Brad Mehldau Trio
Released September 18, 2012
Grand Prix de l’Académie du Jazz 2012
YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ACniR85Mg70&list=OLAK5uy_kMzrtIvz5-dPzwXWS2wQaB25pauWS4DiQ
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2s8XWSfq0eLzFd6oaNiIx2?si=JPs2I5wDQ8OeFNNnB8YGOA
About:
Nonesuch releases the Brad Mehldau Trio’s Where Do You Start, a companion disc to this spring’s critically acclaimed Ode, on September 18, 2012. Whereas Ode featured 11 songs composed by Mehldau, Where Do You Start comprises the Trio’s interpretations of ten tunes by other composers, along with one Mehldau original. Ode was widely praised, with London’s Daily Telegraph, in a five-star review, saying that it “shows Mehldau’s inventive powers are as fresh as ever … and the interplay with Ballard and Grenadier is masterly.” The Brad Mehldau Trio is Mehldau on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Jeff Ballard on drums.
Brad 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 label mate Joshua 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 five trio records Day is Done, House on Hill, Live, Ode, and Where Do You Start, 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 additional 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. Got Me Wrong (Jerry Cantrell) 5:24
2. Holland (Sufjan Stevens) 8:46
3. Brownie Speaks (Clifford Brown) 8:13
4. Baby Plays Around (Elvis Costello & Cait O’Riordan) 10:07
5. Airegin (Sonny Rollins) 6:23
6. Hey Joe (Billy Roberts) 6:24
7. Samba e Amor (Chico Buarque) 9:02
8. Jam (Brad Mehldau) 5:26
9. Time Has Told Me (Nick Drake) 8:30
10. Aquelas Coisas Todas (Toninho Horta) 6:01
11. Where Do You Start? (Johnny Mandel, Marilyn Bergman & Alan Bergman) 4:06
Personnel:
Brad Mehldau, piano
Larry Grenadier, bass
Jeff Ballard, drums
Recorded November 17, 2008 (tracks 3, 4, 7, 8, 10) and April 19, 2011 (tracks 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 11) by James Farber at Avatar Studios, New York, NY
Produced by Brad Mehldau
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 Michael Wilson
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz
Review:
Hot on the heels of Brad Mehldau’s Ode (Nonesuch, 2012)—the pianist’s first all-original set with his current trio—comes Where Do You Start, culled from the same recording sessions but, with the exception of one Mehldau tune, all cover material. This isn’t the first time Mehldau has split a particularly fruitful session down the same compositional line: Anything Goes (Warner Bros.) and House on Hill (Nonesuch) were both same from the same sessions, recorded with original drummer Jorge Rossy before he left the trio to return to Spain. But the two were released two years apart—the cover-song Anything in 2004 and all-original House in 2006—whereas Where Do You Start comes a mere six months after Ode.
For some, this kind of accelerated release schedule can be a problem, but if guitarist Bill Frisell has proven anything, with four albums in the space of less than thirty months—from Beautiful Dreamers (Savoy Jazz, 2010) through Floratone II (Savoy Jazz, 2012)—it’s that if you’ve established a strong fan base, you can be more aggressive with your release schedule. Despite being literally a generation apart, Mehldau’s similarly rapid ascension—since first appearing in the early 1990s, to a rarefied space occupied, in his case, by living pianists including Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock—has been the direct result of a discography with plenty of hits and really no misses of which to speak.
Of course there’s a difference when Mehldau, longtime bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard tackle cover material rather than a set of originals, although Where Do You Start‘s eclectic song selection—ranging from well-worn standards like saxophonist Sonny Rollins’ “Airegin” (taken at a fast clip, with the familiar melody skewed ever so slightly) to Billy Roberts’ near- Jungian hit for Jimi Hendrix, “Hey Joe” (surprisingly literal, even leading to the psychedelic guitar legend’s familiar power riff)—provides and encourages the same flexibility and freedom as Mehldau’s own writing. The sole Mehldau piece, “Jam,” is really just a vamp that is tagged to the end of a gentle reading of Chico Buarque’s “Samba E Amor,” featuring a lengthy but wonderfully restrained solo that reaffirms the pianist is now in a place where he’s nothing left to prove. Of course, Mehldau burns aplenty elsewhere, with the kind of frightening two-hand technique that has distinguished him from so many others. His “Hey Joe” may be relatively faithful, as is “Got Me Wrong,” but the Alice in Chains hit provides a chance, in his impressive opening solo, for the pianist to set a very high bar for the rest of the set. From a soft look at Sufjan Stevens’ “Holland,” that is as much a feature for Grenadier’s spare but perfect choices, to a more straight-ahead take on trumpeter Clifford Brown’s “Brownie Speaks” (but still, with Mehldau’s fugue-like approach), and a particularly lyrical close with the Mandel/Bergman/Bergman title track, Where Do You Start isn’t so much an alternative as it is further evidence—as if any were needed—of this tremendous trio’s ability to take any material—old, new, borrowed or original—and make it firmly its own.
John Kelman (AllAboutJazz)
