A look at what is going on in the arts by Irish Timeswriters.
Brad Mehldau
Vicar Street
Brad Mehldau's first solo concert here in three years drew a packed house to hear one of the most gifted jazz pianists in the world. Those gifts can carry him through successfully on an off night, and though this couldn't be called that, it was, by the standards he has set, not quite one of his best. It began well, with a typically two-handed dialogue as he examined the pop group Massive Attack's old hit Teardrop, quickly reaching a level which, in general, he sustained without exceeding throughout the first set and for much of the second.
A couple of standards were explored in contrasting ways; It's All Right With Mebecame a kind of fantasia through which shards of the underlying material were allowed to peep through, clothed in different registers and radically altered harmonic colours, while I Fall In Love Too Easilyadopted a more conventional approach, with a linear solo that took on a conversational, after-hours feeling. Another standard, Old Devil Moon, was given a wonderfully oblique introduction, before being subjected to some brilliant scrutiny.
Elsewhere, however, the implacable rhythmic bases on such as Monk's unfortunately aptly named Work, and Martha My Dear, struck similarities of tone. What was also striking about these and other pieces was the impression, as the concert developed, that Mehldau wasn't fully there creatively.
He seemed tired, lacking the energy to dig as deeply into the material as he usually does. There was no sense that he was coasting on technique or some vast store of personal cliches; all improvisers have them, it's just that the better ones have a more voluminous and interesting bag of them than others, and delve into it more judiciously.
But Mehldau has more going for him than most of his contemporaries, even if he was tired. And if tiredness was the reason for the concision of his lyrical, dramatically nuanced and especially coherent solo on the lovely Samba d'Amor, then in this instance it worked in his favour. And no doubt fully rested, he will have batteries recharged for his Cork concert tonight. - Ray Comiskey
• Brad Mehldau plays at the Cork Opera House tonight.
Picasso's Women
The New Theatre
"To be forgotten is worse than to be dead," laments Gaby, one of Picasso's models and mistresses, the subjects of Brian McAvera's perceptive play. In this Focus Theatre production, McAvera hones in on just three of the many women who fuelled Picasso's career, providing the artist with inspiration as well as the material trappings from which he was to build his success. Trapped in a purgatorial after life, these women are still his women; their lives still defined by their connection with the father of 20th century surrealist art. But these "bookends and footnotes in Picasso's life" are desperate to own their own stories.
The limbo from which Picasso's women address the audience is a dark, chaotic space, illuminated in sudden flashes of thunder or flickering candlelight by Kevin Smith's creative lighting. Annemarie Woods's striking stage design is a prison of chairs; a broken mirror, naked tapers and festive lanterns, marking out the space for each woman as she takes to the stage. Apart from the unifying stage design, the women's monologues are treated as self-contained units, each performed and directed by a different team.
Fernande is the first and most fragile of Picasso's lovers. As directed by the author, Aisling McLaughlin is as uneasy, awkward and disturbing a presence as the artist she describes. A woman entirely defined by men (the father who left her, the husband who raped her, the artists who abuse her), Fernande is unable to fight against the fractured images of herself that appear in her lover's paintings.
Cathy White gives an impassioned and startlingly physical performance under Mary Moynihan's direction as the "insufferable" Olga, Picasso's first wife. Clad in a shrunken ballerina costume, White plays Olga like an overgrown child, as dependent on her husband as he is on her. Meanwhile, Barbara Dempsey's Gaby, directed by Joe Devlin, is poised and aloof, never having found herself as deeply involved with the volatile artist as the others - although she is the one with the greatest regrets.
The women's relationships with Picasso never overlap, and provide interesting counterpoints to each other; one raging where another is rueful. However, even in McAvera's noble attempt to enrich our understanding of their individual lives, they still remain Picasso's women, not their own. - Sara Keating
• Until November 3rd. Then November 5th-10th, The Mill Theatre, Dundrum, Dublin.
LCD Soundsystem
Tripod, Dublin
Hailed as the saviour of dance music, LCD Soundsystem (producer James Murphy) have injected a new lease of life into a genre that was becoming dull and staid. Over the course of two fine albums, he has combined a myriad of dance, post-punk, new-wave and pop influences, while remaining the freshest sound on the block.
Expectations of these two shows were unfeasibly high only weeks after a triumphant Electric Picnic appearance, but Murphy and his talented five-piece band seemed to take no heed of any pressure.
As soon as Us v Themkicks things off, Tripod becomes a club for one night, and the crowd have no option but to dance to the infectious grooves. With Hot Chip's Al Doyle on guitar, Daft Punk is Playing at my Housebecomes a punk anthem, while Nancy Whang helps Murphy spit forth his North American Scum.
The tempo is never allowed to drop; All My Friends, with its repeated piano riff, keeps building to its dizzying crescendo and takes pride of place at the centre of the set.
Things take a turn for the sweatier as Movementcreates a mosh pit in front of the stage and Yeahcalls for a mass singalong. The buzzing beats and gorgeous vocal melody of Someone Greatis an example of the stronger pop inclinations of the second album.
Murphy presides over proceedings with the effortless coolness that only musicians from New York possess, and with his lyrics so full of tongue-in-cheek sincerity, it's a surprise to see him genuinely humbled by the crowd's reaction to the final song of the night, New York I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down.
Make no mistake; this is one of the best live bands on the planet. - Brian Keane
