I Still Play
Track Listing
-
12:35
-
22:51
-
32:07
-
45:23
-
54:47
-
62:50
-
73:55
-
82:30
-
96:36
-
104:51
-
110:59
News & Reviews
-
"John’s music has been such a constant in my life that it’s reached a base level of my consciousness—it’s part of the way I hear all music now," Timo Andres (pictured here with John Adams in 2007) writes in his note in the new 40-disc box set John Adams Collected Works. "But in this case, it goes beyond the music. John showed me a model for life as an artist, one in which being communicative, permeable, and all-embracing can coexist with good craftsmanship, strongly held opinions, and the pursuit of one’s life’s work with single-minded intensity." You can read his complete note from the box set here.
SFJAZZ has announced its 2022–23 concert season including performances from Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Brian Blade, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Laurie Anderson, and Mariza. This marks the 10th anniversary season of the SFJAZZ Center and the 40th anniversary of the organization.
-
About This Album
Nonesuch Records released I Still Play, an album comprising eleven new solo piano compositions written by artists who have recorded for the label, on May 22, 2020. The pieces were written in honor of the label's longtime President Bob Hurwitz on the occasion of his 2017 shift into the Chairman Emeritus role after running the label for thirty-two years. I Still Play features works by John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Timo Andres, Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, Brad Mehldau, Steve Reich, Pat Metheny, and Randy Newman. The pieces have been recorded by Andres and fellow Nonesuch artist Jeremy Denk, as well as by Mehldau and Newman themselves.
The pieces were first performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in 2017, at a concert celebrating Hurwitz's tenure at the label. His longtime friend and colleague, current Nonesuch President David Bither, says, "Bob's great friend John Adams deserves credit for the idea at the core of this recording. I enlisted his help in thinking of how we might honor Bob. A few weeks later he suggested that we ask the composers who had worked so closely with Bob to each write him a new piece of music. An honorable suggestion, but with a twist.
"Bob is a pianist and since he was a child has played virtually every day of his life," Bither continues. "He has said many times that this practice has had a profound influence on how he listens to music. John's suggestion was that each composer write something that was not a concert piece but that an accomplished pianist like Bob might play."
Timo Andres, who recorded the majority of the compositions for this record, says in his liner note, "Each of these eleven tributes to Bob Hurwitz was written for an audience of one, on a particular Steinway in a specific Upper West Side living room. Each distills an aspect of its author's voice to a concentrated miniature. The prevailing tone is conversational rather than declamatory, though it's a wide-ranging conversation. Large questions are posed but rarely answered in full." He adds, "If the listener has the odd feeling of having stumbled into an exchange between two friends and missing an inside joke or shared reference here and there—that's not far from the truth."
Credits
MUSICIANS
Timo Andres, piano
Jeremy Denk, piano
Brad Mehldau, piano
Randy Newman, pianoPRODUCTION CREDITS
Tracks 1-3, 5, 6, 8, 10
Produced and engineered by Adam Abeshouse
Recorded April 1, 2019 at Westchester Studios, Westchester, NY
Track 4
Produced and engineered by Adam Abeshouse
Recorded March 23, 2017 at Westchester Studios, Westchester, NY
Tracks 7 & 9
Produced by Brad Mehldau
Engineered by Ryan Streber
Recorded July 27, 2019 at Oktaven Audio, Mt. Vernon, NY
Track 11
Produced by Mitchell Froom
Engineered by David Boucher
Recorded May 31, 2019 at Area A, Los Angeles, CAAlbum mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME
Design by Barbara de Wilde
Cover and booklet photographs by Michael Wilson
Photograph of Robert Hurwitz by Chad BatkaExecutive Producer: David Bither
More From
I Still Play is eleven new solo piano compositions by artists who have recorded for Nonesuch Records, written in honor of the label’s longtime President Bob Hurwitz on the occasion of his 2017 shift into the Chairman Emeritus role. The album features works by John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Timo Andres, Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, Brad Mehldau, Steve Reich, Pat Metheny, and Randy Newman, performed by Andres, Mehldau, Newman, and Jeremy Denk.
Nonesuch Records released I Still Play, an album comprising eleven new solo piano compositions written by artists who have recorded for the label, on May 22, 2020. The pieces were written in honor of the label's longtime President Bob Hurwitz on the occasion of his 2017 shift into the Chairman Emeritus role after running the label for thirty-two years. I Still Play features works by John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Timo Andres, Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, Brad Mehldau, Steve Reich, Pat Metheny, and Randy Newman. The pieces have been recorded by Andres and fellow Nonesuch artist Jeremy Denk, as well as by Mehldau and Newman themselves.
The pieces were first performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in 2017, at a concert celebrating Hurwitz's tenure at the label. His longtime friend and colleague, current Nonesuch President David Bither, says, "Bob's great friend John Adams deserves credit for the idea at the core of this recording. I enlisted his help in thinking of how we might honor Bob. A few weeks later he suggested that we ask the composers who had worked so closely with Bob to each write him a new piece of music. An honorable suggestion, but with a twist.
"Bob is a pianist and since he was a child has played virtually every day of his life," Bither continues. "He has said many times that this practice has had a profound influence on how he listens to music. John's suggestion was that each composer write something that was not a concert piece but that an accomplished pianist like Bob might play."
Timo Andres, who recorded the majority of the compositions for this record, says in his liner note, "Each of these eleven tributes to Bob Hurwitz was written for an audience of one, on a particular Steinway in a specific Upper West Side living room. Each distills an aspect of its author's voice to a concentrated miniature. The prevailing tone is conversational rather than declamatory, though it's a wide-ranging conversation. Large questions are posed but rarely answered in full." He adds, "If the listener has the odd feeling of having stumbled into an exchange between two friends and missing an inside joke or shared reference here and there—that's not far from the truth."
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Tracks 1-3, 5, 6, 8, 10
Produced and engineered by Adam Abeshouse
Recorded April 1, 2019 at Westchester Studios, Westchester, NY
Track 4
Produced and engineered by Adam Abeshouse
Recorded March 23, 2017 at Westchester Studios, Westchester, NY
Tracks 7 & 9
Produced by Brad Mehldau
Engineered by Ryan Streber
Recorded July 27, 2019 at Oktaven Audio, Mt. Vernon, NY
Track 11
Produced by Mitchell Froom
Engineered by David Boucher
Recorded May 31, 2019 at Area A, Los Angeles, CA
Album mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME
Design by Barbara de Wilde
Cover and booklet photographs by Michael Wilson
Photograph of Robert Hurwitz by Chad Batka
Executive Producer: David Bither

MUSICIANS
Timo Andres, piano
Jeremy Denk, piano
Brad Mehldau, piano
Randy Newman, piano