{"id":448493,"date":"2026-08-31T01:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T01:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/448493\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T01:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T01:50:20","slug":"review-brad-mehldau-leads-concert-tribute-to-elliott-smith-in-oakland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/448493\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Brad Mehldau leads concert tribute to Elliott Smith in Oakland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brad Mehldau<\/a> was a man on a mission.<\/p>\n

The jazz piano maestro, who has received as much acclaim as any artist working in the genre over the last 30 years, was looking to honor the memory and legacy of Elliott Smith, the late great indie-folk singer-songwriter who died in 2003 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

This was personal for Mehldau<\/a>, who was friends with Smith and even got the chance to accompany the Texas-born, Portland-raised talent to a number of gigs. Mehldau<\/a> poured both his feelings and reverence for this artist into \u201cRide into the Sun,\u201d an incredibly moving and beautiful song cycle built mainly from Smith\u2019s own songbook.<\/p>\n

The album came out last year on the Nonesuch label and received rave reviews. Yet, Mehldau<\/a> never fully performed the \u201cRide Into the Sun\u201d song cycle in concert until this past week, when the piano great and a large ensemble \u2014 including a number of artists who played on the record as well as a chamber orchestra of students from USC \u2014 revived the music of Smith during three highly anticipated shows in California.<\/p>\n

Following dates in San Diego and Los Angeles, Mehldau and company hit the Paramount Theatre in Oakland for the finale on Saturday (Aug. 29). It was nothing short of an transcendent evening of music that, while rooted in jazz, seemed to properly evade any type of easy genre classification.<\/p>\n

The cast for this SFJAZZ-promoted show was superb, featuring Mehldau, Nickel Creek mandolin sensation Chris Thile<\/a>, drummer Matt Chamberlain (who has set the beat for everyone from Pearl Jam to Bob Dylan, and who worked Mehldau on a number or records), Folk Implosion\u2019s John Davis on bass and Grammy-winning guitarist Blake Mills (whose credits include Norah Jones, Lana Del Rey and Weezer). Sharing the stage with that crew was the album\u2019s producer, Dan Coleman, conducting the USC Thornton Chamber Virtuosi orchestra.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d all combine forces for what was an intensely moving tribute to Smith, an artist who seemingly had so much more to give to the world during what very much looked like a career that could go on for decades. Instead, he\u2019d die at the age of 34 from stab wounds to the chest that coroners reportedly were unable to tell whether or not were self-inflected.<\/p>\n

Yet, Smith definitely lives on through his music, which is being passed on from one generation to the next as well as being revitalized and reinterpreted by Mehldau and other musicians.<\/p>\n

Taking the stage just minutes after the advertised 8 p.m. start time, while many people were still arriving at the venue, Mehldau sat down at his long black piano, in front of the large group of fellow musicians, and softly began to trace his way through Smith\u2019s \u201cBetter Be Quiet Now.\u201d He took the solo route at first on that devastatingly beautiful number \u2014 found on Smith\u2019s \u201cFigure 8\u201d from 2000, which was the last of the artist\u2019s albums released during his lifetime \u2014 before the orchestra and other musicians joined in such dramatically pleasing fashion.<\/p>\n

Mehldau stuck to \u201cFigure 8\u201d for another gem \u2014 \u201cEverything Means Nothing to Me\u201d \u2014 mimicking the soft lyrical opening passage of the original recording quite closely on piano. He then called upon the rest of the large ensemble to lift the second half of the song to the skies in a way that also quite closely resembles Smith\u2019s own take.<\/p>\n

Yet, while Smith\u2019s melodies kept rising to the forefront of the production, surely bringing to mind the singer-songwriter\u2019s own voice, this evening was far from being about simply performing the music as it was originally intended to be played. Indeed, I\u2019m not even sure that Mehldau \u2014 a first-tier improvisational jazz talent \u2014 could do something like that. And I\u2019m really sure that he wouldn\u2019t want to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking some little liberties with the music,\u201d Mehldau explained to the crowd. \u201cAnd I think that would be cool with Elliott.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLittle liberties\u201d is one way to put it. Another would be that these players took Smith\u2019s lovely indie-pop\/folk tunes and turned them into something else entirely, drawing from each of the talents in the band \u2014 as well as the chamber orchestra \u2014 to fashion an exciting mix of jazz, folk, pop, rock, bluegrass (thank you, Chris Thile) and classical as they ran through \u201cRide Into the Sun\u201d song cycle in the exact track order as found on the record.<\/p>\n

The music flowed seamlessly as the players turned through the pages of Smith\u2019s songbook, adding a few of Mehldau\u2019s own originals as well as a pair of covers \u2014 \u201cSunday\u201d by Nick Drake (who Mehldau reportedly sees \u201cas sort of Smith\u2019s visionary godfather\u201d), and \u201cThirteen\u201d by Big Star (which Drake also covered). All of those songs are found on \u201cRide into the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mehldau closed the 90-minute main set with a triumphant take on the second part of the album\u2019s title track \u2014 \u201cRide into the Sun: Conclusion\u201d \u2014 which found the whole ensemble flexing its collective muscle in such glorious fashion. The pianist and his fellow musicians then returned to put a bow on the concert with an encore of \u201cSon of Sam,\u201d the sole Smith track to make the setlist that wasn\u2019t also featured on \u201cRide into the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a grand showing from one of jazz\u2019s finest artists, honoring a indie-folk cult hero whose songs clearly deserve to be heard by many more listeners and in many different musical formats.<\/p>\n

If you or someone you know is struggling with feelings of depression or suicidal thoughts, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers free, round-the-clock support, information and resources for help. Call or text the lifeline at 988, or see the\u00a0988lifeline.org<\/a>\u00a0website, where chat is available.<\/p>\n

Brad Mehldau setlist:<\/p>\n

1. \u201cBetter Be Quiet Now\u201d
2. \u201cEverything Means Nothing to Me\u201d
3. \u201cTomorrow Tomorrow\u201d
4. \u201cSweet Adeline\u201d
5. \u201cSweet Adeline Fantasy\u201d
6. \u201cBetween the Bars\u201d
7. \u201cThe White Lady Loves You More\u201d
8. \u201cRide into the Sun: Part I\u201d
9. \u201cThirteen\u201d
10. \u201cEverybody Cares, Everybody Understands\u201d
11. \u201cSomebody Cares, Somebody Understands\u201d
12. \u201cSouthern Belle\u201d
13. \u201cSatellite\u201d
14. \u201cColor Bars\u201d
15. \u201cSunday\u201d
16. \u201cRide into the Sun: Conclusion\u201d
Encore:
17. \u201cSon of Sam\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brad Mehldau was a man on a mission. The jazz piano maestro, who has received as much acclaim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,7,2644,8520,332,12853,1533,181,330,3743,143,145,144,8257,94685,420],"class_list":["post-448493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-concerts","tag-downtown-oakland","tag-east-bay","tag-jazz","tag-keywee","tag-latest-headlines","tag-music","tag-nightlife","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-pop-music","tag-social-alert","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}