The late Elliott Smith's songs moved a whole lot of people, and they continue to pop up in unexpected places. This summer, we'll get an album of Smith covers from the Florida-born pianist and composer Brad Mehldau, a fixture in the jazz world. Mehldau performed with Smith a few times when they both sat in with Jon Brion at Largo, the famous LA music and comedy club where Brion once had a residency. Mehldau has dedicated his new LP Ride Into The Sun to Smith's music, and he's recorded it with help from people like Daniel Rossen, who is once again active with Grizzly Bear.
On Ride Into The Sun, Brad Mehldau covers 10 Elliott Smith songs, as well as Big Star's "Thirteen," a song that Smith also covered, and Nick Drake's "Sunday," as Mehldau looks at Drake as "in some ways as sort of Smith’s visionary godfather." Mehldau has also included four original compositions that he says are "inspired by, and reflect, Smith’s oeuvre."
Ride Into The Sun features contributions from Rossen, as well as musicians like Punch Brothers/Nickel Creek singer and mandolinist Chris Thile and veteran alt-rock drummer Matt Chamberlain. Rossen sings lead and plays gorgeously florid acoustic guitar on a version of "Tomorrow Tomorrow," from Elliott Smith's classic 1998 album XO. Mehldau has shared that cover, as well as his instrumental version of "Better Be Quiet Now," from Smith's 2000 LP Figure 8. Here's what Mehldau says about the project:
Elliott Smith masterfully rendered the dark/light admix, not in the least through his distinct harmony. Specifically, he had a way of combining major and minor modes that was all his own. You hear that on the unique, captivating chord progression that he introduced on "Tomorrow Tomorrow" for just a moment before the last verse of the song. I use it, extending it for my piano solo here. This kind of minor-major gambit has a long pedigree, and my own associations as a listener include the music of Schubert and Brahms, among others.
One of Brahms' biographers described the feeling of one of his pieces as "smiling through tears," and it would be a good description for the opening tune of Elliott’s on this set, "Better Be Quiet Now." Here is a break-up song as tender as it is rueful; the protagonist is smiling sadly as he says goodbye.
"Ride into the sun" is a beautiful point in the lyric of one of the songs that we play, "Colorbars." Elliott Smith says in the original song, "Everyone wants me to ride into the sun." When I listen to music, I have a feeling that I can be in communion with somebody who is no longer in this earthly realm, like he is here. And as far as "riding into the sun," it’s maybe more of a perpetual riding into the sun with him. I don’t know… There’s something mystical there.
Below, check out Mehldau's versions of "Tomorrow Tomorrow" and "Better Be Quiet Now," as well as a behind-the-scenes video and the LP's tracklist.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Better Be Quiet Now"
02 "Everything Means Nothing To Me"
03 "Tomorrow Tomorrow" (feat. Daniel Rossen)
04 "Sweet Adeline"
05 "Sweet Adeline Fantasy" *
06 "Between The Bars"
07 "The White Lady Loves You More"
08 "Ride Into The Sun: Part I" *
09 "Thirteen" (Big Star cover)
10 "Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands"
11 "Somebody Cares, Somebody Understands" *
12 "Southern Belle" (feat. Daniel Rossen)
13 "Satellite"
14 "Colorbars" (feat. Chris Thile)
15 "Sunday" (Nick Drake cover)
16 "Ride Into The Sun: Conclusion" *
* Brad Mehldau original
Ride Into The Sun is out 8/29 on Nonesuch.
