Brad Mehldau Trio
Where Do You Start
Release Date: Sep 18, 2012
Genre(s): Jazz, Piano Jazz, Jazz Instrument, Modern Creative, Post-Bop, Straight-Ahead Jazz
Record label: Nonesuch
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Album Review: Where Do You Start by Brad Mehldau Trio
Great, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
American pianist Brad Mehldau has explored many styles and partnerships since his emergence in the early 1990s, but most of his recordings have been for an acoustic trio – drummer Jeff Ballard joined bassist Larry Grenadier from 2005 – and the lineup always feels like home for him.Last spring, they recorded an all-original album, Ode. This set features 10 covers, including Elvis Costello and Cait O'Riordan's Baby Plays Around, Jimi Hendrix's Hey Joe and Nick Drake's Time Has Told Me. Mehldau creates fascinating detours and slow-changing moods and motifs in his improvisations on Sufjan Stevens' Holland and Baby Plays Around.
Based on rating 7/10
The companion piece to Brad Mehldau's other 2012 album, the all-original Ode, Where Do You Start features the pianist's trio covering material by other artists. Included are cuts by such eclectic non-jazz artists as Sufjan Stevens, Chico Buarque, and Jimi Hendrix. Also featured, however, are some choice jazz standards with Clifford Brown's "Brownie Speaks" and Sonny Rollins' "Airegin." Joining Mehldau here are his longtime cohorts bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard.
Opinion: Excellent
Mehldau is entering a new prime phase in his career. Martin Longley 2012 This is a very swift follow-up to Ode, released only six months earlier. Pianist Mehldau must be making up for lost time, as the present trio has not been as prolifically documented as its previous line-up. Whereas Ode concentrated on originals, Where Do You Start revives the old Mehldau approach of covering songs from across the decades.
'Where Do You Start'
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