All About Jazz: Mehldau Trio's "Live" 2-CD Set Is "Exceptional"

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This Tuesday, the Brad Mehldau Trio will release the two-CD Live album. "It's the trio's increasing open-mindedness that distinguishes Live from its previous live outings," says All About Jazz. "Refined simplicity contrasts with sophisticated complexity while spare economy coexists alongside busier dynamics, making Live another exceptional milestone in a career defined by gradual but unrelenting growth and exploration."

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This Tuesday, March 25, the Brad Mehldau Trio, with Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums, will release the two-CD Live album, its first recording since Day Is Done, the group's 2005 Nonesuch debut. In the record review for All About Jazz, writer John Kelman finds Brad's already expansive "musical cosmopolitanism ... broadened even further."

Kelman points particularly to Mehldau's soloing on the group's 23-minute rendition of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" as the moment when:

the music enters territory freer than anything the trio has approached before. Its conversational aesthetic drives further shifts where delineated solos don't detract from the trio's undeniable democracy; rhythmic and harmonic migrations being so seamless as to feel preplanned when they are clearly spontaneous.

About the album, the review concludes:

It's the trio's increasing open-mindedness that distinguishes Live from its previous live outings. Refined simplicity contrasts with sophisticated complexity while spare economy coexists alongside busier dynamics, making Live another exceptional milestone in a career defined by gradual but unrelenting growth and exploration.

To read the full review, visit allaboutjazz.com.

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Brad Mehldau Trio: Live [cover]
  • Thursday, March 20, 2008
    All About Jazz: Mehldau Trio's "Live" 2-CD Set Is "Exceptional"

    This Tuesday, March 25, the Brad Mehldau Trio, with Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums, will release the two-CD Live album, its first recording since Day Is Done, the group's 2005 Nonesuch debut. In the record review for All About Jazz, writer John Kelman finds Brad's already expansive "musical cosmopolitanism ... broadened even further."

    Kelman points particularly to Mehldau's soloing on the group's 23-minute rendition of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" as the moment when:

    the music enters territory freer than anything the trio has approached before. Its conversational aesthetic drives further shifts where delineated solos don't detract from the trio's undeniable democracy; rhythmic and harmonic migrations being so seamless as to feel preplanned when they are clearly spontaneous.

    About the album, the review concludes:

    It's the trio's increasing open-mindedness that distinguishes Live from its previous live outings. Refined simplicity contrasts with sophisticated complexity while spare economy coexists alongside busier dynamics, making Live another exceptional milestone in a career defined by gradual but unrelenting growth and exploration.

    To read the full review, visit allaboutjazz.com.

    Journal Articles:Album ReleaseReviews

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