Alone Together [Import, Live]

Brad Mehldau, Lee Konitz, Charlie Haden | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 23, 2011)
• Original Release Date: November 4, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Live
• Label: Blue Note
• ASIN: B000005H9M
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,863 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #97 in Music > Indie Music > Jazz > Modern Post Bop

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Meditative standards-playing from Konitz, October 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Alone Together (Audio CD)

Six standards that have been touchstones of Konitz's career, recorded by a quiet and intimate trio (Konitz, Charlie Haden and the pianist Brad Mehldau). Konitz's improvisations here are as focused and closely-thought-out as ever; equally a delight are his thoughtful renditions of the melodies. Check out "Round Midnight", where the tune is only present as the familiar phrase-rhythms, while Konitz fills them with new lines. Konitz was once quoted in an interview as to his concept of "levels" in improvisation--ranging from the pure statement of a melody to elaborations on it to making up new melodies--and that he felt all were equally valid. This recording is a particularly clear example of this credo.

So why just 4 stars? First: four of the improvisations get truncated by an artificial fadeout. One can't blame stupid producers for this decision: Haden & Konitz produced the album themselves. This feature is particularly irritating on "What is this Thing..." where Konitz's own composition written on its changes, "Subconscious-Lee", gets cut off as he states it.

Second: Brad Mehldau is, to my ears, grossly inappropriate for this album. His solos are all of a piece: instantly doubletimed, with call-and-response patterns built up between both hands with maddening predictability from a repeated phrase. This does little besides showing one that Mehldau is adept at transposition and has little sense of when to stop. Konitz has a knack for fitting in in the most unexpected of contexts--he's performed with Derek Bailey and Ornette Coleman--but it looks like Mehldau needs to learn this trick too.

These flaws are not serious enough to detract from a fine Konitz performance, however. Recommended.

25 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chamber jazz- a Lee Konitz showcase., April 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Alone Together (Audio CD)

The album title says it all-this album does sound at times like the 3 participants are not listening to each other. This is a live recording from December 96.Haden(bass),Konitz(alto) and Mehldau(piano) work through 6 standards at the Jazz Bakery in L.A. . Konitz alone or with Haden is everything you would expect.He has no fear of taking risks,turning the tune inside-out and searching all over for the beauty in the interplay.It is often calm and unrushed- just riveting music by two absolutely top-class players.The music only heats up and swings in the conventional sense when piano and bass take off together.It jars a bit in this context and sounds like Brad Mehldau has been noodling away in the background waiting to be let off the leash.And away he goes at double quick time but it is not really a development on what went before. When all 3 play together the result is strange-Mehldau is languid and unable to get into the exchanges.Konitz and Haden bounce ideas off each other but Mehldau is somewhere else. Still, it is a fine record .Konitz on the tightrope again and perfectly balanced throughout in spite of all the leaps and jumps of his adventurous playing. Some sets at the Jazz Bakery were played by the Konitz /Haden duo and the results are on "Sweet &Lovely" on King Records.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars what you see is what you get, October 7, 2004

By 

B (houston, tx) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alone Together (Audio CD)

I bought this cd and got pretty much what i expected. It is not a telepathic trio cd where like minds communicate so well they finish each other's musical thoughts. It's more like a jam session with two old people and one young one. The two old people have made a lot of moves in jazz. Lee Konitz, as the liner notes so obsequiously state, has done a little of everything in jazz, including being there for the beginnings of free jazz with Lennie Tristano. Charlie Haden was one of Ornette's original soul brothers, and has now graduated to playing cds full of ballads and chilled foreign standards. Both of these musicians' playing is spare but very distinctive and inventive. I am not too well versed with either of them, but I have heard enough to know what they sound like, and this is pretty much what they sound like here. Konitz doesn't play anything cliche the entire time, just to the left of blowing over the changes of these well worn standards. A lot of the time Haden plays next to nothing, and usually pretty quietly too. He and Konitz sound like two old jazz legends with a lot to say and nothing to prove.

Brad Mehldau, on the other hand, is part of the current generation, and sets out to prove himself on every solo. When he is not soloing, he plays his role with reverent sparsity that he does not sound particularly comfortable with. I always thought he sounded best by himself, and when he is not by himself, he might as well be the only one playing, even with his own trio, because, as a particularly maximalist soloist, he insists on playing everything at once. He has striking and insightful harmonic and rhythmic dialogue with himself, with the almost jarring enthusiasm in which he immediately launches himself into double time on most solos. Haden doesn't always go with him; neither of the other musicians is in any hurry.

Although this trio does not necessarily fit together that well, or, rather, Brad Mehldau does not fit into the trio that well, everyone plays like you would expect them to. There is the mature aging pioneers, who play with measured but fresh eloquence, and then there is chops mcgee with all his cool hip licks and ideas, all three playing together on tunes they have probably played ten billion times. What did you think was going to happen?