Customer Reviews

Places

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The year 2000 has brought Mehldau fans three real treats, as this artist continues to grow and develop himself to dazzling heights. "Places" is his third output this year, after the recent above mentioned great Charles Lloyd record where he shows his skills as a sideman, and the exquisite duo recording he produced with beautiful European vocalist Fleurine on Verve (available only on amazon.co.uk thusfar) where he displays uncanny skills as an arranger for strings, besides a deep commitment and interplay with the vocal.This third release shows the versatile Mehldau wearing two different hats again, conversing with himself, on about half of the tracks, and communicating with his trio on a selection of breathtaking originals. The compositions are all outstanding,and have a haunting quality. Little bits and pieces of each song reappear in the subsequent tracks, yet each composition really stands on its own. He named the tracks after the Places where the compositions where written, but stresses in his most interesting linernotes that these titles do not reflect on those Places in particular. His writing is as interesting as his musical universe which is uniquely his. The solo pieces are intense, while drummer Jorge Rossy and bassist Larry Grenadier's playing is equally fresh and original. This Trio already sounded different right from the gate, but by now, after their famous Art of the Trio series, they prove to have an almost telephatic communication that sets them apart from any piano Trio, past or present. Places is an absolute must-have!

This is an exceptional out pouring of original compositions from Brad Mehldau. "Paris" is one of the few recordings in this world, bearing that name, that actually capture the subtle passion, and dominating essence of one of the world's finest cities. Brad's playing is melancholic and patient and enough to carry you through an entire evening totally encapsulated by his piano without ever noticing it is there. Along with keith Jarrett's The Melody At Night With You, John McArthur's, "HIDDEN" and Lyle Mays, "Solo Improvisations for Expanded Piano" this is one of the greatest solo piano albums in the last ten years. Get it. It will live with you for a long time. And take you to places you will feel like you have always known.

Places is an extraordinary and revolutionary musical exploration. In my opinion, it's the work of an inspired genius. The music here has no boundaries, and cannot be cast in any conventional category. Jazz, classic, pop ballads, everything is mixtured in 13 astounding lyrical performances alternating solo piano and trio (as usual, Larry Granadier is on bass and Jorge Rossy on drums). With respect to the introverted and romantic Elegiac Cycle, in Places the solos are more diverse, and display a full range of colors, alternating introspection and fury, classicism and swing. Particularly shining for deepness and emotionality, Los Angeles 2 starts with a swinging and fascinating tune sustained by a kind of funky beat, and then suddenly evolves towards a haunting, avant-gardistic crescendo, built up on left-hand arpeggios of impressive complexity. Airport sadness is a romantic manifesto of longness and solitude that might stand among the best Chopin preludes. But the absolute highlight is Paris, a piece of trascendental beauty. It starts with a deep, delicate melody, that continuously grows and expands until exploding into a shocking, rock-classical arpeggio (a mix of Radiohead and Rachmaninoff...). Among the trio-pieces, Los Angeles is the main theme of the whole CD, opening and closing it, delicately surfacing time to time. All the pieces worth the best of the Art-of-the-trio series, As usual, the trio sings like just one, totally recognizable, voice. Traditional long solos are almost completely absent, instead the music line is constructed (and deconstructed) by continuous exchanges that never let you guess what will be the next step, and give the players unlimited possibilities of improvisation. I think Brad Mehldau is bringing piano jazz to a peak never reached before, and this CD is destined to be a milestone.

I find that of Brad Mehldau's various CDs, this is one that I keep returning to. What I like about the CD is that it has a consistent mood and style, listening to it from start to finish is really rewarding. It does have a sort of melancholy feel to it, evocative of travelling a bit too much and spending too much time in airport lounges, perhaps expectable given the title of the CD and the inclusion of a track called "Airport Sadness". I can't really decide if it is better or worse than his other work, since Mehldau's work is generally so good, but it is definitely distinct from his other work, and very rewarding.

After many acclaimed trio, solo piano and various other recordings as a leader and sideman, this album shows an even more improved version of Brad Mehldau. Joined by the now-familiar trio of Larry Grenadier and Jorge Rossi, this album combines Brad Melhdau's trio and solo compositions and performances written in various places as shown by the respective song titles.

I while his trio has retained the magic that is a unique composition of their respective talents, the real improvement here is in Brad Mehldau's compositions, and his solo piano playing. You can hear how his solo improvisations have improved over the past year, which I suspect in no small part comes from his solo piano tour experiences. The depth of the composition and improvisation on solo piano has traded off some of its melancholy with more imaginative and bold statements, as can be heard in "Airport Sadness".

Finally, I sincerely hope that this album will help Brad Mehldau's trio break away from unfair and unbased comparison with Bill Evans' legendary trio of the old. If anything else, Brad Mehldau's trio reminds me of Keith Jarrett's trio in spirit only, with their percussive rythms. Brad Mehldau is truly himself, as is the trio. They represent a unique voice in today's jazz and continues to heighten the standard of excellence and virtuosity.

Extremely enjoyable. More than Jarrett or Evans, Mehldau reminds me of Lennie Tristano, in duo with Lee Konitz, but deeper, more pensive and poignantly involved. His technique is splendid.

That little quotations from "Round About Midnight" and "My Funny Valentine", in the first <Los Angeles>, are heartbreaking, and set the mood for the entire album. The melancholy of <Paris> is hauntingly pervasive, but is well balanced by the nervousness of the reprise of <Los Angeles>.

My thanks to Mehldau for expressing so well so many emotions of mine, so many memories of mine.

Every Mehldau album is quite different, "Places" provides a variety of scenarios and sorroundings that take to the listener rigth to the place Mehldau has dedicated the song , Los Angeles, Paris , Madrid , Amsterdam , every track have its own charm the same as the place object of its dedication, eventhoug the global atmosphere is melancholic in a delightfull way for the audience and some grey moments are present for brief moments this is a sweet travel.
No bagage needed
HM

This album places tops what he has done with the past 4 trio albums. It contains absolutely wonderful originals by Mehldau, excellent trio tunes, and astonishing solo piano pieces. Mehldau is a master of the piano, and of the piano trio. No one is a better innovator on the piano right now. He is the future of jazz. This album demonstrates how bright his future will be.

After hearing Mehldau's latest, Largo, and I revisted Places and found it doesn't hold up in retrospect any better than upon first hearing. It's not that Mehldau is a poor musician in terms of training, technique or even experience, but despite these obvious assets, the music of Places is still found wanting.

Mehldau is often described as "introspective," and this is usually followed with a comparison to Bill Evans. However, I find that a bit off-mark. The music of this album demonstrates fairly clearly to me that Melhdau is not so much as introspective as prone to indulgent navel-gazing. The result is while the pianist is off in his little world, the listener is sidelined as a mere observer of the music with no inroad to being an participant. Moreover, it doesn't seem that Mehldau's compositions are any more accessible to long-time trio mates, Larry Grenadier and Jorge Rossy, who, on the few track that they play on, seem to be just playing along, competently yet distantly, with Mehldau rather than really interacting with him on an intuitive level.

Another word I've heard used to describe Mehldau is "moody." Certainly jazz can be moody, but its best "moody" musicians - such as Bill Evans, to name one -- always made that moodiness seducive and absorbing. The moodiness of Mehldau's playing is a closed box -- you see it's there, and by being present, gives the illusion that he's allowing the audience an intimate view into it, but in fact, the lid never opens. Instead, Mehldau falls back pedantically on his training and technique, swirling about nicely played phrases and dynamics and throwing in some dissonance to obfuscate the lack of genuine intimacy. It's an impressive trick in its own way, but is a far cry from a jazz master like Evans.

Mehldau does gives us some insight into his music, however, in his verbose liner notes (where he manages to quote nearly every trendy Post-Kantian thinker short of Hegel, Derrida and the kitchen sink). If I could give Mehldau one line of classic jazz advice, it'd be "You've learned it, now forget it." In other words: think less, intuit more. Curiously, Mehldau seems a bit seduced by Goethe's flawed suspicion of the "tyranny of the text," which, in typical romanticist fashion, finds blame without rather than within and thus evading personal responsibilty. Truth is, the text isn't the tyrant, but our own molded, ingrained methods of thinking and interpretation that remain with us even when the text is removed. Mehldau could be our case in point, since it appears that his musicianship is still under the confining grip on his classical and jazz training, the exact kind of pedantry that is the cancer killing contemporary jazz. I don't think Mehldau's a lost cause, though -- both the music and his liner notes give indication that he's a very intelligent musician capable of both depth and vision. But at this stage, he's Hamlet, trapped by his own personal conventions in a potentially fatal cycle of thinking too much that only produces half-hearted caution and hestitancy rather than full-blooded action.

I really hope that those of you who critize Brad for being soulless and having no sense of melody are not musicians, because I know that every musician on this planet would praise this record if they would give it a listen. Brad's playing is nothing like Bill or Keith (Brad is much more concerned with dynamics, space, tension and release, rhytmic and harmonic variations and phrasing than Bill or Keith) and just because Brad has his own writing and improvisational style it's not beautiful? This is beautiful music, but I guess you have to have ears to really appreciate it...