Ode (Nonesuch)
Brad Mehldau
Released March 20, 2012
JazzTimes Top 10 Albums of 2012
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=tZOGuk77vVs&list=OLAK5uy_kMn6xFcwvTDeePKvxU2_6tdXVnaeT1VUA
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2HJHKIUdO0f4QlKwznVC3e?si=rtUufUvJQq6M4O2bUXYNqw
About:
Ode is the first original songs from the Brad Mehldau Trio since 2008’s live Village Vanguard disc and the first studio trio recording since 2005’s Day is Done, features 11 previously unreleased songs composed by Mehldau. The Brad Mehldau Trio comprises Mehldau on piano, Jeff Ballard on drums, and Larry Grenadier on bass. Ode is available for pre-order now at nonesuch.com, where an instant download of the title track is included with purchase. Brad Mehldau tours North America this spring with the trio, with label mate Joshua Redman, and in solo engagements (dates on next page).
“Ode is a collection of originals that I wrote specifically for my trio with Larry and Jeff,” says Mehldau. “I feel that what they bring to the music in the performance here is inseparable from the tunes themselves.” Most of the songs, he explains, “are tributes to someone else, and I began to think of them as odes, or poems that might be sung; in our case here it’s the singing only without all those pesky words.” Subjects include the late saxophonist Michael Brecker (“M.B.”), a character from the film Easy Rider (“Eulogy for George Hanson”), and the guitarist Kurt Ronsenwinkel (“Kurt Vibe”).
Mehldau moved to New York City in 1988, studying at the New School and playing in a number of different combos—including a stint in Redman’s quartet—before becoming a bandleader himself. His trio, which tours the world extensively, made eight acclaimed recordings for Warner Bros., including the five widely praised Art of the Trio albums with former drummer Jorge Rossy, which Nonesuch released as a boxed set in December 2011.
The pianist’s eight years with Nonesuch have been equally productive, beginning with the solo disc Live in Tokyo and including the three trio records Day is Done, House on Hill, and Live as well as a collaboration with soprano Renée Fleming, Love Sublime; a chamber ensemble album, Highway Rider; and two collaborations with label mate Pat Metheny, Metheny Mehldau and Quartet, the latter of which also includes Ballard and Grenadier. In addition to the Art of the Trio box set, Mehldau’s other two Nonesuch releases last year showcased other facets of his varied career as it enters its second decade: his live solo performances on Live in Marciac and his collaborations with genre-crossing musicians on Modern Music, with composer/pianist Kevin Hays and composer/arranger Patrick Zimmerli.
Track Listing:
1. M.B. (Brad Mehldau) 7:46
2. Ode (Brad Mehldau) 6:20
(Brad Mehldau, Grammy Nominee for Best Improvised Jazz Solo 2013)
3. 26 (Brad Mehldau) 7:50
4. Dream Sketch (Brad Mehldau) 7:25
5. Bee Blues (Brad Mehldau) 6:42
6. Twiggy (Brad Mehldau) 5:42
7. Kurt Vibe (Brad Mehldau) 4:57
8. Stan the Man (Brad Mehldau) 5:25
9. Eulogy for George Hanson (Brad Mehldau) 9:25
10. Aquaman (Brad Mehldau) 4:49
11. Days of Dilbert Delaney (Brad Mehldau) 9:01
Personnel:
Brad Mehldau: piano
Larry Grenadier: bass
Jeff Ballard: drums
Recorded February 17, 2008, and April 19, 2011 (tracks 3, 8, 10), at Avatar Studios, NYC, by James Farber
Assistant Engineers: Akihiro Nishimura (2008), Fernando Lodeiro (2011)
Mixed by James Farber at Sear Sound, New York, NY
Assistant Engineers: David Schoenwetter, Chris Allen
Mastered by Greg Calbi Sterling Sound, New York, NY
Production Coordinator: Tom Korkidis
Design by John Gall
Photography by Augusta Quirk
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz
Review:
As good as Brad Mehldau’s ’90s trio
albums were, the “Art of the Trio” tag his old record label slapped on them was
premature. But based on the pair of brilliant albums his current group has
released this year-the first, Ode, a collection of originals, and
the latest, Where Do You Start, a return to rock and pop
covers-it’s easy to argue that even surrounded by some amazing young trios,
Mehldau, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard are the new
standard-bearers of the form.
In embracing popular music, Mehldau is less
interested in creating so-called “new standards” than inhabiting a genre all
its own-one distinguished by darkly resounding, hard-edged grooves, melodic
riffs pushed just short of the breaking point and classically enriched piano
solos. On the sometimes startling Where Do You Start, Sufjan
Stevens’ “Holland” is treated to a transfixing sideways groove that has the
feel of moving forward while standing in place. Rooted in gospel chords, the
Hendrix-associated “Hey Joe” has a harmonic density suggestive of Procol Harum.
Revisiting old favorite Nick Drake via the gently haunting “Time Has Told Me,”
Mehldau combines spiritual accents and a sly shuffling beat.
As demonstrated by his dazzling run through
Sonny Rollins’ “Airegin” and his joyful, springing reading of Clifford Brown’s
“Brownie Speaks,” classic jazz is equally welcome in this territory. So is
Latin music, represented by two fetching Mehldau originals. But it’s the
pianist’s ability to meaningfully recast even a tune by grunge band Alice in
Chains that makes this album special.
Half of Where Do You Start derives
from the same 2008 sessions that produced most of Ode, another
Mehldau masterpiece, which was the first studio release by this trio since its
2005 debut, Day Is Done. As reflected in such titles as “Twiggy,”
“Aquaman” and “Stan the Man,” Mehldau has loosened up as an artist. As
adventurous in its own way as his atmospheric 2010 suite, Highway Rider,
which featured an expanded lineup, Ode ranges from soulful waltz
to dashing bebop to blues groove to freeform reflection. Less resounding
than Where Do You Start but no less resonant, Ode is
the work of a trio that’s firing on all cylinders while sounding like it’s on
cruise control.
Lloyd Sachs (JazzTimes)
