Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau has released a video for his brand new song maybe as his skies are wide, which you can watch below. It's taken from his upcoming album Jacbob's Ladder, which will be released through Nonsuch Records on March 18.
As both titles imply, the music is inspired by the prog rock Mehldau loved as a young adolescent, which was his gateway to the fusion that eventually led to his discovery of jazz. maybe as his skies are wide builds off an interpolation of one portion of Rush’s classic Tom Sawyer.
“The musical conduit on the record is prog,” Mehldau explains. “Prog – progressive rock – was the music of my childhood, before I discovered jazz. It matched the fantasy and science fiction books I read from C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle and others at that time, aged ten through twelve. It was my gateway to the fusion of Miles Davis, Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra and other groups, which in turn was the gateway to more jazz. Jazz shared with prog a broader expressive scope and larger-scale ambitions than the rock music I had known already.
The prog from Rush, Gentle Giant, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer here only hints at the genre’s conceptual, compositional and emotional range. These bands and others have continued to influence newer groups that bring prog impulses into the arena of hard rock and screaming math metal, like Periphery, whose music is included here, and also inspired the screaming vocals on Herr und Knecht. I tried to avoid a direct tribute approach to all the songs, and opted in some cases for excerpts, or reworking of themes.”
Jacob's Ladder will be released on CD. A vinyl edition will follow at a date to be confirmed.
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