Brad Mehldau - Introducing Brad Mehldau

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Music reviews of Introducing Brad Mehldau

Music Review: Momentous debut
Rating: 5 Stars

And yet....it would take a determinedly tin ear not to find the man a fresh & welcome presence on the jazz scene, one of the few younger players to work squarely within the jazz mainstream & yet sound entirely & compellingly original. He's digested the entire keyboard literature whole--both classical & jazz, notably the instances of Evans, Jarrett & Corea, I think--& come out on top.

Whatever my ambivalences, I'm not ambivalent about this album: it's a truly stunning debut, & one of the best jazz albums of the 1990s. It kicks off with an insouciant version of "It Might as Well Be Spring"--it's indeed wonderfully bucolic, & it took me a few listens until I noticed that he's given it an understated off-kilter lilt by performing it in 7/8. Works just fine. The album is a mix of his originals (I especially like "Angst") & some shrewdly chosen standards--as usual with Mehldau, the originals are fairly straightforwardly done while the standards inspire him to his most intricate & far-reaching playing. "My Romance" goes Bill Evans one better in terms of daringly slow tempos--it's performed with the melody & chords at half-speed, & it's utterly remarkable. "Prelude to a Kiss" is similarly remarkable. "From This Moment On" is performed in a coyly dissonant mid-tempo arrangement with some unexpected Latin interludes spliced in; it stutters for a moment, & then breaks into a furious uptempo for Mehldau's solo. What's impressive here & throughout is Mehldau's preference for sparseness in his solos: they're technically extremely impressive, but he doesn't simply fill up all the available space with notes.

Great stuff. Half the album features the rhythm section which Mehldau has continued to work with throughout his career (Larry Grenadier on bass, Jorge Rossy on drums); the other half has the more stellar names of Christian McBride & Brian Blade; they provide excellent support, though it's clear that Mehldau's regular team permits him a much more daringly dialogic & oblique trio music than the hired guns can. But basically the album is a pleasure from first to last.

Description of Introducing Brad Mehldau

Jazz CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop