Word: mehldau
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Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau travels with giants. In the introspective and eloquent liner notes to his new album, Places (Warner Bros.), he writes of the chronic, insatiable longing he suffers for distant lands and offers a melancholy quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "The sad self, unrelenting...that I fled from...My giant goes with me wherever...
There are other giants who walk alongside Mehldau, whose work is informed by both jazz and classical composers. Like piano great Bill Evans, Mehldau, 30, is a jazz polymath, filtering disparate philosophical ideas into his art (Mignon's Song, a Mehldau composition on a previous CD, is named after a Goethe poem; another one of his tunes is titled Elegy for William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg). And, evoking Chopin, Mehldau's best work has a kind of pristine, romantic beauty...
...that there is something inherently preferable about melody over improvisation, or ballad tempo over fugue. But Mehldau, like Bach, is at his best slowed down. Like Glenn Gould playing 32nd trills as eighth notes, Mehldau proves that virtuosity is not dependent on quick pace alone. Yet even at a more leisurely speed, Mehldau's improvisational line exhibits an overall concern with counterpoint, which at once indicates his post-bop tendencies and classical training. But here they tend to be more appropriate, as Mehldau's impromptus have a tendency to fall into the trap of classical meter at brisker tempos...
...Mehldau ended the night with an encore performance of his piano rendition of Radiohead's "Exit Music for a Film," this time adorned with so many mordents that it resulted in a more antagonistic piece than even the original lyrics ("I hope you choke") might suggest. But the crowd nevertheless voiced supportive yelps...
...Mehldau's improvisations have been criticized for being overly verbose. Yet it would be extremely reductive to base a judgment of music solely on how compelling it is. Beyond cursory appearances, Mehldau has a style that rightly deserves recognition. It is with little doubt that he will be one of the most significant jazz performers of our time. Perhaps it is because Mehldau is so gifted that comparisons to Evans are constantly made, or as one audience member boldly pointed out, "The comparisons that are made between Mehldau's trio and that of Evans's are mostly because...