Vergelegen

Vergelegen V, this Cabernet of great distinction would compare favorably with some of the best wines I know. It is from a winery founded in 1700 in South Africa ... Who would think?

I am at Woods, an al fresco dining area behind The Wine Company of Dempsey Road, plunged in darkness. The noises of crickets and croaking frogs surround this place cloaked in the heavy humid mist that has settled over Singapore after a long and violent tropical storm.

The label in the back of the bottle informs me that Vergelegen means a place "far away" and that it was granted to the governor of the Cape in 1700. It reminds me of what I learned about wine making in South Africa from a chance encounter in a lodge in New Zealand in October last year. French Huguenots who had sailed to Cape Town asked The Dutch governor for the right to settle in the country. The governor sent them far away from the Cape so that they would not cause any trouble. It must have been Vergelegen ... and this is how wine making started in South Africa.

Brad Mehldau, Jazz pianist extraordinaire

One can make amazing finds at Starbucks.

A few months ago I bought at the Starbucks of the PSA Building a CD of piano jazz music entitled Upright, Grand and All Right. The first piece was Exit Music (For a Film) by the Brad Mehldau Trio and I was entranced by this piece, in which this Jazz pianist demonstrates an amazing mastery of counterpoint. The piece sounds like a jazzy Bach prelude, with the left hand playing the "bourdon" and the right hand the melody and, in time, an extraordinary improvisation. It starts with 40 seconds of a piano solo introduction of the melody. Then the drums comes in, very sweet and low key, and at one minute into the piece, the piano left hand starts the bourdon while the right hand gives variations on the melody as the double bass comes in as well, and you are immediately transported in a dreamy atmosphere. It goes on from there, with the pianist's left hand solid as a rock in the role of the bourdon of a baroque piece, while the right hand gets more and more creative and explores amazing improvisations resolving themselves in an avalanche of gorgeous piano sounds, until it quiets itself down slowly in a nice lullaby-like melody ... The whole thing lasts only slightly more than four minutes but you want it to go on forever.

Woww....

After this introduction, I bought from Amazon.com three CDs of Brad Mehldau, called The Art of the Trio. The third volume, Songs, is my favorite and contains this Exit piece, and nine other songs, all remarkable. It really is the art of the jazz trio, with an amazingly creative and talented pianist, and a solid accompaniment of elastic bouncing rhythms on the drums (oh, so subtle and intricate ... not too noisy ... just right) and beautiful improvisations and melody renditions on the double bass.

Bravo to Brad Mehldau, pianist, Larry Grenadier, bassist, and Jorge Rossy, drummer ... this is beautifully and so tastefully done ... You gave me and are still giving me much joy.