Current mood:	cold
Current music:	Young and Foolish- Brad Mehldau

Young and Foolish (Song for May)
One year ago--that was in May 2004--one CD was in heavy rotation on my player, Brad Mehldau's Live at the Village Vanguard. Specifically, there was one song that grabbed me, the long and highly improvisational, Young and Foolish. It was and still is a song that breaks my heart whenever I listen to it. It is a sad song, the type you sit down to in solitude, in the darkness of night or even the "wee hours of the morning." No, it does not come close to any cheesiness or melodrama you may be imagining at the moment. It is a simple and romantic kind of melancholy, one that stabs you directly where it matters.

It starts with a solo piano introduction, extending for almost three minutes, and you even hear the clinking of glasses from the audience. It slowly builds up to the opening bars of the song, where the bass and drums enter. Of course, no lyrics are needed--even at that time when I did not know the original version. I still felt that sadness (for lack of any other word), and that pain and regret--all those things that come with the so-called folly of youth.

Now, I do not claim to know much about the technicalities of music, but the emotion is there, in the melody, the rhythm, the masterful arrangement, the extended improvs, in my vision of Mehldau's fingers on the keys and in just how well everything is executed. The performance is a great example of Mehldau's music, bordering on the classical but unmistakably jazz. He treads the line between the two and crosses without confusion.

And in thirteen minutes it is over. Short for some and long enough for most others. Still, one can always preserve the moment and one need only replay the track for another sentimental trip.

May 15, 2005. Brad Mehldau is to perform at the Zankel Hall in Carnegie at New York. It is a new commisioned work, where he will be joined by Renee Fleming. Of course I am lucky to be right where the action is, but sadly I cannot make it for the simple reason that I came too late. Tickets are sold-out. Yes, online sales were not available. I asked an aunt to buy them in advance, but she wasn't able to. Had I known he was this "in-demand," I would have asked someone else too. I have my options, though. Call the ticketing office everyday, til they relent because of my persistence. Or even go there on the day itself, and wait around for scalpers. Yeah right. Then again, I could try for Renee Olstead instead.

How young and foolish indeed...

***

And now the song (Horwitt/Hague). I've heard Tony Bennett's version with Bill Evans on the piano. Kind of fits in nicely with the feeling you get when you don't want to "grow up" and leave everything behind just yet, doesn't it? A fact that many of us face right now, readily or not.


Young and foolish
Why is it wrong to be
Young and foolish
We haven't long to be
Soon enough the carefree days
The sunlit days go by
Soon enough the bluebird has to fly

We were foolish
One day we fell in love
Now we wonder
What were we dreamin' of
Smiling in the sunlight
Laughing in the rain
I wish that we were young and foolish again

Smiling in the sunlight
Laughing in the rain
I wish that we were young and foolish again


*To you who had been asking for an entry.