Seymour Reads the Constitution!

Jazzwise Names Seymour Reads the Constitution! as one of the Top 20 Jazz Albums of 2018:

“Brad Mehldau’s teasing talent for setting a mood of fascinating expectation and then unhurriedly revealing its multiple implications has been a marvel of contemporary jazz since the 1990s, and rarely more so than on this riveting seventh album featuring his longterm trio with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. Mehldau plays that game from the first moments of the standout opener, ‘Spiral’ – at first alone and almost absent-mindedly spinning a descending eight-note ostinato, then floating a spacious treble melody over it, quickly joined by a bass pulse and discreet latin snare-tick to unwrap a long piano improv of asymmetrical lines, playful delays, and fresh melodies as that hypnotic left-hand mantra murmurs on. The title-track, a deceptively languid waltz with a central role for the imaginative Grenadier, similarly kindles a stream of intensifying variations in which Mehldau never raises his pianistic voice. ‘Almost Like Being In Love’ (one of five covers) is playful and springy, Elmo Hope’s ‘De-Dah’ is rhythmically jagged and then euphorically-swinging bebop, Brian Wilson’s ‘Friends’ is massaged by slinky long lines and hints of blues, Sam Rivers’ ‘Beatrice’ is a tender melody soon stirred into a Bill Evans-reminiscent trio sprint that propels the leader into some of his most freewheeling doubletime flights. The ever-empathic Mehldau trio might offer a familiar brew, but it never stops fizzing with life.”
– John Fordham

Seymour Reads the Constitution!

1. Spiral
(Brad Mehldau)

2. Seymore Reads the Constitution!
(Brad Mehldau)

3. Almost Like Being in Love
(Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe

4. De-Dah
(Elmo Hope)

5. Friends
(Brian Wilson/Dennis Wilson/Carl Wilson/Al Jardine)

6. Ten Tune
(Brad Mehldau)

7. Great Day
(Paul McCartney

8. Beatrice
(Sam Rivers

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