Today's Interlude...
Brad Mehldau Performs Elliott Smith's "Better Be Quiet Now"
For today’s interlude, I chose Brad Mehldau’s performance of Elliott Smith’s “Better Be Quiet Now.” It opens Mehldau’s 2025 album Ride into the Sun, a musical exploration of Smith’s songs and harmonic world. The studio performance brings together Mehldau on piano, John Davis on acoustic bass, Matt Chamberlain on drums, and a chamber orchestra conducted by Dan Coleman.
Smith’s original—titled “I Better Be Quiet Now”—appeared on his 2000 album Figure 8. Mehldau does not turn it into an opportunity to show technically off. He keeps the melody center stage, lets the piano hesitate and breathe, and allows the bass, drums, and strings to widen the emotion without overwhelming it. The song remains recognizable, but its sadness opens into something gentler, more inspiring and hopeful to me, especially when the orchestra kicks in.
Mehldau and Elliott Smith
Mehldau’s interest in Smith is not a sudden discovery. After moving to Los Angeles, Brad Mehldau became part of the scene around the Largo club, where Jon Brion’s Friday-night performances brought together Smith, Fiona Apple, Rufus Wainwright, and other songwriters. Mehldau played behind Elliot Smith on Smith’s own songs and later remembered that period as a “renaissance in songwriting.”
What first attracted Mehldau was Smith’s unusual harmonic language: the independent melodic voices and movement between major and minor that could make the music sound hopeful and wounded at the same time. Mehldau has long interpreted music from beyond the conventional jazz repertoire, including Radiohead, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, and Bach. But his treatment of Smith feels more personal.
Mehldau describes “Better Be Quiet Now” with an old phrase used about Brahms: “smiling through tears.” He calls it a breakup song that is both tender and melancholic. To me, this is exactly this performance achieves: es not dramatize sorrow or try to resolve it. It gives the emotion a shape, then lets the last notes fade away.
A true four minutes of quiet attention…
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