Brad Mehldau has something new in reserve for jazz fans this time through the city.
The acclaimed musician, which the New York Times has already described as “the most influential jazz pianist of the last 20 years”, directs a brand new star trio – with the extraordinary bassist Christian McBride and the drummer increasingly renamed Marcus Gilmore – in seven performances in just six days.
The talented trio launched the beautiful fashion race on Wednesday April 2 at the magnificent Bing Concert Hall on the University of Stanford campus, offering a 90 -minute set that was filled with a mixture of original Mehldau. The group is continuing its bay region with shows from Thursday to Sunday to Sfjazz Center in San Francisco (sfjazz.org), before moving south to finish its Norcal stay with two sets closed on Monday at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz (Kuumbwajazz.org).
Given that it was only the second concert of this particular summit of the great jazz – which made its debut live a day before at the Los Angeles Theater Theater – the trio always felt a little things and tried to find its exact place during this live show by Stanford. It is quite understandable, given that it was only concert n ° 2, and we expect Mehldau, McBride and Gilmore to increase things quickly as they move in the Sfjazz center, then Kuumbwa.
The group certainly did not try to make its way into the groove, instead of jumping directly in the bottom of the swimming pool with the robust of the original Mehldau “artis” of the magnificent album “Day is therefore”. The three musicians stole absolutely, as if there was a price for which we would reach the finish line first, as they would continue through this issue of the emblematic zoo from Amsterdam.
By remaining on the theme of the animal, the trio continued to stretch things with the solid new “squirrels” composition of the composition of Mehldau, then followed with another new “sauce train” doubled. The group flexed definitively through this trio of opening songs, launching new ideas and seeing what remained when these three numbers took the first 30 minutes of stage time.
Mehldau then offered his third new consecutive original, which the composer introduced a little timidly, noting that the joyful nature of the melody was out of step with what was going on in the world. Even the title of the play – “In the Bubble” – refers to Mehldau’s awareness that the happy atmosphere of the song could exist that in a place of detachment or isolation.
After four main consecutive offers, it was certainly time to change the pace and Mehldau would deliver one – although the pianist would admit later, not to the extent that he might and should have. The trio has slowed things down for the charming ballad Leslie Bricusse “When I Look in your Eyes” – a favorite from everyone, from Tony Bennett to Diana Krall – but always seemed a little too accelerated for his own good, with Mehldau saying to the public at the conclusion of the song he should have manipulated the room with a more soft touch.
He would not make this error with the second ballad of the night, because he carefully and meticulously led Gilmore and McBride through a painful version of the Washington Hoagy Carmichael standard “The proximity of you”. We will certainly seek this level of walking work (which is really the specialty of Mehldau) while the trio continues at Sfjazz and Kuumbwa.
Between these two ballads, there was another new original original original – which Mehldau currently calls “C -Minor Waltz” until he finds a permanent name. The song was so well sounded in this particular framework that I recommend that Mehldau honors the place – a place where he played twice before – by calling him something like “Waiting For Bing”. (In fact, this is the name I plan to use for the song from now – at least until my editor tells me differently.)
The All-Star trio has closed the show of Fab Four Fashion, turning to the Bien-Aimé chansons book from Mehldau for a memorable version of “She’s Leart Home”.
California Daily Newspapers
