Jacob's Ladder

Jacob's Ladder is an album by Brad Mehldau. It was recorded in 2020 and 2021 and released by Nonesuch Records in 2022. Music and recording The album was recorded between April 2020 and January 2021, mainly at The Bunker Studios, Brooklyn, and Power Sound Studios in Amsterdam, but with contributions from Mark Guiliana, Becca Stevens, Safia McKinney-Askeur, and Timothy Hill recorded elsewhere. It was produced by Mehldau and John Davis. "The book of Genesis story about Jacob's dream of a ladder leading up to heaven during a flight from his brother Esau provides the inspirational thrust for the album." There are two three-part suites: "Cogs in Cogs", based on Gentle Giant's piece from their The Power and the Glory album; and "Jacob's Ladder". For "Maybe As His Skies Are Wide", Mehldau transposed a line from Rush's 1981 track "Tom Sawyer" to a child's vocal pitch. Mehldau explained, "The musical conduit on the record is prog. Prog – progressive rock – was the music of my childhood before I discovered jazz. It was my gateway to the fusion of Miles Davis, Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra and other groups, which in turn was the gateway to more jazz. The prog from Rush, Gentle Giant, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer… These bands and others have continued to influence newer groups that bring prog impulses into the arena of hard rock and screaming math metal, like Periphery, whose music is included here” and inspired the screaming vocals on album track ‘Herr und Knecht’."