Pat Metheny/Brad Mehldau: Birmingham SH 30-6-07

Bupie wrote: I guess each night has its own truth because I saw them yesterday at the Jazz festival in Vienne (France) and there were 5 (yes, FIVE !) encore for about 3 hours of total playing time.   Maybe they were inspired by the beautiful location : http://perso.orange.fr/grimperic/galeries/vienne/original/theatre1.html   By the way, the drummer really impressed me but I am not a musician, so ...

My goodness, that's a beautiful theater!

E

Boy, that looks incredible! And I'd never even heard of Vienne.

I've deliberately slept on this before committing some thoughts to the PC - but ideas for a review remain the same some 19 hours later.

 It is a long time since I left a concert of favourite musicians without a buzz, but Metheny and Mehldau have done that to me.

These musicians played to an audience  Symphony Hall less than 2/3rd full. (Perhaps the Brits outside London have cottoned on to American jazz artists seeing Europe as a cash cow, by charging at rates they would not contemplate back in the States). I flinched at the 35 quid ticket price - especially when a memorableHoldsworth/Pasqua concert at London's South Bank in May, was much cheaper. Having been warned by a friend that they would start late, sure enough they started late and then proceeded to give 2 solid hour of music. Much of this was quite cerebral but tyhe sort that made me work hard pondering if there is anything in it. I don't know, so nothing for me, worse only the enjoyment of seeing a favourite guitarist and major young jazz pianist  play 30 metres away. For approx the first 45 minute it was Metheny and Mehldau together alone. I have lot of Metheny albums and enjoy a huge proportion of his music and 4 Mehldau albums - indeed I loved their contributions to Michael Brecker's Pilgrimage CD  - but personally I don't like them as a duo on record  and alas nothing sparked last night in a display of often virtuoso playing, nothing to provide a chill, a long term memory or a change of opinion. Thus supporting Allan Holdsworth's statement that duos of great musicians/soloists often inhibit each other. Brad revealed his classical training whilst taking the lead (perhaps suitable for ealry 20th century string/piano quintets), whilst Pat noodled - a term I rarely use for my guitar heroes. Indeed he noodled between the signature Metheny riffs in his own solos. The first 45 minutes might be summed up as chamber jazz, but dry and lacking humour. Compositions we guess were from the Metheny/Mehldau albums and possibly a tune from the aforementioned Brecker album

Metheny and Mehldau were then joined by a drummer and double bassist, Jeff Ballard and Larry Grenadier. Ballard immediately livened things up with his drums - my friend noted the Keith Moon action whilst swinging the sticks, and like Moon was was over the top. Miking of the drums was too loud, whilst it was not complimentary to the rest of group a lot of the time, making for a distraction from the other three.  A welcome break came when Metheny played the  42 string Pikasso guitar accompanied by Mehldau - but I'm told he was considerably more restrained than normal. Finally, having been warned by Metheny (in one of the few stage announcements), the last number was indeed the last number,when  they went back to the quartet and finished the show. No encore - maybe Mehldau was pissed having to tell a member of the audience to stop taking pictures 3/4 of the way through - and I was shocked to discover we were heading back to the car park at 9.38pm.

Not a memorable night.


Edited by Dick Heath - July 05 2007 at 05:34