Brad Mehldau Trio

Brad Mehldau Trio - Ode (2012) {Nonesuch}
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© 2012 Nonesuch Records | 7559-79628-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Piano

The Brad Mehldau Trio, featuring Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums, returns with Ode, an album of 11 previously unreleased songs composed by Mehldau. The record, which is the first from the trio since 2008’s Live Village Vanguard disc and the first studio trio recording since 2005’s Day Is Done, is out this week in the UK and this coming Tuesday in North America. Many of the songs on the new album were written as tributes, or “odes,” to real and fictional people, such as the late saxophonist Michael Brecker (“M.B.”), a character from the film Easy Rider (“Wyatt’s Eulogy for George Hanson”), and the guitarist Kurt Ronsenwinkel (“Kurt Vibe”).

Three years passed between the release of the Brad Mehldau's Day Is Done and this live outing. What's so significant about this is simply that the former record marked the debut of drummer Jeff Ballard, who had replaced longtime kitman Jorge Rossy. Ballard is a more physical, busier, and more energetic drummer, allowing for Mehldau and bassist Larry Grenadier to up the ante in terms of dynamic and rhythmic options. Day Is Done offered a number of wonderfully contrasting moments where Mehldau, a big pop music fan from all eras, wove a tapestry from Burt Bacharach and John Lennon to Nick Drake and Colin Greenwood, from Paul Simon to Chris Cheek, as well as inserting a few of his own compositions.

Brad Mehldau Trio - The Art Of The Trio (2011) [7CD BoxSet] {Nonesuch}
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© 2011 Nonesuch Records | 7569-79839-5
Jazz / Post Bop / Progressive Jazz / Piano

In listening to the five years of the Brad Mehldau Trio represented in this box set, one hears the unfolding of a new and significant part of modern jazz history, as the end of the 1990s opened the door on the explosive creative renaissance of the music in the 21st century. Nonesuch has compiled the five releases in the Art of the Trio series, as well as an additional disc of unreleased recordings from the same period (1997-2001), offering a serious reconsideration of what has already been accepted as a "next step" for the jazz piano trio's history.

Brad Mehldau Trio - Seymour Reads the Constitution! (2018) {Nonesuch 7559-79344-3} (Complete Artwork)
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© 2018 Nonesuch Records / Warner Music | 7559-79344-3
Jazz / Modern Creative / Post Bop / Straight-Ahead Jazz / Jazz Piano Trio

A straightforward acoustic jazz trio album, 2018's Seymour Reads the Constitution! nonetheless holds surprises for longtime Brad Mehldau fans. Moving away from his genre-bending collaboration with Chris Thile and his equally cross-pollinated exploration of J.S. Bach's classical pieces, After Bach, Mehldau settles into this warmly rendered set of originals and covers that fits nicely into his overall discography. Joining the pianist are his longtime associates bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. Together, they've recorded often since the early 2000s, with Grenadier having worked regularly with Mehldau since the mid-'90s.

Brad Mehldau Trio's Seymour Reads the Constitution! is due May 18, 2018, on Nonesuch Records. The pianist and his longtime trio, which includes drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier, perform three Mehldau originals combined with interpretations of pop songs (Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson), jazz tunes (Elmo Hope, Sam Rivers), and one work from the American songbook (Frederick Loewe's "Almost Like Being in Love").

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 did an exceptional job of keeping his stellar trio together for seven years, as proven by his fine Art of the Trio dates and 2004's Anything Goes. But Jorge Rossy, the group's drummer, began spending more and more time away from music and at his home in Spain. Mehldau, who is almost prolific in his recording process, recruited drummer Jeff Ballard to replace Rossy on Day Is Done.