Brad Mehldau Larry Grenadier Jorge Rossy - The Art of the Trio Vol.3: Songs

Recently, I have been voraciously checking out pianist Brad Mehldau’s fine work on The Art of the Trio Vol.3: Songs. The album is a testament to many things; but in particular, and what really moved me to listen to it so much, is the honesty and freedom imbued in the overall ambience of the recording. The effect of the whole album cannot be described in words; all I’m insistent about conveying right now is the feel it creates and a few observations.

Over the last few years, I have checked out some acoustic jazz that I constantly go back to; I have never till date thought it would be credible of me to write about jazz; but there are many aspects of jazz, fragmented as they are with cultural idioms, that work for anybody, no matter what they think it might be; for some people, I suppose jazz is elevator music but for the more artistically inclined, I think Brad Mehldau can do you in; his technique is mindcaving and his flourishes on the piano are a brain’s delight; audible paintings. With him are Larry Grenadier on acoustic bass and Jorge Rossy on drums who equally prove that a pivotal rhythm section is one that understands the message behind the song while participating with the honest intents of the artist in mind.

Songs has many indescribable facets lurking behind every melody you hear. One thing that continues thematically, waving its spell on you, is the slow, churning growth of every song.

Somehow Brad is able to fuse classically trained piano chops to almost pop statements; he does this by relentlessly playing in and around Larry’s and Jorge’s parts and dynamically weaving through the head, the melody; until the whole song just becomes a melodic dessert; the way I hear it is that Brad always states the intent of the song and like Bill Evans (whom he really does not want to be compared to any more), allows the trio format to breathe, expand, improvise, feel, and become one giant instrument playing your tune, for you. Songs has this dynamic feature on stellar tracks like Bewitched, Bewildered, and Bothered which grabs you the instant it starts with its unforgettable melody and haunting refrains, River Man which has a starkly country lit country allusion toyed with by Brad’s jazz sensibilities, and the album opener, Song Song which thematically underlies the album’s broad aural map with its tentative and thoughtful chord changes.

This personal impact that Brad creates is almost second to none and it is equally interesting that he does not draw inspiration from a strictly jazz source. For a start, Brad is into the music of Radiohead, The Beatles, Nick Drake, and a host of other artists given tribute through either song or word.

He admirably succeeds on all fronts; some of the tracks on Songs eventually mesh together, and then you hear a romantic at heart, nourished by the music of Keith Jarrett, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane; many elements of his classically trained approach are confirmed as Wikipedia states, ‘he…plays a separate melody with each hand in unusual rhythmic meters such as 5/4 and 7/4.’ I haven’t really researched classical music so much in terms of deconstructing it to understand the theoretical intent, etc but I have dug Bach, Chopin, Mozart, and Rachmaninoff; I can hear some Chopin influences in Songs; and I also think that while classical music has influenced Brad to a great extent, its how he uses the techniques of the old masters such as Debussy and Chopin in terms of harmonic sophistication and panache to paint a modern dimension that explicates the phrasing of Miles and Coltrane’s salubrious vision of jazz.

Larry and Jorge also have a vested stake in the title of this album; their understanding of trio playing is really top notch and often moody, expansive, and lush. They are also very, very fine with the sounds they coax out of their instruments.

Larry Grenadier is awesome; big rolling tone, and of course, he has been in many a situation; he’s almost a first call jazz bassplayer, and his playing can be sampled on another outstanding album by Pat Metheny titled Trio 99 → 00 which by the way is mindblowing. He has also worked with two other phenomenal jazz artists, John Scofield and Bill Stewart. Larry’s soloing on upright is a real treat and on Unrequited and Convalescent, you can hear a player making a statement; on the latter song, check out Larry’s solo starting at 3.20; he states the melody, occasionally gets away with Mehldaulian flourishes, plays inventive changes and gets right back in the game! Wonderful upright bassplayer; I wonder what he would sound like on electric. On Unrequited, you must also check out Brad’s wicked piano solo starting at 3.58.

Jorge Rossy is a highly competent drummer who makes trio playing sound emotional; he is often found chasing the melody and interspersing his cymbal washes to create waves and waves of musical notes. Jorge also seems to know the Bill Evans approach and he uses it to masterful effects; his groove is liquid and he never plays conventionally, always choosing to make unique drumtastic statements that are more a product of his playing with Brad and Larry; there’s a unique chemistry between the band and a lot of that has to do with the choices and the chances that Jorge takes; it sounds like he’s soloing all the time yet its still fluid and it never loses its breath. Jorge Rossy having logged ten years in Brad Mehldau’s trio is now working with many other artists, primarily saxophonist Chris Cheek; I have heard Jorge lay down some amazing odd time Middle Eastern grooves with Avishai Cohen as well; Jeff Ballard, a friend and contemporary, holds the drum chair in Brad’s band now.

The two songs that did me in and made me realize the beauty of Brad Mehldau were Exit Music (for a Film) and At A Loss, while the former is a cover of a Radiohead tune, I’m sure Brad can claim it for his own; his is not even an interpretation; it is masterfully arranged and Brad and the band wrap around the track with their trademark classical chops, romantic intents, thirty fingers, and all. The latter track sees Larry play an incredible bass solo.

There are a few thematic reoccurrences in the album but these only occur in the sense of the overall ambience that Brad tries to create; I have found that musicians like Jaco Pastorius and Charlie Parker for instance had their own sound but what’s more was they were able to use these sounds and their techniques in a direction vast, but always making a stylistic statement, a signature to the effect of having participated and having involved themselves with the times and the effects of their music on a general public. Audiences prepare for an almost spiritual experience at Brad’s concerts and to be sure, he is involved with much the same thing- finding the essence of the song he plays; this is also the case in American Dreams with Charlie Haden, and Anything Goes with Jorge and Larry where you can hear renditions of Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years and a close to James Taylor’s version of The Nearness of You.

I’m still listening to this album intently; it has the same effect that albums like Chick Corea’s Time Warp, John Patitucci’s Mistura Fina, Flora Purim’s Speak No Evil, and Avishai Cohen’s Adama (on which Brad Mehldau plays a mean version of Besame Mucho), had on me; the first listen and you know something is afoot, something that you are going to obsess over. Something that just tells you that jazz was never dead; not with these guys hanging around.

By and far, Brad Mehldau with Larry Grenadier and Jorge Rossy, prove a substantial point in the growth of jazz and its unfaltering dynamic goal towards the central truth that affects all musicians who have in it a profundity of interest - Always look forward.

For up to date information on Brad Mehldau, check out www.bradmehldau.com

To check out his reasonably extensive discography, look in http://www.linge.de/music/records/mehldau/index.html

To check out more artists playing with Brad Mehldau, look in www.allaboutjazz.com

To learn more about Contemporary Jazz and its current directions in Modern Music, look in http://jazz.about.com/od/contemporaryjazz/