Brad Mehldau Trio Live

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Product Details

Artist : Brad Mehldau Trio, Jeff Ballard, Larry Grenadier
Format : Live
Binding : Audio CD
EAN : 0075597995657
Label : Nonesuch
Number of Discs : 2
Product Group : Music
Release Date : 2008-03-24
UPC : 075597995657

ASIN : B0013D8JCO

Track Listings for

Disc-1
1. Introduction
2. Wonderwall
3. Ruby\x{2019}s Rub
4. O Que Será
5. B-Flat Waltz
6. Black Hole Sun
7. The Very Thought of You

Disc-2
1. Buddha Realm
2. Fit Cat
3. Secret Beach
4. C.T.A.
5. More Than You Know
6. Countdown

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Customer Reviews

Distinctive Brad (2008-03-25)

There is no denying that Brad Mehldau is one of the most instantly recognisable jazz performers out there. Just a handful of notes - that sharp touch, the detached articulation in the right, the jabbed clusters in the left, the two-handed play and the moments his left wants to detach from his right - and you just know it is him at the piano. Mehldau's playing has some real strengths. His ability to take a melody apart and put it back together again is in ample evidence on this live set from the celebrated Village Vanguard. It can be heard on standards such as 'The Very Thought of You' or 'More Than You Know': the themes will be familiar but chances are you will not have heard theme quite like this. And Brad deconstructs his own themes (the infectious 'Buddha Beat' and 'Fit Cat') with panache too, and it is the solid rhythmic grounding provided by Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums that lets him do this so effectively. There is real abstraction in his improvising, but also a funky and bluesy feel.Another thing Mehldau does so much better than so many his peers is play a contemporary pop or rock song. Just listen to Oasis's 'Wonderwall' and you would think it has been written with a jazz piano trio in mind. It is another classic quirky and distinctive performance in which the layers are gradually built up.Why only four stars, then? One reason is a personal thing, to be honest: probably I am too much of a traditionalist, I like Brad's abstraction, but I prefer lines that are smoother, a less percussive touch and a more sumptuous sonority than he gives us. Another is the hint of self-indulgence. Mehldau is always more impressive live when he can unfold his ideas, but some of the pieces are really very long, for instance a twenty-three minute 'Black Hole Sun'. He sounds as if he is lost in his sound world; I felt this turned into a black hole on the disc in a less positive sense. Another gripe is the sound. The stereo reproduction of this Nonesuch production has the piano coming largely out of one speaker, the bass coming out of the other (this has been a feature of some of his Warner discs too). This extreme stereo effect is rather arch, and to my mind it makes the piano sound rather one-dimensional and thin. I want to hear more.

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