Brad Mehldau - Art of Trio 2: Live at the Village Vanguard
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Artist: Brad MehldauEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Live
CD Release Date: 1998-03-10
Music Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Soundtracks:
- It's Alright With Me
- Young And Foolish
- Monk's Dream
- The Way You Look Tonight
- Moon River
- Countdown
Music reviews of Art of Trio 2: Live at the Village Vanguard
Music Review: notes on a controversy
Rating: 4 Stars
Sorry, this isn't really a review of this album. It's a few thoughts on the "controversy" over comparing Mehldau to Bill Evans (see, e.g., the "Major, major jazz" review on this page). Mehldau himself has disavowed the comparison on several occasions, most notably in the liner notes to Art of the Trio Vol. 4, in which he says he only listened to Evans "a little, when I was 13 or 14 years old"--and then goes on to provide a detailed analysis of how his trio functions in a different way than Evans's. If you take this at face value . . . (After I read Mehldau's liner notes, I was hoping someone would get him a copy of Harold Bloom's _The Anxiety of Influence_ for his birthday.)
Some of Mehldau's points (e.g., racial troping and the role of the bassist) are repeated in a well-written review on this page. I'd like to respond to a few of those points--because methinks it has gotten to the point where Mehldau (and some of his fans) doth protest too much.
Let me grant three points immediately: 1) Mehldau is a unique and gigantic talent. His personal expression is not in any way invalidated by similarities or differences with Bill Evans or any other pianist. 2) Harmonically, Mehldau is not an impressionist the way Evans was. 3) Collective improvisation is not the key to the Mehldau Trio as it was to Evans's best trios.
But!
The comparisons to Evans did not come out of the blue, and racial troping (or "profiling") seems to me something of a red herring. I mean, if it were that simple, why isn't Mehldau also frequently compared with George Shearing, Dave Brubeck, Vince Guaraldi, and Chick Corea?
Beyond the obvious facts of performing in a trio and playing in a Romantic, introspective manner, Mehldau is frequently compared to Evans, I believe, mainly because of his choice of repertoire. On his very first album, for instance, Mehldau recorded two Richard Rodgers classics--"It Might as Well Be Spring" and "My Romance"--that had long been associated with Evans. In fact, Evans recorded "My Romance" many times, starting with *his* first album. And on this album (AotT2), Mehldau plays "Young and Foolish," which Evans recorded several times.
Beyond such specific examples, there is a general similarity in what they play, a mix of high-quality standards (Rodgers, Porter, Gershwin, etc.), originals, and unexpected works by contemporaries. That might sound generic enough to be true of nearly any jazz performer--but if you look carefully at what Mehldau plays, you will see it resembles the things Evans recorded much more than it resembles what most other jazz performers, pianists or otherwise, play. Keep in mind, too, that using the "great American songbook" as the basis for major league jazz improvisations (and writing pieces in a similar vein) was quite unusual and not exactly fashionable during Evans's peak years, which coincided with the free jazz and fusion movements. It's less unusual now, after the Keith Jarrett and Wynton Marsalis standards collections, but there is no question that Evans is an important link between pre-bop and contemporary performance of standards material.
Mehldau and Evans also resemble each other in the things they play that are off the beaten path (for the jazz world). Mehldau has covered material by such elder statesmen of the rock establishment as Paul McCartney and Paul Simon--which is still a little unusual for a jazz performer. But the Paul Simon song he recently covered, "Still Crazy After All These Years," comes from the same album that the Simon song Evans liked to cover ("I Do It for Your Love") does. Also, Mehldau has gotten a lot of attention for covering tunes by Nick Drake and Radiohead--just as Evans received attention for covering Johnny Mandel's Theme from M*A*S*H and songs by Burt Bacharach (before he was considered one of the "old masters"). In both cases, they saw the lyrical value of material that others wouldn't might not have thought to convert into jazz.
So the claim that there are "no similarities" between Evans and Mehldau just doesn't ring true. In addition to their similar choice of repertoire--which suggests a great amount of temperamental affinity if not necessarily direct influence--both are classically trained pianists, and you can easily hear that (although I don't think Mehldau's touch is quite as refined as Evans's was).
Also, the claim that Mehldau has "a fire that Evans never envinced [sic]" doesn't wash with me. Miles Davis said he hired Evans specifically because he wanted Evans's "quiet fire." And that fire wasn't always all that quiet, as anyone who has heard Evans's early recordings with George Russell (e.g., "Concerto for Billy the Kid" and "All About Rosie") well knows. Evans was perfectly capable of barnstorming when he wanted to. This was a man who played Beethoven's Third Concerto at his senior recital and who liked to play Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto for his own private enjoyment. If you think you can play those virtuoso masterpieces without fire in your belly, guess again.
Okay, those are my points. I just think the pendulum has tended to swing too much from uncritical comparisons to (blindly following Mehldau's own not disinterested lead) uncritical disavowals of all affinities. Hey, it's a massive compliment to be compared to Evans. And it shouldn't mean that Mehldau isn't his own man, because he most definitely is. It's just that given what he's playing (esp. in a jazz piano trio format), Evans is the obvious point of reference and will remain so, just as Verdi would be an obvious point of comparison for Puccini. Sure, let's be aware of the crucial differences between them. Let's look for and celebrate everything that's distinctive in Mehldau's playing (because there's plenty of that). But when we look through the musical universe, to whom are we likely to compare Mehldau? Verdi? Madonna? Bill Monroe? Stuff Smith? No one picked Evans's name out of a hat.
P.S. If you love piano jazz, get all of Mehldau's albums, including this one (well, maybe except Largo). You see, he's this great contemporary jazz pianist, a little like Bill Evans, only different . . .
Description of Art of Trio 2: Live at the Village Vanguard
All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.This live set, recorded at New York's Village Vanguard in the summer of 1997, presents pianist Brad Mehldau with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy, the same personnel as on The Art of the Trio, Volume One. This is hardcore jazz, with tunes by Cole Porter, Thelonious Monk, Jerome Kern, Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, and John Coltrane. Mehldau hasn't yet earned a place in the highest rank of the jazz pantheon, but if he keeps making recordings of this caliber, he'll blow away a lot of the opposition. He doesn't wear his influences on his sleeve but, with the support of Grenadier and Rossy, executes harmonic reconstructions of standard texts. --Stanley Booth
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