BRAD MEHLDAU TRIO – Blues and Ballads
NONESUCH RECORDS: 7659-79465-0
Brad Mehldau (piano) Larry Grenadier(bass) Jeff Ballard (drums)
Recorded NYC, Dec. 10th 2012 and May 12th 2014
A new Brad Mehldau release is always a big event for me. I’ve been following him since 1998 when I bought the first volume of his wonderful `Art of the Trio` series and little that he has produced since has disappointed me. I reckon this to be his fourteenth trio release, the last being `Where Do You Start` which was issued in 2012 and it might reasonably be thought that he would exhausted all the possibilities offered by this format. Far from being an exercise in keeping the pot boiling however the music on this new disc whilst not offering any radical new departures comes over as fresh and engaging as any of his previous recordings and indeed is probably more accessible to the general listener than most of them. Perhaps he is throwing us a sop after the intensity of his monumental and at times demanding solo piano retrospective which recently appeared in a four-disc box set as `10 Years Solo Live` and the searing and ethereal electronic soundscapes of his duo Mehliana.
The playlist, which is entirely made up of covers, opens with Buddy Johnson’s `Since I Fell for You` into which Brad eases seductively before raising the temperature with a series of tremolando passages before the rhythm drops out and he picks away at phrase in a long reflective cadenza just to remind us that this is still Mehldau of the romantic mien. A gently Latinised version of Cole Porter’s `I Concentrate on You` follows and things take flight with a spirited take on Parker’s `Cheryl` providing an opportunity for each member of the trio to show their paces at greater length. An interpretation of `These Foolish Things` comes complete with cascading arpeggios and the customary homage to the Lennon & McCartney song book takes the form of `And I Love Her`, in which Grenadier places another of his melodic bass solos, and `My Valentine`, a tune associated with Wings. This too features an expressive rubato passage in which the emotional climate is heightened before closing on a back beat propelled bluesy ride out. To complete the programme there is a tender elegiac morsel entitled `Little Person’, a perfectly cut gem of a tune that stays in memory long after its abrupt ending.
Mehldau’s take on the blues may not be red blooded enough for some but remember he received tuition at the hands of Junior Mance so knows his way around the conventional licks and riffs. What he does here is to use them to invest his profoundly expressed classically inclined romanticism with an extra emotional dimension and it works a treat
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
NONESUCH RECORDS: 7659-79465-0
Brad Mehldau (piano) Larry Grenadier(bass) Jeff Ballard (drums)
Recorded NYC, Dec. 10th 2012 and May 12th 2014
A new Brad Mehldau release is always a big event for me. I’ve been following him since 1998 when I bought the first volume of his wonderful `Art of the Trio` series and little that he has produced since has disappointed me. I reckon this to be his fourteenth trio release, the last being `Where Do You Start` which was issued in 2012 and it might reasonably be thought that he would exhausted all the possibilities offered by this format. Far from being an exercise in keeping the pot boiling however the music on this new disc whilst not offering any radical new departures comes over as fresh and engaging as any of his previous recordings and indeed is probably more accessible to the general listener than most of them. Perhaps he is throwing us a sop after the intensity of his monumental and at times demanding solo piano retrospective which recently appeared in a four-disc box set as `10 Years Solo Live` and the searing and ethereal electronic soundscapes of his duo Mehliana.
The playlist, which is entirely made up of covers, opens with Buddy Johnson’s `Since I Fell for You` into which Brad eases seductively before raising the temperature with a series of tremolando passages before the rhythm drops out and he picks away at phrase in a long reflective cadenza just to remind us that this is still Mehldau of the romantic mien. A gently Latinised version of Cole Porter’s `I Concentrate on You` follows and things take flight with a spirited take on Parker’s `Cheryl` providing an opportunity for each member of the trio to show their paces at greater length. An interpretation of `These Foolish Things` comes complete with cascading arpeggios and the customary homage to the Lennon & McCartney song book takes the form of `And I Love Her`, in which Grenadier places another of his melodic bass solos, and `My Valentine`, a tune associated with Wings. This too features an expressive rubato passage in which the emotional climate is heightened before closing on a back beat propelled bluesy ride out. To complete the programme there is a tender elegiac morsel entitled `Little Person’, a perfectly cut gem of a tune that stays in memory long after its abrupt ending.
Mehldau’s take on the blues may not be red blooded enough for some but remember he received tuition at the hands of Junior Mance so knows his way around the conventional licks and riffs. What he does here is to use them to invest his profoundly expressed classically inclined romanticism with an extra emotional dimension and it works a treat
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
