Things I wasn't considering while I was entering data this spring

"Music’s distance from me is rendered so palpably because it seems to promise a presence that can be felt directly. It shimmers with immediacy but remains utterly ungraspable, like the end of an asymptotic geometric curve, or one of the beautiful women on Star Trek that Captain Kirk hooks up with: every time the camera’s on her, they smudge a little Vaseline on the lens to give her that far-off, dreamy look."
--Brad Mehldau


I've spent the last few hours pondering a research proposal on Brad Mehldau, with special attention to the polemics in his writings. Can any relation be drawn between his prose and his music? Does his music sound "educated," and what does "educated" mean? Does he sound like a "white" jazz musician, and what does that mean? Why does his music sound like "contemporary jazz" even though most of the technical qualities (harmony, form, etc) sound decades old? And why do his interpretations of Radiohead songs kick so much ass?


Back to the library now to try to better articulate these questions and find some sources. More thoughts later.