ARTIST: Metheny Mehldau
TITLE: Quartet
LABEL: Nonesuch Records
GENRE: Jazz
TIME: 73:15 min
SIZE: 102,9 MB
RIP DATE: Mar-10-2007
RELEASE DATE: Mar-12-2007
WEBSITE: n/a
Track List:
01. A Night Away 08:01
02. The Sound Of Water 03:57
03. Fear And Trembling 07:00
04. Don't Wait 07:13
05. Towards The Light 08:14
06. Long Before 07:01
07. En La Tierra Que No Olvida 07:46
08. Santa Cruz Slacker 06:13
09. Secret Beach 09:10
10. Silent Movie 06:08
11. Marta's Theme 02:32
(From Passagio Per Il Paradiso)
Release Notes:
The first recorded meeting of guitarist Pat Metheny
and pianist Brad Mehldau, Metheny/Mehldau, was an
intimate, almost chamber-like affair, albeit one
with some heated improvisations. Quartet, their
second meeting, finds them sounding like a
stripped-down version of the Pat Metheny Group. But
this is a leaner, looser band, with freewheeling
support from Mehldau's trio of drummer Jeff Ballard
and bassist Larry Grenadier on all but a couple of
tracks. The guitarist and pianist are a good match
for Metheny's dramatic and lyrical inclinations,
seducing the more angular and cerebral Mehldau like
teasing threads from a knot. Mehldau is a pianist of
exploratory dimensions, and he gives himself free
rein here. There's intimate, Jim Hall/Bill
Evans-style duos like "So Much Music in the Air"
that you might expect, but also out-and-out
free-form electric excursions like "Fear and
Trembling" that recall Metheny's 1980s work with
Billy Higgins and Charlie Haden on Rejoicing. While
maintaining a unified sound, Quartet is nevertheless
an album of contrasts, as Metheny drives into his
synth guitar on "Towards the Light," tossing in a
heavy-metal bridge, but also goes a bit pastoral and
medieval on "The Sound of Water," strumming what
sounds like a harp-guitar, although it could be his
guitar-synth. With deeply empathetic playing and a
broad stylistic palette, Quartet never wears thin.