.: interlúdio :. Brad Mehldau – After Bach

Eis a resenha do Jornal inglês “The Guardian” referente a este CD:

“No composer looms over modern jazz quite like Johann Sebastian Bach, whose harmonic rigour seems to have provided the basis for bebop and all that followed. Listen to the endlessly mutating semiquavers tumbling from Charlie Parker’s saxophone and it could be the top line of a Bach fantasia; the jolting cycle of chords in John Coltrane’s Giant Steps could come straight from a Bach fugue and Bach’s contrapuntal techniques crop up in countless jazz pianists, from Bill Evans to Nina Simone.

Bach certainly casts a long shadow over US pianist Brad Mehldau: even when he’s gently mutilating pieces by Radiohead, Nick Drake or the Beatles, he sounds like Glenn Gould ripping into the Goldberg Variations. Which is why it comes as no surprise to see Mehldau recording an entire album inspired by Bach.
However, this is not a jazz album. Instead of riffing on Bach themes, as the likes of Jacques Loussier or the Modern Jazz Quartet have done in the past, After Bach sees Mehldau using Bach’s methodology. Mehldau plays five of Bach’s canonic 48 Preludes and Fugues, each followed by his own modern 21st-century response. For instance, after a straight performance of the Prelude No 3 in C-sharp major, Mehldau responds by resetting Bach’s original riff in a jerky 5/4 rhythm and taking it into a harmonically adventurous labyrinth. Similarly, a romantic, rubato-heavy reading of the F minor Prelude and Fugue is followed by a dreamlike meditation on some of the themes hinted at in Bach’s original. The effect is as if someone has taken pages from The Well-Tempered Clavier, turned them upside down and reflected them in a wobbly fairground mirror.
Where Bach’s preludes and fugues are like gentle sudoku puzzles, Mehldau’s cryptic harmonies sometimes feel as if you’re grappling with an insoluble 5×5 Rubik’s Cube and the results – as with the opening track, Benediction – can sometimes be headache-inducing. However, by the two closing tracks, Ostinato and Prayer for Healing, Mehldau is wearing his chops lightly and starting to tug at the heartstrings.”

1 Before Bach: Benediction
2 Prelude No. 3 in C# Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, BWV 848
3 After Bach: Rondo
4 Prelude No. 1 in C Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book II, BWV 870
5 After Bach: Pastorale
6 Prelude No. 10 in E Minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, BWV 855
7 After Bach: Flux
8 Prelude and Fugue No. 12 in F Minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, BWV 857
9 After Bach: Dream
10 Fugue No. 16 in G Minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book II, BWV 885
11 After Bach: Ostinato
12 Prayer for Healing

Brad Mehldau – Piano

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