Lee Konitz: Everything Happens To Me
Track
Everything Happens To Me
Artist
Lee Konitz (alto sax)
CD
Another Shade of Blue (Blue Note 98222 2)
Musicians:
Lee Konitz (alto sax), Brad Mehldau (piano), Charlie Haden (bass).
Composed by Matt Dennis & Tom Adair
.Recorded: live in Los Angeles, CA, December 21 or 22, 1997
Rating: 83/100 (learn more)
Lee Konitz playing "Everything Happens To Me" with a drummer-less trio. Could that be the perfect combination of player, tune and format? It could, if the pianist was, say, Martial Solal. Unfortunately, Monsieur Solal was nowhere to be found on the night this set was recorded live at Los Angeles' The Jazz Bakery. Instead, a callow Brad Mehldau sat at the piano. As an accompanist, Mehldau does passably well. He lets Konitz's stunningly beautiful solo breathe and grow. In general, he stays out of the way. As a soloist himself, however, Mehldau's ornate grotesqueries slobber all over what up until that point had been a lovely performance. Full of "look-ma-no-hands" technical gloss and irrelevant reharmonizations, his Art Tatum impersonation is one of the most tasteless examples of jazz piano one will ever hear. Haden is fine, and Konitz outdoes himself, but Mehldau's stupendously incongruous contribution sticks painfully in the ear.
Reviewer: Chris Kelsey
Tags: 1990s jazz · alto sax · blue note · everything happens to me
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