- Buy a CD or a vinyl record, get a $1 Amazon MP3 Credit. Limit one promotional credit per customer. Here's how (restrictions apply)
- Includes FREE MP3 version of this album Here's how (restrictions apply)
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Track Listings
| 1. Loverman |
| 2. Lullaby Of Birdland |
| 3. Solar |
| 4. I Fall In Love Too Easily |
| 5. You Stepped Out Of A Dream |
| 6. Oleo |
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This week," reported the New York Times in December 2009, "Birdland has booked an ad hoc quartet with three eminences and a great younger player. (...) It's going to be a week of soft anarchy, a gig without preparation or rehearsal, despite the presence of recording microphones for a couple of evenings. The jazz musician's trust in the present moment is elevated nearly to worship among this group's elders, all of whom, one way or another, were in on the early stages of loosening up rhythm and structure in jazz." -- New York Times
Product Description
A quartet of master musicians and a programme of jazz classics. Live At Birdland presents the finest moments from two inspired nights at New York's legendary club, as Konitz, Mehldau, Haden and Motian play "Loverman", "Lullaby Of Birdland", "Solar", "I Fall In Love Too Easily", "You Stepped Out Of A Dream" and "Oleo" with freedom, tenderness, and a love of melody that only jazz's greatest improvisers can propose.
On this live recording from New York's legendary club, an ensemble of history-making players dives into the music without a set list. Four exceptional jazz musicians -Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian - approach the standards from new perspectives and unusual angles. They play them with freedom, tenderness and a melodic and rhythmic understanding found only amongst jazz's greatest improvisers.
The recording was made at Birdland and mixed by Manfred Eicher and the quartet, with James Farber as engineer, at New York's Avatar Studios. Songs selected by this team from the performances of December 9 and 10, 2009, are: "Lover Man", "Lullaby Of Birdland", "Solar", "I Fall In Love Too Easily", "You Stepped Out Of A Dream" and "Oleo". Konitz has often said that he tries to play the material as if encountering it for the first time. With all four musicians listening intently, discoveries are continually made in the music.
"Lover Man", the ballad strongly associated with Billie Holiday (but also, for instance, with Lee Konitz and Gerry Mulligan at Newport) makes an arresting opening track, with the uniquely melancholy cry of Lee's alto sax to the fore. Mehldau's solo gives immediate notice of his architectural intelligence as a player, and in his subtle comping he continually builds bridges between the idiosyncratic playing styles of his associates. Haden's bass solo is characteristically soulful, Motian's deft brushes perfectly placed.
"Lullaby Of Birdland", composed in 1952, acquires additional poignancy through the recent death of its composer, George Shearing. (Lee Konitz, now 83, is said to be the only living jazz soloist to have played all of the diverse addresses of the Birdland club, starting in 1949.) The piece is driven here by the marvellous rhythmic interplay of Haden and Motian, their near-telepathic understanding honed long ago during their decade-plus association with Keith Jarrett in the 1960s and 70s.
"Solar" begins with an abstract clarion call from Konitz. "Mr. Konitz, with a piece of fabric stuffed into the bell of his horn to mute it, started playing Miles Davis's `Solar' and Mr. Motian joined in, followed by the others. A skeletal groove emerged...", wrote Ben Ratliff in the NY Times. Mehldau's solo is a marvel of invention, lifted up by the waves of Motian's wayward drums.
"I Fall In Love Too Easily" is a touching rendition of the Jule Styne ballad (a song first intoned by Frank Sinatra in 1945) with fine outlining of the melody by Mehldau, and Konitz almost Ornette-like in his phrasing. The singing quality of the performance is extended in Haden's heartfelt solo.
"You Stepped Out Of a Dream" was previously recorded by Konitz, Mehldau and Haden for a Blue Note trio album 1997: the powerful presence of Paul Motian on the present recording transforms it completely.
Sonny Rollins's "Oleo" is given one of the freest performances of the set, beginning with a beautifully elastic Konitz/Motian duet. Brad Mehldau has commented on the performance's cool chromaticism, allied to the rhythmic phrasing of bebop, until the tune is deconstructed in the final moments of collective soloing. When these musicians play the standards, they do indeed make them new.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Listening to this stunning new quartet album led perhaps nominally by Lee Konitz on alto saxophone but with pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Paul Motian participating really as equals, I can't help thinking about the earlier Lee Konitz classic album "Motion". That album, recorded with Sonny Dallas on bass and Elvin Jones on drums is often cited as Konitz's masterpiece, and not without reason, but I think the brilliance of 'Motion' was a product of a palpable tension within the band. There were Lee Konitz and Sonny Dallas, students of Lennie Tristano, playing straight and fluent, always on top of the beat, with a sometimes bewildered Elvin Jones, fighting Dallas to keep the feel of time loose. Now, some fifty years later, Lee has come to embrace that loosely swinging feel even more and everyone is on the same page. The result is a truly exciting album.
Instead of having a straight eighth anchor to the band, like Dallas was on 'Motion', the rhythm section is made up of loose-time titans Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. The opening of 'Oleo', which begins with just sax and drums, is almost free-time, it hangs together so loosely, but Haden and Motian really swing and they imbue everything they play with an artistry and feel that can hardly be articulated. Joining the band is young virtuoso Brad Mehldau, playing in the most traditional vein I've heard from him in a long time. While his most recent solo work has been filled throughout with rock and polyrhythmic modern classical influences (just look at his most recent solo work for a stunning example of this musical fusion), here Mehldau fully embraces the aesthetic of the rest of the band but loses none of his distinctive edge. I can't think of another pianist who sounds anything like him, yet he gels so well with the band and the music, providing accompaniment that is in turns, minimalist and moody and active and punchy and taking some fabulous solos.
Lee too has come a ways since the early sixties. He has lost none of his fluency on the instrument, but he seems more willing to change things up and emulate his rhythm section in the feel of his playing.
The album consists of six standards, stripped to their bones and collectively reconstructed in a truly unique manner. This iteration of 'Solar', a song I normally don't particularly enjoy is definitive; so strong and exciting is the loose groove and so enjoyable is Motian's drum solo that I can almost forget all the awful versions of it I have heard. A stunning album from start to finish. I bought a cd version and the sound quality is excellent.
Instead of having a straight eighth anchor to the band, like Dallas was on 'Motion', the rhythm section is made up of loose-time titans Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. The opening of 'Oleo', which begins with just sax and drums, is almost free-time, it hangs together so loosely, but Haden and Motian really swing and they imbue everything they play with an artistry and feel that can hardly be articulated. Joining the band is young virtuoso Brad Mehldau, playing in the most traditional vein I've heard from him in a long time. While his most recent solo work has been filled throughout with rock and polyrhythmic modern classical influences (just look at his most recent solo work for a stunning example of this musical fusion), here Mehldau fully embraces the aesthetic of the rest of the band but loses none of his distinctive edge. I can't think of another pianist who sounds anything like him, yet he gels so well with the band and the music, providing accompaniment that is in turns, minimalist and moody and active and punchy and taking some fabulous solos.
Lee too has come a ways since the early sixties. He has lost none of his fluency on the instrument, but he seems more willing to change things up and emulate his rhythm section in the feel of his playing.
The album consists of six standards, stripped to their bones and collectively reconstructed in a truly unique manner. This iteration of 'Solar', a song I normally don't particularly enjoy is definitive; so strong and exciting is the loose groove and so enjoyable is Motian's drum solo that I can almost forget all the awful versions of it I have heard. A stunning album from start to finish. I bought a cd version and the sound quality is excellent.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Got this last night and played it three times (yeah, 3 1/2 hours). Phenomenal music written by geniuses like Miles, Sonny Rollins and Shearing and performed live by four of our greatest living jazz musicians!
Every five minutes the excitement changes. Oh, to have been there in person.
Recording quality is excellent and captures the emotion of the audience without interfering with the quality of the music.
Album of the year - hands down!
Every five minutes the excitement changes. Oh, to have been there in person.
Recording quality is excellent and captures the emotion of the audience without interfering with the quality of the music.
Album of the year - hands down!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This bear of an album features four jazz lions, captured live in two nights at Birdland in December of 2009. Alto saxophonist extraordinaire Konitz was eighty-two at the time, drummer Motian and bassist Haden weren't that far behind him at seventy-eight and seventy-two respectively. Mehldau seems a mere babe by comparison at thirty-nine but had been captivating jazz audiences with his creative piano work for twenty years.
The recording catches these four masters improvising on a set of standards, both pop and jazz. The reward to the listener isn't the chance to in hear new compositions but to hear these four masters play impassioned, often lyrical, solos, extending themselves at length. The musicians all have time to stretch out. (The shortest piece runs ten minutes seventeen seconds and the longest fifteen minutes and twenty seconds.) There is a phenomenal rendition of "Lover Man," a kinky and fun "Lullaby of Birdland," Miles Davis's "Solar" and Sony Rollin's "Oleo," the pop standards "I Fall in Love Too Easily" and "You Stepped Out of a Dream."
It is evident that these four musicians enjoyed playing together. All four play well. But Konitz, he is best of all. The man plays as fluently and more passionately as he did fifty years ago. (If ever the label `cool' applied to him, it hasn't for the last thirty or forty years.) How does he keep so young? Playing out of the bop/postbop mode he imbibed half a century ago playing with Lennie Tristano and Warne Marsh and the Kenton band, he continues to surprise with his energy and his unbelievable inventiveness.
This is not to insult the other players. They are giants in their own accord. Haden's deep woody sound and melodic playing masks a keen knowledge of the rhythmic and melodic displacements required of modernist jazz. His solos are always worth savoring. As for Mehldau, he continues to surprise. He can move from lyrical to idiosyncratic in seconds, and his solo stretches are always interesting and coherent. Note especially his quirky solo on "Lullaby of Broadway," where at moments he almost seems to channeling Dave Brubeck, circa the early fifties, before Columbia took Brubeck over and made him a mass-market commodity. Motian is good -he's never bad- but his work is the least satisfying on the record. At times it's perfect for the ensemble -using his minimalized drum set, he produces a string of taps, nudges and whirs that dance along beside the melody rather than a steady pulse of drumbeats. At other times, and especially during his accompaniment for "Lullaby,' he sounds intrusive and even clunky. (I had the same complaint about his drumming on the Martial Solal album, Just Friends, 1998. The drummer's usually impeccable sense of time, which underpins his use of off-time accents, fails him on this album at times, as on the earlier one.) Still, that's a small complaint about a very good album. All four of these musicians are National Treasures and we should buy their records while we can.
The recording was done by ECM, so the sound quality is flawless.
The recording catches these four masters improvising on a set of standards, both pop and jazz. The reward to the listener isn't the chance to in hear new compositions but to hear these four masters play impassioned, often lyrical, solos, extending themselves at length. The musicians all have time to stretch out. (The shortest piece runs ten minutes seventeen seconds and the longest fifteen minutes and twenty seconds.) There is a phenomenal rendition of "Lover Man," a kinky and fun "Lullaby of Birdland," Miles Davis's "Solar" and Sony Rollin's "Oleo," the pop standards "I Fall in Love Too Easily" and "You Stepped Out of a Dream."
It is evident that these four musicians enjoyed playing together. All four play well. But Konitz, he is best of all. The man plays as fluently and more passionately as he did fifty years ago. (If ever the label `cool' applied to him, it hasn't for the last thirty or forty years.) How does he keep so young? Playing out of the bop/postbop mode he imbibed half a century ago playing with Lennie Tristano and Warne Marsh and the Kenton band, he continues to surprise with his energy and his unbelievable inventiveness.
This is not to insult the other players. They are giants in their own accord. Haden's deep woody sound and melodic playing masks a keen knowledge of the rhythmic and melodic displacements required of modernist jazz. His solos are always worth savoring. As for Mehldau, he continues to surprise. He can move from lyrical to idiosyncratic in seconds, and his solo stretches are always interesting and coherent. Note especially his quirky solo on "Lullaby of Broadway," where at moments he almost seems to channeling Dave Brubeck, circa the early fifties, before Columbia took Brubeck over and made him a mass-market commodity. Motian is good -he's never bad- but his work is the least satisfying on the record. At times it's perfect for the ensemble -using his minimalized drum set, he produces a string of taps, nudges and whirs that dance along beside the melody rather than a steady pulse of drumbeats. At other times, and especially during his accompaniment for "Lullaby,' he sounds intrusive and even clunky. (I had the same complaint about his drumming on the Martial Solal album, Just Friends, 1998. The drummer's usually impeccable sense of time, which underpins his use of off-time accents, fails him on this album at times, as on the earlier one.) Still, that's a small complaint about a very good album. All four of these musicians are National Treasures and we should buy their records while we can.
The recording was done by ECM, so the sound quality is flawless.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
OK
Although I'm a big Lee Konitz fan, this CD is a disappointment. Lee sounds physically tired and lacks his usual level of inspiration. Read more
Published 4 days ago by mike neely
1.0 out of 5 stars
Tentative, aimless noodling by jazz masters
I have tried very hard to enjoy this CD. I know I'm "supposed to" enjoy it, because everyone is a jazz master, and supposedly are creating intuitive, creative music. Read more
Published 20 days ago by Dean Robb
4.0 out of 5 stars
lovely but mellow gem from jazz masters
Three of the living legends of "modern" jazz (bop),and one more on his way, recording live at the club once called "The center of the jazz world". Read more
Published 15 months ago by Mark Schlesinger
4.0 out of 5 stars
Listen and Appreciate Greatness
Recorded at Birdland during December 2009, this live set consists of six compositions totaling 71 minutes. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Richard C. Ferris
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a great album!
A word to the naysayers who don't appreciate the originality and interplay on this album. Lee Konitz always completely integrated with his fellows. Read more
Published 18 months ago by vanguy
3.0 out of 5 stars
overrated
I agree with Mr hackett's review--i was expecting a monster display of intuitive
virtuosity... the results...really not so much. Read more
virtuosity... the results...really not so much. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Father Lipps
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Huge Disappointment
This album was a huge disappointment to me. First of all I should point out that I am 77 years old, and have been listening to, and enjoying, jazz since I was in high school. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Richard J. Hackett
5.0 out of 5 stars
Samples not the same as downloads
My guess is that the samples of songs are not at the same bit rate and quality of the actual downloads. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Robert Middleton
