. Well. Right, Bob? It's not an open G, though. It's a high G.

So there's then the Art of the Trio, volume two, which is live at the Village Vanguard and full of just mostly standards. Can I just say that now I'm remembering back to that period? Because we were young guns, kind of young lions. We were starting to feel like aged lions by this point. But we're like Brad, all of us, Blade, Redmond, all kind of late 20s, mid to late 20s.

But I do remember there was a little bit of controversy with him titling this record, this series of record. Well, I remember the art of the trio volume one, I was like, okay, that's cocky, right there is cocky. You know what I mean? There's going to be more. First of all, there's going to be more. And you're saying you've, it's not like we're getting to the art of the trio. It's like, this is the art of the trio.

And we've got more coming that's going to make it even more artistic of the trio. Yeah. So, 1998. Damn it, he followed through, though. Art of the Trio Volume 2 comes out. It's live at the Village Vanguard, one of the great live albums ever. But it's another album in 1998,

Art of the Trio Volume 3, that I think for people of my age who were jazz musicians, but also really caught up into, like, an indie rock scene, grunge scene of the 90s as well. When I heard this, my ears,

my young high-ridge ears perked up quite a bit. This is Radiohead's exit music from a film. And this is X music for a film, excuse me. And this is not something I think you would typically hear up to this point. I can't recall any other jazz musicians covering Radiohead before this on a major release like this. I'm sure there were, so don't come at me, Internet. But this had come out just the year before on OK Computer, which is like Radiohead's big breakthrough artistically.

Yeah. And it was amazing for us. Like this, for people my age, I think, were into those. two different kinds of genres to hear. It doesn't hurt that Tom York is influenced by Chopin and Shumon and Brahms, right? It's in kind of brands.

Brahms, huge influence, obviously. Brad. Yeah, it's in Brad's Wheelhouse. Capturing the pensiveness of Radiohead acoustically. So well. It takes a lot of virtuosity to do this as well as they're doing this right now. Here's a little bit of the original featuring the boys of Radiohead.

The lads. The lads. Again, exit music for a film from OK Computer. The dry, you know, your tea today where you skate, scared.

So I was already listening to that in my car. Yeah. And then to hear my favorite jazz pianists cover that was amazing. It was like connecting the dots for you. It was totally connecting the dots.

And then, track on that album. And you're like, there's more volumes to come? It's promised. Another one on volume three was Nick Drake's Riverman. And this was kind of,

it was right at the start of sort of the Nick Drake Renaissance that happened in the late 90s where those albums became popular again. But again, I mean, the common tone here is this pensiveness that Brad's so, this whole trio is so amazing at capturing.

Right. And it's going to, it's pointing the way towards what Largo would be. Yeah. Right. And there's a cinematic, feel, like you can draw the connection, certainly from these, once you get into

volume two, volume three, it starts to get much more cinematic, which Largo I feel is a very cinematic record. I mean, you could hear this on a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. Yeah. You know what I mean? Incredible. And then he does actually one of my favorite. There's a simplicity there. There's a perhaps, I want

to throw a word in, we're going to revisit this later just so it can marinate on our listeners. And you might reject this. You are the Brad Meldow expert. Is there a populism there? Is there a jazz populism, a connection there? A little bit. Yeah, I think... Does that shape you? I mean, it's not groundbreaking to pull

popular music of your day. Yeah, right? People do this... But I'm thinking more in terms of like... Ten years or whatever. Like jazz piano, a jazz trio and then eventually Largo, which is like a trio, like a solo piano and trio and beyond with chamber stuff and electronic music,

EDM, hip-hop. Yeah. That's like, I think, what makes Largo large. But I mean, populism and as in this could be for anybody. Like music of the people as opposed to bespoke jazz that you have to have a beret on to come here. I think so. Which is like the beginning, right?

I think giving these sort of these artists that are in this genre that isn't typically covered by jazz musicians, giving them the same treatment that you would give to, you know, jazz standards and Great American Songbook standards, I think that what was the draw. And also the playing, the sound is like top shelves. Because they're, you know, they're doing exit

music and they're doing Riverman, but it's surrounded by, like, you know, it might as well be spring and all these standards. The way you look tonight and like there's, and volume four, we got even Miles Davis's Solar. Again, this live from the Village Vanguard, art of the trio volume four, mostly jazz standards or great American songwork standards. There's a cover of exit music on this, but it's, he's already recorded. Right. And this way of playing, this is when he really got into comparisons to Keith Jared and the Keith Jarrett trio, you know, which obviously was an influence for them. You know, you don't hear it as much

in the other tracks we've heard so far. This, by the way, number four, one of the great live recordings of the 1990s. Yeah. This is 1999 and unbelievable, unbelievable live. Everything we've heard so far, too, the sound quality, the engineering, the mix, the mastering.

This is a huge part of any successful artist. Well, Vanguard never sounds bad. Well, no, but it can sound bad on a recording, just like anything. I mean, just like a great studio can... What's the Vanguard recording that doesn't sound great? Well, but, well, I don't know. That's for another episode, right?

I'm just saying it could do it. It could happen. But I'm just in general, like his piano, I think he's very particular about how his piano is recorded as he should be. Totally. And like just a big part, like we, I think when we analyze these great recordings, we never give enough depth to, you know,

the contribution to the recording of the instrument. He's playing very simply, very beautifully, and then he's going for stuff in it, but it's all captured, the whole trio. I mean, that Larry Grenadier sound in the, I mean, that's like you're sitting right there. Yeah. So we're up to about 2000, 2001 here.

Y2K, we're all scared. Brad's still living in Los Angeles and he records an album, beautiful album called Places, all originals. Opening track is called Los Angeles. Which kind of... Oh, this was a good record.

It was a great record. And maybe slept on a little bit. It's fairly subdued for what they're doing, but it's beautiful. And the sort of emotional tone of the originals, again, is going to foreshadow, I think, some things that happen on when it remains. The simplicity of this.

Simplicity, subdued, somber. These are all things that can just have anything we've chosen today. I mean, I'm picking specific examples that are definitely leading into that. But I think that's what this trio does so well. They capture that incredible... What'd you call it? Uvra. Yeah.

But I mean, it's almost like this is Los Angeles. It's cinematic. But this is not at the beach, sunny Santa Monica. This is like early in the day. I'm not sure Brad Melo's ever been to the beach. I'll be honest. He's been to the beach. I don't know.

Maybe not. So this leads us now to 2002. He leaves Los Angeles in 2001. And I'm guessing before he goes, he sets up this with John Bryan. So John Bryan, credible producer, multi-instrumentalists, has produced a ton of people. Film composer, too. Incredible film composer. And in fact, you might recognize John Brian from something like this.

This is Fiona Apple. Criminal. One of the great pop records of the 1990s. John Bryant's playing all over this album. Melotron is represented hard in John Bryan stuff. Here is the overture from Punch Drunk Love, a Paul Thomas Anderson film that John Bryan scored. One of a few, I think.

This was recorded the same year as Largo. Foreshadowing of some woodwinds and brass, perhaps? You're reading my mind, bud. Sorry. I'm reading your paper, too. So this, again, was the same exact same time as Largo was recorded. It's a beautiful soundtrack, by the way. Great movie.

Yeah. And in 2002, Brad Meldow and John Bryan get together in a studio with a bunch of musicians that aren't in a trio. Yeah. Jorge is there and Larry's there. Larry plays on it. But it's a whole different vibe. Yeah. Produced by John Bryan.

This is when it rained. This is the opening track from Largo. One of the best opening tracks ever. Sounds like it could be on the Punch Thrun Thubble Up soundtrack. The piano sounds and is being played beautifully right now. It's a very cinematic, like, intro, transition, and then, like, now the movie's rolling. The triplets in the left hand of the piano against the straight 16th notes I had on the drums. Yeah, no one's ever tried to duplicate this since then.

What a groove that creates, though. That's Matt Chamberlain on the drums, who plays on, I think, every track on this album. Yeah. One of the great pop drummers of the last 40 years, probably. Jim Keltner, another amazing pop drummer, is on this album, all over this album. That Woodwind pad in there, such as Sam. And this is Larry Grenadier on the bass for this track. Find it.

Yeah. No other jazz pianists who's making Village Van Gogh. records is also making stuff like this. And this solo is an all-time for Brad one of this top three. Slow burn, slow burn. And he's really taking advantage of those very simple, you know, football woodwinds to comp a lot less basic seven. I think this slow burn vamp solo with Brad solowing, that's the thing that kind of connects this record because there's a lot of this on the record. throughout this. Yeah.

This groove is... And the drums are very out front of the mix, too. But he's also interacted. Not necessarily jazz music. This like indie pop production of the late 90s, early 2000s, with just like crushing solo. Yeah. Crushing jazz piano, like face melting is catnip for me.

Yeah. Beautiful. You know who's a big influence on this? Charlie Hayden. One hundred. Cortet West, especially. 100%. And I know Brad...

All over this. Yeah, I know Brad was interacting with him a lot in LA during this time, but just the cinematic approach. You know, you really hear that. We could do a whole podcast itself on Charlie Hayden and his influences and how far they stretched because I have not put that together until this moment, but you're 100%. I just, when he went to that transition, it made me think of that and remember Quartet West. This could have been mid-90s Charlie Hayden album.

Yeah, 100% right. Great, great call. Yeah, some other groups. Okay, so let's talk about Brad. And really Larry and really the whole, I think, didn't Jorge on here on something? It was on a couple of things, yeah. Yeah.

I know this is not a Brad Trio record, but there are these whole sections. Like to me, it's several, and we might even get into this in Clibble Bits, a little bit, it's like... I've got Clibble Bits with this for you. Yeah. Is it like four different records?

Is it, you know, a trio record where it's kind of Brad going for broke? But I think, but then there's these solo piano things. Some of them are a little bit like, you know, beautiful playing of all the time. Like such care, such beauty in how it. it's recorded. But the overarching concept of let's put a jazz musician or jazz musicians,

improvising musicians with all the skills and abilities that they bring to the table in a different situation. Like that, what is that groove they were just playing? That was not like a backbeat group. It was, it's kind of, like you said indie pop is probably the best way to describe it. But like, it's not like, oh, let me not play a major seventh or anything. He's still kind of playing the way he's playing live of the Vanguard or something. But the constriction, the guardrails, it's like when you're bowling, when you have those rails on the side for the kids, even if you don't hit those, there are guardrails to this kind of arrangement, this kind of a tune.

I think the closest thing I can think of that would be before this would be Keith Jared in the 70s, right? You know, Treasure Island, like that kind of vibe, which was a little bit more open for sure than this, not as produced. Yeah. But similar feeling of like we're going to take on more of this modern thing and like use those kind of guardrails. like what you're talking about. I think we almost take for granted what we just heard with When It Raines now

because after this, we've had the bad plus. We've had Robert Glasper who has, I think, really taken the torch of this in a lot of ways and spun it in the whole other thing. But like,

we get more of this now. Yeah. Right? But there is that element of like, you know, be it in hip-hop, be it in indie pop, be it in classical, like all these different,

what they used to call fusions of different musics, but like placing jazz in a situation where you can improvise and be yourself as a jazz musician, but the reality is there's some hope that anybody who likes that kind of music would like this. You know, because this is pretty like coffee house jazz and like backgrounds. I mean, there was background stuff or whatever,

but there wasn't crappy YouTube coffeehouse jazz. Just be like, ah, it's kind of jazzy. But like this could be something where it's like, since there's no vocals and since there's improvising, since there's an openness that's brought to the table, But then Brad doesn't have to worry about, like, am I swing? Is it okay to swing on this?

Is it okay to play a substitution? Like, all that is kind of organically introduced. And the personality, the individuality, the intentionality of his playing can still come out. But it's placed in another situation that there's, I just think, a potential for more appeal. That's what I meant by populism, where it's just like, okay, this is music of potentially anyone coming along to be like. 100%. Yeah. 100%.

Let's talk a little bit about the name of the album. In the way that I kind of blew this. We're going to get to that. I agree. Let's talk a little bit about the name of the album. Largo, of course, is a musical marking. Yeah. But Brad talks about the name and the origin here.

Yeah, well, the name of the record is called Largo, which kind of has a double meaning, I guess. First and foremost, it's the name of the great club in Los Angeles, where I met John Brian, the producer of the record. he's had a show every Friday night there for about I think more than five or six years where he does his own kind of one-man band thing there's no way to describe it but hearing him over the years has been a real inspiration I've gotten a lot of ideas musically about what music can do about what I can do with jazz improvisation so Largo is like the Cool Kids Club in LA, or at least it was. I'm not even sure if it's still around post-pandemic.

I don't think so. But yeah, John Bryan had a Friday residency there doing like a one-person show kind of thing, a bunch of musicians like cool musicians playing there, Elliot Smith and whatnot. And even like indie comedy, indie sketch comedy happening there. Oh yeah, like Tignitaro's live was recorded there. This like, you know, incredible stand-up record and a bunch of cool stuff happens or happened at Largo. Here's John Ryan on his residency Largo. Largo is run by Mark Flanagan, who's a longtime friend of mine, and it was a very, very funny, interesting, and beautiful, poignant moment for me. Flanagan had just gotten this club back that he had been involved in as a co-owner for a couple of years and gotten out of because the other

people who was working with didn't understand that music was why people went there. And he said, I want you to play Friday nights here. I said, you shouldn't give me that night. That's going to be your best night for people drinking and you're making money. And I want this thing to be a success. I'll open for people on like Mondays and Tuesdays. He's like, no, no, no, no, I'm putting it on Friday night. It's going to work. He said, you know, what do you need? You know, what's your rent? And it was $400 at the time, I think. Okay, well, what if I give you $200? a week.

My bucks in LA. Come on. You might not make that. Back in the day. People at the door. So I argued with him. And I just thought about it for a second. Oh, you're willing to take

a risk for me, and you believe in me. And my rent will be played, and I'll get to play whatever music I want. And I just hooked up. They said, Okay.

You have a deal. I used to go see Les Paul in New York, and he had discovered after his like years of fame that his favorite thing was playing to a small a fat Tuesdays I think and he found a weekly gig in New York doing that he did it for the last 30 years of his life I remember that I was a regular attendee and you never knew what you were going to get suddenly I found myself doing the same thing suddenly people were showing up and everything felt right and within weeks suddenly it was sold out there were all

sorts of different people coming through, other artists were coming through, and all these people who had to do the self-promotional things, which I've just chosen not to. We're coming to me going, wait a minute, you've got it figured out. You just do the fun part. Yeah, pretty great. Yeah, he was talking about Les Paul's residency at, I think it was the radio in New York for like 30 years. He was there all the time and you would go in small rooms. I love that what he said about like, I just want to play in a small place where people. people are paying attention. Yeah.

Like, we, we love doing that in my trio here in St. Louis, too. It's like the most fun thing you can do. Yep. So, let's play just a couple more tracks here. And then let's get to some, well, maybe we can just get to some categories, Peter. Okay. How about some Desert Island tracks? Ooh, what do you got?

I'm ready for dessert. Let's do it. Okay. All right, I love Dusty McNugget. I love the groove and where that places Brad into a solo, like when he gets to the soul. There's a lot of cool. Yeah, it's the way it starts. Start it again without me talking over it because I want to really...

Oh, I got him nervous. Do you know how to do that? Yeah. Okay, let's do it. Ah, I love those kind of like you're falling into it, right? Shut out, Tim Cook! Right. But it's important, like, that's the most important transition. The way Brad's playing the backbeat with his left hand with the dynamics playing,

it's so interesting and dialed in. Let's play this on the way out, too. I think that would be fun. My Desert Island track is when it rains. The old track that he's already ready. Is that Matt Chamberlain on drums on that? Yeah, he's killing it on that. It's the greatest.

What a pocket. And it really is like not being a like straight ahead jazz drummer. Like there's there's a different element that comes to it. I think they really set off Brad in an interesting way. So let's talk about some apex moments. Your apex moment is on Dusty. Yeah. If you want to go ahead to like, I don't know, a little bit of a 4-4, if that makes,

sense. This is a slow burn, another slow burner solo. A lot of cool kind of dancing and blues stuff. It's a lot of storytelling in this kind of play. It's like melodically, you know, check this out. You notice that Brad's not too far away from the blues at any moment. Yeah. It's always in there. Yeah. That's great. That's a really great solo. And it's like, it's so well crafted, you know, playing over that kind of, it's almost like a vamp. It's, it can become very self-indulgent when you have the horns behind it and like the drums. It can just get to the point where it's just like you're vamping. But that is a great example of extending out, really telling a story, taking it on a journey.

Obviously, you know, like rhythmically, blues laying back, pushing the head. There's all these sort of musical elements. But I think it's a really cool way to play, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cinematics still, for sure. My Apex moment is an entire track. You know, we heard exit music for a. film on Art of the Trio

Volume 3 from Radiohead, the Radiohead cover. Yeah. And they cover another radiohead on this, which is like way more ambitious from that same Radiohead album, OK Computer. It's paranoid Android. And it just goes, it's nine minutes long. There's prepared piano. We're hearing

here. John Bryan was super into prepared piano at this point, all over that soundtrack. I think this would be the equivalent of like, this would be the equivalent of someone in the 80s. It's like a Kenny Kirkland covering Pink Floyd or something. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like it would be that or like, like Herbie covering the Beatles in the 60s. Right. Like in 1969 or 1970. They recorded this live too. They're no overdubs. Yeah. So they did they had like John

Ryan running around doing all kinds of stuff. Jim Keltner running around doing all kinds of stuff. Brad doing all kinds of stuff. Matt Chamberlain holding it down. Anyway, it goes. It's another slow burn, right? It's an epic, epic version of paranoid Android. If you're a radiohead fan, I can't recommend enough listening to all nine minutes of that track. Yeah. Okay, Peter, bespoke playlist titles. What do you got?

Well, this is kind of bland, but I got populist jazz. I like it. I don't know. I'm getting to this populism thing. I know that the word's getting thrown around in some negative ways now. But I mean, in the choice sense. Like what? Right-wing populism?

No, no, no. No, no. No, no, no, just populist jazz. Jazz that's for the people. Jazz is for the masses, you know what I mean? Got it. Yeah. I don't even know if that's what populace means.

That's what I think it means. Yeah, so, okay. And I mean, the other kinds of albums that would be in there. I mean, this is stale, but you talk about, you know, secrets, you talk about kind of blue, you talk about... Secrets. Yeah, secrets, exactly. You talk about songs of the key of life, like stuff that is at a higher artistic level

is obviously incorporating jazz, but is really... really for anybody potentially. I mean, this might be, you know, some people might be like, this record's weird. Yeah. You know, if you're only listening to Taylor Swift or something, but this is, this is stuff that, like, is willing to take a, take a different doorway than the typical way, you know what I mean? And a lot of that is pushed forwards by the repertoire, choice, but also, you know, the production, the approach, the whole thing, but to still say, I'm going to be me, but I'm going to place myself at a different party, right? But I'm going to be my own personality. Populous jazz.

Populous jazz. I'm going, I have three suggestions here for a bespoke playlist. I see that. Imagine you're on Spotify and you saw Shoegays jazz. Now, before any Shoegays... Who started that too? I heard that from you for the first time. Before any Dream Pop or Shugase fans come at me, which you have every right to, because I realize this doesn't sound like Shoe Gaze, which is like very shimmery or whatever. But if you've ever watched Brad Meldon play the piano... Brad Meldale. He's gazing at his shoes, buddy. Now, if I go to Spotify, is there an actual genre called Shoe Gets?

jazz or playlists. I doubt it. Oh, okay. I don't know how official it is. My next one is PTA jazz and not Parent Teacher Association, but, well, I guess it could be at this point. We're all in our 40s, but more Paul Thomas Anderson jazz. You could hear this on a Paul Thomas Anderson soundtrack.

In fact, Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood and like now does all of PTA soundtracks. And my final one is because of the sort of melancholic, because of the somber nature of a lot of what I love about. this music. We're calling it SSRI Love Jazz is the name of the playlist. So SSRI is an antidepressant

prescription drug. It's a whole classification, you know, your Prozax, your Zolost. Should we maybe leave this one off? Are we treading into territory we want to go to? SSRIs are super helpful. Okay. But it's a playlist called SSRI Love Jazz. I got it because the eye is the connector point. Got it. I was reaching probably. Okay, so... Well, but that brings up a good point. We alluded to this earlier. Is this a sad and somber record? Not all of it, no. But there is...

No, but I mean, overall, if you were to describe it, the mood of it, because we're talking about how cinematic it is, how thematic it is, the stories that are told within it. If you look at the overall story arc of this album,

is this a sunny record, or is it a somber record? You know what this is? This is driving late at night around Los Angeles to me. Yeah. You ever driven around late at night in Los Angeles? Yeah, that can be kind of sad.

It can be surreal. It can be surreal. It can be surreal. Certainly cinematic. It can be beautiful color, the color tones, you know, the characters. It's not sunny L.A. It's not summer L.A. It's like winter and it's driving around at night.

Yeah. Way late at night. And this captures. There's some beauty. There's like not only hidden beauty, but like you have to keep your eyes open. The hills are kind of sparkling with lights. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah.

To me that's a great. That's a great description. Okay. If this were playing on any kind of streaming service and there was an up next. Yeah. Recommended up next. What do you got? Well, I don't know

what they would put. But I would say, so I got Elastic from Josh Redmond. I threw that in there because that's right around this time. It might even been in the same year, certainly right around that time. Elastic,

the album with the, you know, the elastic band, the first one. And then that kind of leads to Bad Plus Josh Redmond. Also a good call. That's a good take. Obviously Bad Plus super influence from this record. Yeah.

And then the obvious one, that's why I put it in brackets, it's Highway Rider, which was, what was that 10 years later or 12 years later, whatever, with similar collaboration. between John and Brad

and wouldn't that come up next? I would think so. Yeah, but that's kind of an obvious one. I like the elastic one. I've got, you know, the bad plus... Because, like, populist jazz, you know what I mean? I think the bad plus is an obvious one. I've got these are the Vistas,

which came out a few years, a couple years after this, where they cover... That was quite a bit later, wasn't it? No, this is like 2004. Really? Yeah. Oh, I thought that was... Okay.

They cover Nirvana. Yeah. Does this record exist? Also kind of populist. Without Largo? probably like this. I mean, these dudes are doing it at the time. No, I know, but I...

But there's definitely... Yeah. There's definitely, they're in that vein. And Brad did it first. I mean, if we talk about Brad as being potentially, certainly on the short list for the most influential pianist of this generation, right? 100%. Then Ethan Iverson being influenced,

although he's of the same generation, but a little bit younger. He also was influential, though, but... Yeah. But influenced by... These are the visitors. Yeah, you're talking about Aaron Parks, you... There's a ton. Yeah.

I mean, like, I'm, I really made the cut off that I wasn't really, I should have probably been more influenced by Brad. But because we came up right at the same time, there isn't that same kind of thing, you know? I would hate to put this in, in. Is there in Aaron Parks without Brad Melda? As he is now. Of course, there's, I mean, there's none of us who came after that. He was so popular. Right.

I mean, even like, you know, Robert Glasper is covering Radiohead on some of his albums. And he may or may not do that without Brad Meld. But it's got to be in there. He's my age, right? So he came up with when this. was all happening. It's all in there for all of us. You know what I mean? I think it just changed

sort of what we thought we could do. Another up next I think would work really well is Elliot Smith's either or. Produced by John Bryan. They were actually, John Bryan had like a TV show for a while and Brad and Elliot Smith

were on. Oh, I think I remember that. It's on YouTube. You can find it. It's incredible. It's between the bars. Yeah. Nice. The whole album, either or, is amazing. Yeah. And then I had Beck C-Change.

I don't know. That just spoke to me as something that I think would fit really well. Yeah. Okay, quibble bits. You got any quibble bits? Quibble bits. So the only things, and these are really, I put question marks by it because I don't really, like, I'm just forced into doing some quibble bits. I think it's a great record.

I don't know if it's the most cohesive record in a way. Like, it's several different. But also, but that's part of the, I think beauty. not everything has to be cohesive. You know, it's several, like the last track to me is a little bit disconnected from the rest of the record, but he starts out solo piano and he ends, like, there's some interesting

like connections on a bigger sort of meta level. So I don't think it's necessarily, I don't know. I agree, man. I'd actually take it further. And I'm, again, I'm a huge fan. Oh, I know. This is like one of my favorite records. I think it's hit or miss. I think. I didn't, I don't think it's hit or miss track to track.

I don't think it is. I was surprised you said that. I think it's hit me. I think if everything was... What are the misses? There's a... I don't want to get too specific with it, but there's, it just comes in waves.

Like, there's really great stuff. And then it's, there's kind of like... But it's kind of like a meal... Doesn't hit me as hard. Everything was as... As poignant as when it rains, right?

Which I think is just one of the most beautiful tracks of the 2000s. If he made a whole album like that... Then it wouldn't be as impactful. I hear you know, it's like, you gotta have the peaks in the valleys. Like, the thing that connects the record... A boy from High Ridge can dream.

No, I know. But I'm saying, like, I really don't think we'd feel the same way. And that's what I respect about this work is that if we, the thing that connects it is Brad's piano playing. Like there's certain elements to the way that he played because he's very authentic on this. Although I think at the time, well, I remember at the time, it was seen as a big departure for him in terms of like,

you're not a jazz player anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, this is a very jazzy piano record, actually, the actual way that he's playing, you know, and all the sort of Brad isons we talk about the balance between the hands, you know, the triads and then going to some, other voices, just the single line, you know, all those kinds of things. The phrasing of his melodic lines, which are almost all improvised,

except when he's stating melodies and stuff, is very, very much storytelling of Brad, very authentic to him, very much like, like when you hear a saxophone, like, Sonny Rolls, that's Sonny Rolls. It's like, and that's hard to do on the piano. So to me, that's what connects it and keeps it from being too disparate of a thing. The only real quibble bit, I would say, there's some sonic effects on here that maybe haven't aged that great. You know, maybe, I don't know.

Just, there's some things that sound, and part of it, and even some of the fadeouts and stuff to me, that that's a little bit, I think, past-A. Early computer days, right? I mean, computers have been around for a long time in 2000, too. But it was still, like, not where it is today as far as production goes. Yeah. But again, the piano and the beautiful sound of the piano,

even with the different sounds of the piano, that's the connector. Snobometer. Snobometer. Okay, if we look at this. I really like what you've done with Smobometer, by the way. these jazz snobs, then it's a two. That's so good. You know what I mean?

And if it's pops, if it's a pops, it's a nine. Or maybe even a 10. You nailed this. Like, if it is a jazz snob, it's a two in that it's super accessible. Yeah. It's just like, oh, okay, this is great.

Right. Even though I'm sure Ethan Iverson loves this record. I don't know. I bet he doesn't. I bet he loves like Art of the Trio volume four or more. But loss takes. Or maybe he just,

he's too close to Brad and age and genre-wise, so he's just like, I'm out of the whole conversation. How would Alan Irish shouldn't rate this on the snoburn? thermometer. A nine. Okay. Which is what you have here for rock pop fans. Yeah.

I put seven in general. Yeah. But I like the way you did this better, actually. Yeah. Is it better than kind of blue? No. No. Easy.

Accoutrements. I put a nine. I love this cover so much. And all of the, like, the digital media that came with it, the EPK and the liner notes. Oh, I don't remember all that. Oh, yeah, man. Yeah. I give it an eight.

It's solid. It's very good. It's peak EPK time. This is like internet 2.0. You know what I mean? People were still making electronic press kits. Geocities. There's probably a Geocities link to geosities. Geosities? Is that right? Either way. We don't know.

Okay. Hey, leave a comment. Yeah, what do you guys think about this record? Like, how do you think it's age? That's what I really want to think about. Because for me, with having some separation from it, I think it aged great. I know I said a few comments that some of the sonic effects, but that's a very minor thing. I actually think this has gotten better over time in a way that signifies a really great work. You know, I'd love to hear what. Hey, Brad's been in the comments before.

Brad, drop us a comment on how you think this is aged. How do you think we broke this down? Any thoughts that you have on this? Brad, if you're in the comments, congratulations on this. Yeah. Well done. And keep in mind, we're not going to put a lot of credence in what you say because you can't be objective about this.

But it'd be interested to see what you say. Cool. So don't forget about the nerd nook here. Oh, that's going to be fun. Yeah. So the nerd nook, we're going to go for our piano nerds. Yeah. We are going to cover the core changes to,

to when it rains. I'm going to show you a little bit of the voice leading. There's some details in there. Real simple, but really cool to know. That's for Open Studio members only, right? Yeah, you can find that in the hang under as seen on. But if you go to Open StudioJazz.com and you want to sign up just for a trial

so that you can check out the nerd. You can do that. You get a 14-day trial. Check out all the nerdsies. Well, man, this has been a blast. It's been awesome, man. We nailed it. Sounds like Bob and Caleb are ready for a little Dusty McNugget.

Shall we join them? Yeah, until next time. You'll hear it.