In a Series of Five Albums Called the Art of the Trio the Pianist
Brad Mehldau Trio
The Art of the Trio: Recordings 1996-2001
Nonesuch Records
2011
It'southward hard to believe that it'due south simply been xv years since Brad Mehldau emerged on the scene, and so prevalent and influential has the pianist get since then. At the same time as he was gaining some significant attention for his piece of work with saxophonist Joshua Redman on Moodswing (Warner Bros., 1994), the then 24 year-old pianist had been recruited past Redman's characterization, releasing Introducing Brad Mehldau in 1995—an apt if non entirely authentic title; while it represented his kickoff recording with truthful international achieve, his co-leader debut really came the year before with When I Fall in Dearest (Fresh Sound New Talent, 1994), in the democratically named Mehldau & Rossy Trio.
But it was with the release of Art of the Trio, Volume One (Warner Bros., 1997) that Mehldau lept into an even brighter spotlight, settling into ane of the two trios featured on Introducing for a lineup that, with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy, would remain constant for the next decade, until Rossy decided to render to Spain to study and refocus. It was precocious, indeed, for Mehldau to release an album with a title of such import, only unlike many immature artists who were emerging at the fourth dimension—many notwithstanding not fully-formed or ready for a spring into leadership—Mehldau proved that he may accept been a relative youngster, but he was absolutely prepare for the limelight as a leading player, interpreter and composer, with Book One's four original compositions, scattered amid four standards and i The Beatles tune, as rooted in Bach as they were in bop.
It'southward all too piece of cake to await for obvious comparisons when faced with a new talent as startling every bit Mehldau was in 1995, but if surface-but references to seminal jazz pianists by and present—in item Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett —rankled the young player, looking dorsum at The Art of the Trio: Recordings 1996—2001 with the benefit of knowing where Mehldau'due south career has gone since, it's easy to understand why. The truth is that this box gear up—which collects the half dozen CDs that fabricated upwardly Mehldau's five-volume Art of the Trio series, plus a seventh disc of additional live tracks recorded between 1997 and 2001—serves as a refresher course on how to properly care for an creative person who appears, seemingly out of nowhere, with a fresh perspective on a well-worn tradition.
There's little doubt that Mehldau knows plenty about that tradition, but equally early as Art of the Trio, Book Two: Live at the Village Vanguard (Warner Bros, 1998), the pianist was already demonstrating a remarkable facility that has, in the years since, evolved into a sophisticated and still seemingly impossible power to practice, with ane hand, what most pianists need two to accomplish (for a risk to actually see Mehldau's hands in activeness, in that location'due south the DVD that'south office of the Live in Marciac (Nonesuch, 2011) 3-disc set). As his solo builds on a lengthy expect at Cole Porter 's frequently-covered "It's Alright With Me," Mehldau clearly adheres to form—though, at times, it seems as though the entire trio is barely hanging on at the edge of a precipice, so pliant is the push-and-pull going on amongst them—simply with jagged contrapuntal ideas seeming to flow independently from each mitt, even as they twist and turn, diverge and re-entwine in a manner that might be hypnotic if it weren't so positively exhilarating, the pianist's vocalism is already distinct and unmistakable.
Nothing comes from a vacuum and few musicians shape their voices without having first absorbed the music effectually them. Guitarist John Scofield , in a recent All About Jazz interview, recalled hearing, from bassist Charlie Haden , that "everybody has their own voice in music: information technology's simply at that place." But if that is, indeed, true—if "it'southward similar having a voice when you talk; when you hear someone on the phone, you know information technology's them from merely one word"—and so the challenge that faces many artists is, perhaps, finding a way to preclude those who they've studied in such depth from getting in the fashion of that preexisting voice. Going dorsum to the beginning of his Art of the Trio series, it'due south clear that Mehldau had already overcome what is, for some, a well-nigh-insurmountable challenge, at least in their formative years.
Listening to Mehldau and his trio evolve from Volume One, a studio recording from September 1996, to Volume five: Progressions, a double-disc prepare culled from three nights during the aforementioned month iv years after at New York Urban center's iconic Village Vanguard, is besides a refresher on just how powerful yet understated this group could be, and what a fine collective interpreter of songs, ranging from well-known standards to what was the first of a at present-regular addiction covering more contemporary sources like Nick Drake and Radiohead. Rossy has, in many ways, been largely (and unfairly) forgotten since returning to Espana, and the release of Day is Done (Nonesuch, 2005)—with newcomer (to the trio, but no stranger to either Mehldau or Grenadier) Jeff Ballard —engendered critical but as unfair praise like "refreshed" and "reinvigorated," every bit if the trio with Rossy had, somehow, become staid, tired and anticipated.
There'due south no question that Ballard is a more immediately impressive drummer, bringing a different kind of energy to the trio, just the operative give-and-take is different. Those who'd unfairly written Rossy off after Mehldau's showtime fix with Ballard were faced with House on Hill (Nonesuch, 2006)—Rossy'due south swan song with the trio, released 16 months later the drummer's departure and a beginning for either trio incarnation in its exclusive focus on Mehldau originals—where the differences in approach were clear. Ballard is surely a striking and more dominant conversationalist in contrast to Rossy, the ever-amenable team player. Just if Rossy's solo on saxophonist John Coltrane 'due south "Countdown," which closes Volume Two, is cypher brusque of virtuosic, it'due south his collective piece of work on Radiohead's "Go out Music (For a Flick)," from Art of the Trio 4: Back at the Vanguard (Warner Bros., 1999) that reveals his greatest force. Mehldau digs deep into the core of the song's intrinsic lyricism—a good lesson to those who write off rock groups like Radiohead without actually listening to them—simply it's Rossy who subversively begins to raise the temperature at the start of Mehldau's solo—subtly, about imperceptibly, commencing a gradual thermostat adjustment that ultimately reaches a total and energetic eddy seven minutes into the 9-minute rails. Sometimes different doesn't have to hateful better or worse; sometimes it can just hateful unlike.
Still, as well-formed as the Mehldau of 1996-2001 was, hearing these sets in calorie-free of more recent trio material such equally Live (Nonesuch, 2008) only demonstrates how far he's come in the ensuing decade. The same can be said for Grenadier. Always an absolutely dependable anchor—making him a much sought-after bassist for everyone from saxophonist Charles Lloyd and trumpeter Enrico Rava to guitarist Pat Metheny (with whom the bassist has reunited for a yr of touring, both in duo and reunited trio with drummer Beak Stewart , caught recently at the 2011 Enjoy Jazz festival, in Mannheim, Federal republic of germany)—Grenadier's apprehending as a soloist has taken a significant leap forward in recent years, in particular at performances such as his 2009 Rava date, likewise in Mannheim, for Enjoy Jazz's commemoration of ECM at 40.
Merely if Grenadier has become that much better in the past 15 years—certainly what most musicians aspire to— he was already a creative ensemble thespian, as his work on the same "Countdown" from Back at the Vanguard certifies. Just after a quick rundown of the theme, and a high-octane, dervish-like solo from Rossy on "London Blues"—a 1999 alive recording from the aforementioned six-night club date as was culled for Back at the Vanguard, and included hither on the bonus 7th disc—a relatively cursory bass solo suggests Grenadier has long represented an particularly perfect marriage of groove-axial simplicity and unfettered musical expansionism. Once Mehldau is back in the pool, this version really takes off, a relatively early demonstration of this trio'due south three-way conversational approach and each role player's ability to intuit where his mates are going with the kind of empathy that can only come from spending plenty of time together on the bandstand.
Mehldau's compositions can be circuitous, while still possessing an inherent lyricism that's at its most obvious on "Unrequited," which makes its showtime appearance on the studio recording, The Art of the Trio Volume, Iii: Songs (Warner Bros., 1998). The pianist's solo builds relentlessly—trance-inducing, fifty-fifty—upon its fugue-like theme, and a thematically focused spot from Grenadier clarifies why he continues to exist Mehldau's bassist of choice, even on extracurricular releases such as the pianist's more heavily produced Largo (Warner Bros., 2002) and ambitiously sweeping Highway Rider (Nonesuch, 2010). Simply information technology's on the extended live version— on the bonus CD, from a 1997 alive show, and longer, by one-half, than its 6-minute studio counterpart—where Grenadier shines fifty-fifty more, as Mehldau adds the occasional contrapuntal line to the bassist's more fervent solo, to continue the vocal's Bach-ian touchstone.
The bonus disc features five live tracks that, totaling nearly 44 minutes, bridge the period 1997-2001. The biggest carrot is, maybe, an almost painfully fragile wait at the Bob Hilliard/David Mann standard "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" that, prior to this box fix, had but been heard from this trio on a 2001 express-release Barnes & Noble sampler. New takes of "Unrequited," originally from Songs, "London Blues" from Back at the Vanguard, and "Ron'south Place" and "Lament for Linus," first heard on Fine art of the Trio, Volume 1, only serve to demonstrate merely how far-reaching this trio was, each and every nighttime. Unlike Jarrett'south completely spontaneous stream-of-consciousness approach, Mehldau's trio works with actual arrangements, but that shouldn't suggest predictability, simply that its collective explorations operate with a context-setting road map.
Equally far as Mehldau has come as a solo artist, on expanded projects like Highway Rider and special events similar his 2011 ECM recording with saxophonist Lee Konitz , Charlie Haden and drummer Paul Motian ( Live at Birdland), it'due south his longstanding trio that's the mother ship. If his current work with Grenadier and Ballard continues to aggrandize on a longstanding tradition, and then The Art of the Trio: Recordings 1996—2001 shows where information technology all began while, at the same time, bringing Jorge Rossy deservingly dorsum into the limelight.
Every bit an essential document of jazz in the belatedly 1990s, it as well explains—in one place and over the grade of more than than 7 consistently engaging hours—just how Mehldau so quickly became one of his generation's most influential pianists. Every bit he moves into his mid-40s, showing no signs of slowing down or settling into any kind of predictable norm, reissues like The Art of the Trio: Recordings 1996—2001 make abundantly clear that, when the history book of the latter part of the 20th century/early part of the new millennium is written, Mehldau will, no dubiousness, accept a well- deserved place alongside predecessors such equally Bill Evans, Chick Corea , Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett as one of the well-nigh important pianists of any generation.
CD1 (The Fine art of the Trio, Book One: Blame It on My Youth; I Didn't Know What Time Information technology Was; Ron'south Place; Blackbird; Lament for Linus; Mignon'due south Song; I Fall in Love Too Hands; Lucid; Nobody Else Simply Me. CD2 (The Fine art of the Trio, Volume Two: Live at the Village Vanguard): It's Alright With Me; Young and Foolish; Monk's Dream; The Way Y'all Look This evening; Moon River; Inaugural. CD3 (The Art of the Trio Volume, Three: Songs): Song-Vocal; Unrequited; Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered; Exit Music (For a Moving-picture show); At a Loss; Convalescent; For All We Know; River Human; Young at Heart; Sehnsucht. CD4 (Fine art of the Trio 4: Back at the Vanguard: All the Things You Are; Sehnsucht; Prissy Pass; Solar; London Blues; I'll Exist Seeing You; Exit Music (For a Film). CD5 (Art of the Trio, Volume 5: Progressions, Disc 1): The More I See You; Dream'south Monk; The Folks Who Live on the Loma; Alone Together; Might as Well Be Bound; Cry Me a River; River Man. CD6 (Art of the Trio, Volume 5: Progressions, Disc two):Quit; Secret Love; Sublation; Resignation; Long Ago and Far Away; How Long Has This Been Going On?. CD7 (Additional Recordings): London Blues (one/seven/99); Unrequited (viii/1/97); Ron'south Place (7/31/97); In the Wee Small Hours (2001); Lament for Linus (7/31/97).
Source: https://www.allaboutjazz.com/brad-mehldau-the-art-of-the-trio-recordings-1996-2001-by-john-kelman