If you can extend the bundle until New Year’s Day I’ll buy it now. Unfortunately, I watched this awesome video after Christmas. Thanks for your incredible work to promote the appreciation of jazz and encouraging the study of a great American art form.
Also the dude's playing is always so fire, and he never has to be a showman either. He's the most anti-Instagram musician, and yet, to me, is still the most interesting living musician today.
I totally agree with you, not knocking it. However, I also love the showmanship because it further entertains and sometimes the person just can’t sit still like how others can to great rhymical music and it’s good for the soul. It's like you are not just hearing it, you are also hearing it in your bones, your blood is dancing and to sit still would cause more stress than to dance. Those that dance and sing more are less likely to be depressed than those that sit stiff to wow music cos they only feel it in their head and not their body. I guess it's hard if you can't relate just as much the same those that dance can't imagine how one can sit still - both parties can empathise though! I had a friend once and he said the reason he doesn't dance to music is that he doesn't know how and feels to embarrassed. In that moment I felt so sorry for him and I thought to myself, what do you do to free your soul that can be very en-caging. Also, that type of stiff upper feeling must translate in bed with your woman or man. What it means is you move your body very little and therefore unable to feel satisfaction or give satisfaction suffice enough you don't feel frustrated. I've always thought to myself never go out with someone that can only move their body one way let alone a person who generally doesn't move their body. These countries where they move their body or ethnicities what do you think is going to happen in bed. They are going to dance their body and soul with the other person. As for two stiff upper - that will lead to someone always being frustrated. Certain ways in cultures can do more harm than good and the same with food in cultures. Look at the Western diet, it kills you and causes disease whilst other diets keep you healthy. The body is more that just a vessel for keeping you up-right!
Brad Mehldau single-handedly got me into jazz, I was a teenager really into Radiohead and he recorded a bunch of Radiohead songs and a pop/jazz album with Jon Brion which I really liked. Then I branched into his trio stuff which I only half-understood but was intrigued by and slowly I followed those roots into jazz generally.
These are the kind of breakdowns I adore. I learn so much every time. Especially things like grouping the solo by shapes and chord outlines. It makes it seem so much more accessible! Thank you!
Brad Meldau's finger independence, dynamics and improv are all top tier, and he plays so many genres!! Give his solo and trio versions of Blackbird a listen 😁
So glad you didn't really quit! Absolutely LOVE Brad's playing - but it's exhausting listening because there's always so much to unpack. Endlessly fascinating.
Thanks for a great analysis of my favorite jazz pianist! I try to hear him whenever he comes to SF. First time hearing/watching this performance. More please!
As much as many of us here in the comments who might be blown away by some of Charles' playing in our context. It's amazing to see Charles just floored by another jazz musician! Love this!!
Brad Mehldau’s collaboration with Mark Guiliana is absolutely incredible. I know it might not be your most viewed video, but I would LOVE to see you look over the live performance of “Hungry Ghost” by the two of them. It’s just an awesome bit of 7/8 craziness that is incredibly impressive.
Mehldau is one of the GOATs of modern jazz. Thank you for introducing his music to casuals and even dissecting the solo for us jazz musicians. Now if someone could explain how Mehldau does his arrangements that sound like he has 3 hands lmao.
Brad Mehldau is fire! I can only ever hope to sound half as good as him and the other pianists I listen to often. On the transcription tip, I feel like I always get the phrasing wrong even when the notes are identical. My ability to hear and write rhythm just doesn't match my ability to transcribe pitches. Like ever. That's the value of singing to the track for me 😅 it'll either clean up the rhythm or figure out where it actually lands.
Been really getting into jazz lately and it's awesome videos like this exist to introduce me to the more recent jazz greats that aren't as well-known as the "classics." Would be awesome to see/hear you dissect a Hiromi solo like this!
Just saw Moodswing in Paris this fall. It was incredible, but I can’t help but thinking seeing them in the 90s would have been even more 🔥 thanks for this breakdown!
Brad Meldau is definitely one of my favorite pianists. Also, I have no idea how someone transcribes something this fast. The notes go by faster than I process them, let alone figure out the intervalic relationships between them.
Great Video about Brad. Saw him this year with Joshua Redman, Christian McBride and Brian Blade playing Round Again and other of their own compositions. Erverything spot on for 2 hours. Absolutly breathwaking. i wish a Video about Michel Camilo
one of the best solos of all time. That fast line he goes back to a few times (with the #11 & #9 towards the end) is all over his music, he drops it almost once an album and never fails to sound insane! Amazing video brother was great to explore the solo in depth
Thanks! (Yeah, and a fun fact is Brad says that he mostly focuses on his left hand when practising... I don't wanna hear when his left beast is unleashed.)
The first time I heard Brad was his cover of Knives Out . I didn’t even realize it was a Radiohead song at the time, but his playing just absolutely blew me away.
I'm glad you're going to do more videos like this because they are really fun. It's cool to get more insight into these great players and jazz improvisation in general. I'm more of a blues fan than a jazz fan, so I don't have a lot of straight jazz recommendations, but one pianist I'd definitely recommend checking out is Bruce Katz, who is equally great at jazz and blues playing. I've been listening to his song Praise House from his album Solo Ride on repeat recently.
there are few voicings that brad mehldau popularly uses to interpret some chords or as "outside perspective" .. and there are not too many :) one of the most popular is 4793 that he uses for dominant chords - slides half tone up or down or goes straight on the root :)
To me the solo actually starts in time with the "squeak" of the sax on the very end of beat 4 of the previous bar to the "one" or "two" you are talking about - it comes in EARLY. It's (about) the fifth or sixth note of the piano solo hits "one" of the next bar to my ear (but isn't all this the whole point of bending time in jazz)? Great video, really good fun to have it taken apart - and then even better to just hear it through start to finish, on the live recording, having thought about it in a new way.
Played a little gig in a small town pizzeria in CT. Sat down with an appreciative patron. Perhaps, you know my son? He asked. "Maybe, who's your son?" Have you heard of Brad Mehldau? 🤯🤯
When I was freshman at Hartt in CT my girlfriend’s ex showed up to play us a demo tape he just did with a hired gun “older” bassist and a 10th grade high school piano buddy who attended the local (and legendary for jazz) Hall High. The song was Seven Steps to Heaven and I braced myself to be “polite” when hearing what I assumed would no doubt be some rudimentary scuffling from the “teen buddy” on piano. Well, I nearly walked out of the dorm and resigned from the program to start a lemonade stand business when I heard a solo that rivaled Herbie’s. It was of course, Brad, and his eventual legendary status somewhat appeased my ego in that I wasn’t undone mentally by just ANYONE.😂😂So I am oddly proud to be one of the first to “quit” piano upon hearing Brad, in 1987.
Glad to see I’m not the only person who makes outbursts while some heavy is blowing his face off !👍🇨🇦 Would love to see you break down San Lorenzo (Mays/Methenet)
Charles, you have an awesome channel and I'm a huge fan of your energy and excellent piano / topic choices... one tiny suggestion, can you flip the light-up keys so that the viewer is seeing them from a players perspective. They don't actually help much upside down.
I'm sure it doesn't pay as well, but damn this is sooooo much more valuable to the collective musician world than you breaking down the latest pop song (not that there's anything wrong with pop music, but there's just so much less variety in creativity to draw from per piece on average).
You talked about it once before in 2021, but it might be fun to go deep into Dolphin Shoals Sax Solo! Original video focused more on the synergy of music and technology in the the context of the game itself. It would be interesting to see a video revisiting this track, focusing on it from a purely musical standpoint, as if it were simply another Jazz track.
As a guitarist I just get the complexity of pianists like Brad Mehldau though you explaining it to me - although I play Jazz for a long time - I gotto have my co-musicians explain more stuff to me
Speaking of players to make you wanna quit, I'd love to see you do a video on the Bayou Maharaja himself, James Booker. As Dr. John says "The best Black, gay, one-eyed, junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced."
I haven't listened that much to Brad, but this shit is ridiculous. The best thing I've heard him play that I keep coming back to is "Unrequited". That solo is mindblowing too.
Only a couple days left to get 70% off our entire course library!! cornellmusicacademy.com/holidaysale
Can you do Super mario odyssey OST please
If you can extend the bundle until New Year’s Day I’ll buy it now. Unfortunately, I watched this awesome video after Christmas. Thanks for your incredible work to promote the appreciation of jazz and encouraging the study of a great American art form.
Also the dude's playing is always so fire, and he never has to be a showman either. He's the most anti-Instagram musician, and yet, to me, is still the most interesting living musician today.
I totally agree with you, not knocking it. However, I also love the showmanship because it further entertains and sometimes the person just can’t sit still like how others can to great rhymical music and it’s good for the soul. It's like you are not just hearing it, you are also hearing it in your bones, your blood is dancing and to sit still would cause more stress than to dance. Those that dance and sing more are less likely to be depressed than those that sit stiff to wow music cos they only feel it in their head and not their body. I guess it's hard if you can't relate just as much the same those that dance can't imagine how one can sit still - both parties can empathise though! I had a friend once and he said the reason he doesn't dance to music is that he doesn't know how and feels to embarrassed. In that moment I felt so sorry for him and I thought to myself, what do you do to free your soul that can be very en-caging. Also, that type of stiff upper feeling must translate in bed with your woman or man. What it means is you move your body very little and therefore unable to feel satisfaction or give satisfaction suffice enough you don't feel frustrated. I've always thought to myself never go out with someone that can only move their body one way let alone a person who generally doesn't move their body. These countries where they move their body or ethnicities what do you think is going to happen in bed. They are going to dance their body and soul with the other person. As for two stiff upper - that will lead to someone always being frustrated. Certain ways in cultures can do more harm than good and the same with food in cultures. Look at the Western diet, it kills you and causes disease whilst other diets keep you healthy. The body is more that just a vessel for keeping you up-right!
Is difficult to be a showman playing that many notes 😅
@@11kwright Charlie Parker barely moved when he played. So, uhhh...
@@11kwright no way ur gatekeeping how people can play music that’s WILD
Based description
Brad Mehldau single-handedly got me into jazz, I was a teenager really into Radiohead and he recorded a bunch of Radiohead songs and a pop/jazz album with Jon Brion which I really liked. Then I branched into his trio stuff which I only half-understood but was intrigued by and slowly I followed those roots into jazz generally.
Yep! Me too, exact same path. It was Mehldau and Avishai Cohen for me
Exit music (for a film) is pure bliss
Brad Mehldau is one of the people that introduced me to just how great piano can be, so I'm thrilled to see him featured here!
These are the kind of breakdowns I adore. I learn so much every time. Especially things like grouping the solo by shapes and chord outlines. It makes it seem so much more accessible! Thank you!
Brad Meldau's finger independence, dynamics and improv are all top tier, and he plays so many genres!! Give his solo and trio versions of Blackbird a listen 😁
I had not heard these before, but as a huge Beatles fan I thank you immensely! Wonderful arrangements.
@@brendenschatz1748 Beatles?
i absolutely love the person editing these videos because the zooms on accidental key hits get me every. single. time. thank you
I was just thinking the same thing. Tried so hard not to laugh while I was settling my baby to sleep 😂
So glad you didn't really quit! Absolutely LOVE Brad's playing - but it's exhausting listening because there's always so much to unpack. Endlessly fascinating.
Brad doesn’t move anything other than his nimble fingers. I’m surprised there is no smoke. 🎄
Love how you're on a first name basis with Brad.
LMFAO
Mehldau is far and away one of my favorite pianists of the modern era. He’s got the sensibility of Bill Evans and the flare of Keith Jarrett
Thanks for a great analysis of my favorite jazz pianist! I try to hear him whenever he comes to SF. First time hearing/watching this performance. More please!
As much as many of us here in the comments who might be blown away by some of Charles' playing in our context. It's amazing to see Charles just floored by another jazz musician! Love this!!
I love these. I would love to watch more jazz solo breakdowns.
Brad Mehldau’s collaboration with Mark Guiliana is absolutely incredible. I know it might not be your most viewed video, but I would LOVE to see you look over the live performance of “Hungry Ghost” by the two of them. It’s just an awesome bit of 7/8 craziness that is incredibly impressive.
Love this format! A bit more advanced than some of your other stuff, which is really nice imo. Looking foward to learning more with this series!
You should do a deep dive on the Professor Layton soundtrack! I think you'd really enjoy it!
If you love Prof Layton you might like The Consouls - th-cam.com/video/tenhVVh9ah4/w-d-xo.html
Mehldau is one of the GOATs of modern jazz. Thank you for introducing his music to casuals and even dissecting the solo for us jazz musicians. Now if someone could explain how Mehldau does his arrangements that sound like he has 3 hands lmao.
Brad Mehldau is fire! I can only ever hope to sound half as good as him and the other pianists I listen to often.
On the transcription tip, I feel like I always get the phrasing wrong even when the notes are identical. My ability to hear and write rhythm just doesn't match my ability to transcribe pitches. Like ever. That's the value of singing to the track for me 😅 it'll either clean up the rhythm or figure out where it actually lands.
Been really getting into jazz lately and it's awesome videos like this exist to introduce me to the more recent jazz greats that aren't as well-known as the "classics." Would be awesome to see/hear you dissect a Hiromi solo like this!
One of my favorites as well! This whole gig was insane! Similarly great performance is Live at Parc Floral of brad's trio
Thank you for doing this, Brad Mehldau is one of my favorite musicians of all time glad to see him getting more recognition!
Just saw Moodswing in Paris this fall. It was incredible, but I can’t help but thinking seeing them in the 90s would have been even more 🔥 thanks for this breakdown!
Brad Meldau is definitely one of my favorite pianists. Also, I have no idea how someone transcribes something this fast. The notes go by faster than I process them, let alone figure out the intervalic relationships between them.
They use software to slow it down
In the old days people would play the record or tape slower. Today we can slow it down directly here on youtube.
Mehldau always untouchable. His playing with that quartet is some of his best 🧯🧯
Great Video about Brad. Saw him this year with Joshua Redman, Christian McBride and Brian Blade playing Round Again and other of their own compositions. Erverything spot on for 2 hours. Absolutly breathwaking. i wish a Video about Michel Camilo
5:03 was FIREEEEEE - sometimes I'm just as in awe of your playing as the greats you analyze!
parody by mccoy tyner is another one that melts the brain
Yo no sé si lo que mas me gustó de este video es la habilidad del tipo que toca el piano o la risa de Charles. Jajaja, fué muy simpático.
One of my favorite Jaz piano pieces is autumn leaves by the Kieth Jarett trio.
Brad graduated from my high school, many years before I went there. So amazing to have found that out when I was a young guy!
one of the best solos of all time. That fast line he goes back to a few times (with the #11 & #9 towards the end) is all over his music, he drops it almost once an album and never fails to sound insane! Amazing video brother was great to explore the solo in depth
Like the title track of the album "Ademuz" , that same line is there, I call it the Brad Mehldau lick lol
Thanks! (Yeah, and a fun fact is Brad says that he mostly focuses on his left hand when practising... I don't wanna hear when his left beast is unleashed.)
Big fan of these in-depth videos on great players, thank you for sharing your insight
The first time I heard Brad was his cover of Knives Out . I didn’t even realize it was a Radiohead song at the time, but his playing just absolutely blew me away.
I'm glad you're going to do more videos like this because they are really fun. It's cool to get more insight into these great players and jazz improvisation in general. I'm more of a blues fan than a jazz fan, so I don't have a lot of straight jazz recommendations, but one pianist I'd definitely recommend checking out is Bruce Katz, who is equally great at jazz and blues playing. I've been listening to his song Praise House from his album Solo Ride on repeat recently.
there are few voicings that brad mehldau popularly uses to interpret some chords or as "outside perspective" .. and there are not too many :) one of the most popular is 4793 that he uses for dominant chords - slides half tone up or down or goes straight on the root :)
Excellent video topic! Love Brad Mehldau
Petition to have a dedicated video of Charles playing A Night In Tunisia
Signed
This is SUCH a great channel. Music nerds unite.
Thank you. For slowing down and explaining
To me the solo actually starts in time with the "squeak" of the sax on the very end of beat 4 of the previous bar to the "one" or "two" you are talking about - it comes in EARLY. It's (about) the fifth or sixth note of the piano solo hits "one" of the next bar to my ear (but isn't all this the whole point of bending time in jazz)? Great video, really good fun to have it taken apart - and then even better to just hear it through start to finish, on the live recording, having thought about it in a new way.
Played a little gig in a small town pizzeria in CT. Sat down with an appreciative patron. Perhaps, you know my son? He asked. "Maybe, who's your son?"
Have you heard of Brad Mehldau?
🤯🤯
3:36 I was gonna say something about how relaxed brad mehldau's hands looked even moving so fast
hes my favoourite pianist, and when i heard one of is all the things you are intros i was like gawdamm hes so good
A fever dream in Tunisia.
Could you look at the soloing of Michel Petrucciani please? My favourite player. He was always incredible.
When I was freshman at Hartt in CT my girlfriend’s ex showed up to play us a demo tape he just did with a hired gun “older” bassist and a 10th grade high school piano buddy who attended the local (and legendary for jazz) Hall High. The song was Seven Steps to Heaven and I braced myself to be “polite” when hearing what I assumed would no doubt be some rudimentary scuffling from the “teen buddy” on piano. Well, I nearly walked out of the dorm and resigned from the program to start a lemonade stand business when I heard a solo that rivaled Herbie’s. It was of course, Brad, and his eventual legendary status somewhat appeased my ego in that I wasn’t undone mentally by just ANYONE.😂😂So I am oddly proud to be one of the first to “quit” piano upon hearing Brad, in 1987.
Great playing Charles! 😮💨SMOKIN'!!!!!💨🔥‼️
Love you stuff! Could you check out the OSTs for Outer Wilds and Halo ODST?
The piano solo in StrasbourgSt. Denis at the 2007 New Morning Club always blows my mind - would love to see you dive deep!
Every solo in that performace is insane
Brilliant video. Well done. Loved it.
Well, I'm glad you kept it up.
Great analysis. Will be stealing some of these licks! I also really like your latest set/background. Very nice! Thanks.
Glad to see I’m not the only person who makes outbursts while some heavy is blowing his face off !👍🇨🇦
Would love to see you break down San Lorenzo (Mays/Methenet)
Definitely on the end of 1 😇
Charles, you have an awesome channel and I'm a huge fan of your energy and excellent piano / topic choices... one tiny suggestion, can you flip the light-up keys so that the viewer is seeing them from a players perspective. They don't actually help much upside down.
Echoes... Even better. Newport. Maybe one of the best piano solos of all time.
Charles plays so well...
Would love to see you do a tribute/analysis on some of Joey DeFrancesco's music. Jazz recently lost one of its greats.
That was pretty cool! 🎼🎵🎶🎹😎 Tysm, Charles! 🙏🏼😇
Oh yes ! More Brad Mehldau please 🤩❤️👏🏼
I'm sure it doesn't pay as well, but damn this is sooooo much more valuable to the collective musician world than you breaking down the latest pop song (not that there's anything wrong with pop music, but there's just so much less variety in creativity to draw from per piece on average).
I would love love LOVE for you to break down some of Brad Mehldau’s other work but especially ‘Dream Brother’ and ‘And I Love Her’!!
God tier stuff. Plus your noises are INCREDIBLE!
Charles you have to do a video on the early 2000’s hit “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield! It’s surprisingly interesting.
Great analysis, you look so passionate! The chosen song are always amazing:)
Yeah dude! This solo reminds me of the synth lead from the final Bowser fight in Super Mario World for the SNES.
can you do kneebody? maybe penguin dentist, that song is so confusing
This is great, thanks man !
Lyle's solo on First Circle - really any version. Talk about a master class of solo construction...
Someone else actually mentioning Lyle! I hope Charles will take a look at his piano playing too
I second this - big fan of Lyle Mays (and much of PMG)!
Solo recommendation: Michel Camilo’s Caribe (from One More Once)
You talked about it once before in 2021, but it might be fun to go deep into Dolphin Shoals Sax Solo!
Original video focused more on the synergy of music and technology in the the context of the game itself.
It would be interesting to see a video revisiting this track, focusing on it from a purely musical standpoint, as if it were simply another Jazz track.
And get Pat Bartley to guest and play it
Jump to 9:53 for the exact moment Charles completes his transformation into a Looney Tune.
Mehldau is SO good. He can do all the classic jazz moves but then releases an album like Finding Gabriel haha.
it’s never too late for over the garden wall
Yeah, Brad Mehldau is next level
Perhaps this is the video that showcase your ability to run a super high caliber channel. excellent.
Look how delicate his hands are playing it too.
thats so cool! I know his son, he is in jazz school with me
Huge chops, obvs, but what really appeals to me in Mehldau’s playing is his lyrical and melodic feeling.
Brad M. worked our boii s brain and muscles out!
That whole band ... their rendition of "St. Thomas". What Mehldau does there is literally rocket science cause he effin launches one!
Incredible video as always , had heard a lot of him but not this one, mind blown
As a guitarist I just get the complexity of pianists like Brad Mehldau though you explaining it to me - although I play Jazz for a long time - I gotto have my co-musicians explain more stuff to me
Have you ever checked out Hiromi? Her playing is also amazing, maybe an idea for another video?
Holy moly this was great!!
He's COOOMING!
I recommend you to listen Keith Jarrett's "jasmine" album, it's full of solos like that
I WISH you were teaching on my jazz course of old - you're answering questions I didn't even know I had!!
BM is on a different solar system ❤ Super vid btw dude , kudos
The solos that make us want to quit make us better.
Great video and analysis.
Speaking of players to make you wanna quit, I'd love to see you do a video on the Bayou Maharaja himself, James Booker. As Dr. John says "The best Black, gay, one-eyed, junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced."
I'll second this request!
I'd love to see you deconstruct the music from Only Murders in the Building. It's so simple yet so effective.
I haven't listened that much to Brad, but this shit is ridiculous. The best thing I've heard him play that I keep coming back to is "Unrequited". That solo is mindblowing too.
@meofficial_corridorcrew Sorry, what adress?
And he does it so calmly too...
He was probably high on heroin
Loved this
do more of this!!!!!
impressive jazz solos.