Customer Reviews

Heart's Content

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
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... and it just gets better. These guys (and I'm mainly talking about Bernstein and Mehldau) are musical geniuses, both showing unbelievable richness of ideas in song and improvisation. I'm a big fan of Bill Evans but I'm in the process of deciding that Mehldau is an even more inventive pianist. Listening to Mehldau, I can hear strains of Evans, Keith Jarrett and even classical influences but all of these seem to have been fused in the man's subconscious and emerge even more beautiful. Bernstein is such a brilliant guitar virtuoso - coherent, surprising, never sloppy - in my opinion a jazz Segovia - he's got to be one of the best jazz guitarist ever to play. Apparently, Bernstein and Mehldau have been playing together since both were students and it really comes through in their music. The collaboration of these two remakable talents is unusually captivating. Don't miss them together on this fine CD.

This is Bernstein 5th album as a leader.This time it is a guitar/piano based album with the fantastic Brad Mehldau on the piano.Bernstein have used Mehldau before (Something is Burnin 1992) and( Signs of life 1994)
The music here is mostly Bernstein originals with 2 exceptions.The Bernstein originals on this one is perhaps a little bit less groovy, than on the other albums ,but they swing hard of course and has that kind of "eternal beauty" and with a very very strong melodic feel that is so typical for Bernstein... My favourites are "Little Green Men" and "Constant Conversation"
Long time associate Bill Stewart (Larry Goldings trio) is on the drums and his report with Bernstein is almost telepatic.
All in all..a wonderful album....that rewards repeated listening.

This is a relaxing album, and quite interesting musically. Bernstein, a very creative composer, wrote 6 of the 8 songs. He plays (mostly) single-note guitar lines, somewhat reminiscent of Grant Green. His solos are lyrical and very well-constructed. Pianist Brad Mehldau is superb, and has many fine, intricate solos. Bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Bill Stewart, who've played together a lot, provide interesting patterns and keep things tight and swinging throughout. There's a cool bass solo on "Simple As That," perhaps my favorite song on the album. All the songs are good, however, and there's a nice variety of tempos. The album ends with a sublime guitar solo performance of "Blood Count," the Billy Strayhorn classic. Liner notes include a lengthy, well-written essay by pianist Mehldau.

Great stuff, to me, some of the most enjoyable jazz you will ever hear, Bernstein, Mehldau and Stewart are as good as it gets. Peter's guitar playing reminds one of Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, and all things great about jazz guitar. Beautiful tone and time, and I really like Peter's compositions as well. He writes a lot of great songs while keeping that great traditional sound.

Peter Bernstein is the most stable jazz guitarist among many other top notch GUITARISTS of his generation.EVERY NEW RECORDING will never dissapoint his audience .On the contrary he will add more and more of his talent so as to prepare them for his next release.FIVE STARS for all the guys in this company for such a brilliant work .FIVE STARS FOR PETER BRAD LARRY AND BILL .

Almost sounds like damning with faint praise, doesn't it? That's hardly my intention.

I've complained elsewhere about stale post-bop sessions. But what about fresh ones, as we have here? If you get this music right, it can be entirely glorious. Which Heart's Content is. In spades.

What you need to make this happen is a bunch of canny veterans, guys like Brad Mehldau, piano (although at thirty-something he's a pretty young veteran); Larry Grenadier, bass (one of the very top bottom men around); and the remarkable Bill Stewart, drums (long John Scofield's drummer of choice), in deep conversation with a seasoned veteran, like guitarist-leader, Mr. Bernstein. Then things can literally blow off the charts,

The thing I don't like about a lot of these sessions is that one or more of the players seems intent on showing the world he's got the chops to hang with the big boys. Thus, ego takes over and the interactive and conversational aspect of the music suffers. But if the leader has his head on straight, chooses the exact right musicians, and has a lightly-worn knowledge of the entire scope of jazz history, and--this is essential--isn't concerned with slavishly evoking it--real magic can happen.

It's taken a while, with quite a few stops and starts, but Gerry Teekins at Criss Cross Jazz, the little label that could, has finally assembled some absolutely top drawer musicians--Ralph Peterson, Adam Rogers, Edward Simon, Alex Sipigian come to mind--and is now producing some of the very finest straight ahead jazz around. Heart's Content, along with Adam Rogers's Allegory, is among the very best.