More Blues and Ballads Review Keep Coming In
Following are more reviews coming in for the the Brad Trio's new Blues and Ballads album:
‘Each track is a beautifully crafted, richly detailed miniature with its own tale to tell. Bass and drums are understated, underscoring the sensuous contours of each Mehldau narrative.’
– Financial Times * * * * *
‘A deceptively sweet-sounding set which is absolutely absorbing. Probably, only a musician of Mehldau’s extraordinary powers of invention can do this consistently and to such intense effect.’
– Observer * * * *
FINANCIAL TIMES – JUNE 4, 2016
Brad Mehldau Trio – Blues and Ballads (Nonesuch) * * * * *
The American pianist’s current trio has been together for over a decade, yet this set of covers is their first release since 2012.
Each track is a beautifully crafted, richly detailed miniature with its own tale to tell.
“Since I Fell for You” twins the bittersweet fatalism of the blues with torch-song romance, Charlie Parker’s “Cheryl” is taken at a precise, head-nodding lope while “And I Love Her” builds inexorably from contemplation to triumph.
Bass and drums are understated, underscoring the sensuous contours of each Mehldau narrative.
- Mike Hobart
OBSERVER – JUNE 5, 2016
Brad Mehldau Trio: Blues and Ballads (Nonesuch) review – extraordinarily inventive * * * *
A deceptively sweet-sounding set which, once you cotton on to the pianist’s way of treating a few mainly well-known tunes, is absolutely absorbing. Instead of the usual jazz method of improvising on a tune over and over again, known as “playing choruses”, he plays the song with a few variations and then goes into a kind of free meditation on it. And every phrase is a cliffhanger. Probably, only a musician of Mehldau’s extraordinary powers of invention can do this consistently and to such intense effect, but it works for an old R&B tune, a blues by Charlie Parker and a Lennon-McCartney classic, among others. Bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard complete the effect with simplicity and grace.
- Dave Gelly