Brad Mehldau Trio

[mke]

From here

Brad Mehldau Trio - 28/02/2004, Antwerpen

Brad Mehldau - p
Larry Grenadier - b
Jorge Rossy - d

The concert took place in a grand old theatre with huge marble pillars and high domed ceilings covered in frescoes. I was sitting up in the nose-bleed third balcony and when the lights dimmed, a beautiful sight was revealed: the cones of light the projectors that the spotlights left on the dust particles hanging in the air coming through golden arches. I could also look down upon the pretty Flemish girls and that one women in a sparkly dress.

The trio came out and set off on Thelonious Monk's "Off Minor." It recieved much applause, but I found the performance rather poor: it was the tamest Monk rendition I'd ever heard. There was no sense of adventure or risk-taking and, crucially, little rhythm to Mehldau's playing. I've always thought that playing Monk was primarily about rhythm (take Roswell Rudd, Ben Riley and even Fred Hersch with Nasheet Waits on the former's recent live album, just to point out a random few), so when it's not there... When Larry Grenadier took a brief solo, the song breathed again - everything he plays seems to have such life to it.

Then came Cole Porter's "I Concentrate on You," with a light Latin beat. Here, Mehldau was far more in his element as he sang out the melody and improvised just as melodically. The concert was gathering steam. After the song he launched into a fairly long talk. Nothing remarkable about that, except that he did it all in Dutch. Not flawless Dutch and not always comprehensible (my Dutch is roughly as good as his, and we speak it for the same reason: women. His (and singer Fleurine's) kid is real cute, too.).

Radiohead is a Mehldau fixture, and this time "Knives Out" was played. Later on, he played Nick Drake's "River Man," which was transfixingly beautiful. For me, Mehldau really has a great feel for conveying Drake's and Thom Yorke's weird voices through the piano. Not just the notes, but the emotions contained within them. On "Knives Out" the first 2/3rds of his solo were fully contrapuntal and extraordinary, as he managed to land on the theme's familiar chords from completely unexpected places.

The Radiohead was followed by own of Mehldau's own compositions, which I recognised but cannot recall the name of. The intro to this piece was the highest point of the concert and nearly made me cry. Mehldau played densely polyrhythmic and, again, contrapuntal lines that seemed to rework the composition 3 or 4 times in the space of a few minutes. I know some people find his left hand exertions irritating, but I love them and those were a few minutes of overwhelming beauty and technique.

Then, a rather unheralded side to Mehldau (or at least, a side I've never seen mentioned) surfaced. When I saw the trio a couple years ago, they played an encore that resembled this, i.e. a slow, soulful and bluesy song thatreminded me of - call me crazy - Ray Charles in its golden late afternoon glow. I don't think that this aspect of his playing has been captured on record and I really wonder if anyone else hears it this way, as it's a connection even I'm surprised at making.Needless to say, it's an aspect I greatly enjoyed.

The last song before the encore was, I was later told, a Beatles song, and was improvised upon in kind of a more abstract version of Mehldau's song mode. It didn't make much impact on me, as the pianist skittered up and down the keyboard, not saying very much.

The first encore was an unannounced Monk tune, which started off much better than "Off Minor," as Mehldau's brief intro had all the adventurousness and rhythm I had felt lacking in the opener, but the soufflé fell a bit as the song wore on.

It was also the fastest tempo of the night, at just-less-than-up. I didn't feel that a second encore was really deserved, but it did yield the "River Man" mentioned above, so all was forgiven. This reading was much better than the version on Art of the Trio: Vol. 3, which I find too repetitive. Even though this is a relatively simple song, it took me a long time to figure out what metre they were playing it in. Even though Rossy and Grenadier were accenting the beginning of every 10-beat bar, they were also subdividing the vast expanse within each bar like crazy, seeming to come together and drift apart almost at random. Combine that with Mehldau's sheer accuracy of interpretation, and it made for a powerful last impression, indeed.

[mke]

I've realised that "Mehldau's own composition, which I recognised but cannot recall the name of" was actually "All the Things You Are." Oops.

[Tom Storer]

I'll be seeing Mehldau for the first time this week. He's playing the Sunside in Paris, capacity 100, with his trio, two sets a night from Tuesday through Sunday. They're charging 30 euros a set, but it ought to be great to see them in a little club like that. I'm going to the second set on Wednesday.

[gnhrtg]

I wanted to go as well but then found the €30 a bit too steep (not to mention the obligatory drink(s)?) and I'm up to my collar work-wise. Next time, I hope. On a related note, the new album's growing on me with each listen. Please try to report Tom so I'll feel all kinds of regret for making up lame excuses.

[Tom Storer]

Will do, gnhrtg. What's with your handle, anyway? Got something against vowels? ;-)

Incidentally, drinks aren't obligatory at the Sunside--but it's so damned uncomfortable you need to drink to take the edge off.

[mke]

30 euros a set for uncomfortable listening conditions??? What a rip-off. It'll be nice to hear them in a club, but I don't think any club in Belgium can afford them. This time, I paid 17 euros (quite expensive, actually) to see them in a gorgeous old theater/concert hall.

[Tom Storer]

Typically--in France, anyway, and I suspect it's the same in Belgium--gorgeous old theaters/concert halls that program jazz have at least some degree of subsidy from public culture monies. The guy who runs the Sunset/Sunside manages to have very good programming, and I guess it's at the expense of cramming the public in. If the upstairs club seated 75 instead of 100, it's be very comfortable, but he probably wouldn't make enough money to book the kind of acts he now does.

Mike Zwerin wrote a piece on him (Stéphane Portet) in the International Herald Tribune recently. In it Portet said he's shopping for a larger venue in central Paris. It'd be interesting to have another major club in town.

[gnhrtg]

Tom - Gokhan will do, if that's any better. As for picking gnhtrg, I guess I was in one of my periods of forced creativity that always backfire.

More clubs in Paris would be welcome and I wouldn't really bicker about how (un)comfortable they are so long as they have guys like Mehldau coming in. I'll try not to miss on the others.

[Tom Storer]

I saw the Mehldau trio at the Sunset last night. Thirty euros for an hour and a quarter is a little steep, but hey, he's a star. Through diligent queue-jockeying I got us choice seats.* I was seated about four feet to Jorge Rossy's left.

I'd never seen Mehldau before, but the trio sounded exactly like they do on record: intense, somewhat somber, improvising/reconstructing at a high level while keeping a lyrical feel. The songs they played were:

- You Do Something To Me (Cole Porter)
- Angst (Mehldau)
- Boomer (Mehldau)
- Someone To Watch Over Me (Gershwin)
- She's Leaving Home (Lennon/McCartney)

It was real luck to see them in this club context, seated where I was. The sound was excellent, and even sitting right next to the drums it was never too loud. I was able to really get the three-dimensional experience, very like sitting right in the middle of the trio as they played (and I would only have had to move about six or seven feet to have literally been sitting right in the middle of them).

What I like about the trio is that Mehldau's romanticism is tempered by the sobriety of Grenadier and Rossy. They are all absolutely concentrated on interacting their way through the form, and the bass and drums achieve great subtlety. Grenadier is a very distinctive player, and I love his playing although I've talked with others who don't get him. The thought occurred to me that he's sort of like Charlie Haden with a stiffer backbone... whatever that means. Mehldau had some bravura solo moments.

All in all it was very absorbing.




* In France lines don't just get longer, they also get wider. Judging lateral positioning with regard to forecast crowd-flow is an art and a science, as well as somewhat of a national sport.

[mke]

Quite different setlist from the show I saw! Actually, an hour and a quarter is only slightly shorter than the concert I saw. I've seen them twice in concert halls, I really hope to see them play in a club context some time. Brad, if you're reading this: I'm willing to drive a fair distance, but not pay 30 euros.

[Jazzooo]

I'm glad you guys got to see this group--I think they're one of the best working trios around. What blew my mind when I saw them was what Tom mentioned: as intense as the playing got, no one overpowered the other, even without amplification opn the piano or bass. Larry G is one strong dude. I didn't really get his soloing for years--it's still not my favorite on record--but live he makes me a convert instantly.

[Tom Storer]

After the concert I got hold of some live Mehldau--Volume 5--and have been getting into it. I hear Grenadier as the real linchpin of the trio. He's very sure and directive rhythmically, and when they're playing at a good speed he seems to have his hand on the rudder. With Mehldau being romantic and/or complex and Rossy being soft and subtle, Grenadier's bass lines--clear and confident, relatively discreet but more muscular than you might realize at first--keep the energy channeled and the swing in clear focus. His sound has a Haden-like deep resonance at its center but limits and surrounds it with a good stiff thump. He punches out those notes while keeping his lines singing nonetheless. The more I consider his role with Mehldau and with Metheny's trio of a couple of years ago, the more I see Grenadier as continuing the tradition of the great walking bassists.