| Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays The Beatles | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 10 February 2023 | |||
| Recorded | September 2020 | |||
| Venue | Philharmonie de Paris | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 48:28 | |||
| Label | Nonesuch | |||
| Producer | Brad Mehldau | |||
| Brad Mehldau chronology | ||||
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Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays The Beatles is a solo piano album by Brad Mehldau. [1] [2] It was recorded in September 2020 and released by Nonesuch Records on 10 February 2023. [3] [4]
The album was recorded live on the stage of the Philharmonie de Paris in September 2020 where Mehldau played a program of Beatles songs that were previously unperformed by him. Also Mehldau recorded the David Bowie's 1971 track "Life on Mars?." [5]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 86% [6] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| All About Jazz |   [5] |
| AllMusic | [7] |
| The Guardian | [8] |
| Jazzwise | [9] |
| Mojo | [10] |
| PopMatters | 9/10 [11] |
| The Times | [12] |
| Tom Hull | B [13] |
Matt Collar of AllMusic commented, "...Mehldau treating each Beatles tune as he might a jazz standard, reconsidering the harmony of the song and using the melody as jumping-off point for his own bold, endlessly lyrical improvisations. What's particularly enjoyable about Mehldau's approach is how he keeps each song recognizable while making it his own..." [7] Selwyn Harris of Jazzwise stated, "Recorded live at the Philharmonie de Paris, it focusses mostly on a selection of the Fab Four's lesser-known album tracks, none of which have been recorded by him previously. Throughout, Mehldau is at his most succinctly refined, as if he has chipped away at anything non-essential or that sounds like it's falling into the trap of merely jazzing up The Beatles, as those before him have too frequently done." [9]
Martin Johnson of The Wall Street Journal wrote that "The new album aims for smaller changes rather than full-blown reinvention." [14] Steven Wine writing for Associated Press added, "The album pairs jazz’s most lyrical living pianist with songwriting masters of melody, and Mehldau finds fresh radiance in the familiar tunes by exploring their elasticity, which is considerable. These performances show how Beatles songs invite improvisation thanks to their lilt, sturdy construction and sophisticated chord changes. Plus, as Mehldau observes in his liner notes, they swing." [15]
All tracks are written by Lennon–McCartney except where noted
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "I Am the Walrus" | 4:14 | |
| 2. | "Your Mother Should Know" | 2:18 | |
| 3. | "I Saw Her Standing There" | 3:54 | |
| 4. | "For No One" | 2:28 | |
| 5. | "Baby's in Black" | 7:19 | |
| 6. | "She Said She Said" | 2:42 | |
| 7. | "Here, There and Everywhere" | 3:58 | |
| 8. | "If I Needed Someone" | George Harrison | 2:25 |
| 9. | "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" | 6:42 | |
| 10. | "Golden Slumbers" | 8:17 | |
| 11. | "Life on Mars?" | David Bowie | 4:09 |
| Total length: | 48:28 | ||
| Chart (2020) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [16] | 30 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [17] | 150 |
"Baby's in Black" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, co-written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It appears on the United Kingdom album Beatles for Sale and on the United States album Beatles '65, both released in 1964.
Bradford Alexander Mehldau is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.
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Where Do You Start is an album by the Brad Mehldau Trio released on the Nonesuch label in 2012.
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Formation: Building a Personal Canon, Part One is an autobiographical book by Brad Mehldau. It describes the first 26 years of his life, stressing the influences on his musical and personal development. The book, characterised by Mehldau as a non-fiction bildungsroman, was published by Equinox in 2023.
