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Montreal International Jazz Festival 2017
by Dave Kaufman
The Montreal International Jazz Festival has just concluded its 38th year. I've been fortunate to have attended more than 30 of them and this year ranked among the best. I've covered the event as a photographer for All About Jazz since 2011. The festival is a total music immersion experience presenting some 600 concerts over the course of 11 days. It can be overwhelming and exhausting, but more often than not it is incredibly exhilarating. Some of the highlights of ...
Continue ReadingEthan Iverson, Lee Konitz, Larry Grenadier & Jorge Rossy: Costumes Are Mandatory
by Greg Simmons
Costumes Are Mandatory is very collegially advertised as a collaborative album featuring Ethan Iverson, Lee Konitz, Larry Grenadier, and Jorge Rossy. And while the music may indeed be collaborative, even multi-improvisational at times, it's Iverson's date and he's very clearly the leader. The record is envisioned as an homage to--"a dialogue with," according to the liner notes--the late blind pianist Lennie Tristano, who in addition to generally being credited as a founder of the 'cool school' (an oversimplification, ...
Continue ReadingBrad Mehldau Trio: Ode
by Ian Patterson
Seven years separate Ode from this trio's last studio recording, the outstanding Day is Done (Nonesuch, 2005), which has come to mark a before-and-after in Brad Mehldau's trajectory. Previously, the pianist had recorded in a traditional trio setting with few exceptions. Since Day is Done, however, Mehldau's projects have covered much more diverse terrain: setting poetry to music with classical soprano Renée Fleming; rubbing shoulders with guitarist Pat Metheny; and blending classical and popular song with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von ...
Continue ReadingBrad Mehldau Trio: Ode
by Doug Collette
Brad Mehldau TrioOdeNonesuch Records2012The very first notes of the Brad Mehldau Trio's Ode sound rich, lyrical and full of energy. This may come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with the pianist's work, but loyal followers of Mehldau know he brings an unusual intensity to his work, particularly his solo projects and the collaborations with his trio (currently bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard). This, the first studio trio recording since ...
Continue ReadingBrad Mehldau Trio: Ode
by John Kelman
The Art of the Trio: Recordings 1996-2001 (Nonesuch, 2011) provided an opportunity to reassess Brad Mehldau's rapid trajectory, though the trio that established him as one of the past two decades' most important pianists was long gone. If Jorge Rossy's replacement in 2005 seemed to open the trio up more, it's perhaps because drummer Jeff Ballard is a more assertive conversationalist, as demonstrated from the get-go on “Knives Out," the first track on Mehldau's debut with this updated incarnation, Day ...
Continue ReadingBrad Mehldau: The Art of the Trio - Recordings 1996-2001
by John Kelman
Brad Mehldau Trio The Art of the Trio: Recordings 1996-2001 Nonesuch Records 2011 It's hard to believe that it's only been fifteen years since Brad Mehldau emerged on the scene, so prevalent and influential has the pianist become since then. At the same time as he was gaining some significant attention for his work with saxophonist Joshua Redman on Moodswing (Warner Bros., 1994), the then 24 year-old pianist had been recruited by Redman's label, ...
Continue ReadingBrad Mehldau: Highway Rider
by Karl Ackermann
As a classically trained teen, Brad Mehldau was introduced to the music of Keith Jarrett setting him on the road to jazz. He did not abandon the classical genre and those influences were powerfully present in his first solo release Elegiac Cycle (1999). He has since written pieces for the Orchestre National d'Île-de-France and Carnegie Hall commissions for Anne Sofie von Otter and Renée Fleming respectively. Highway Rider is a two disc showcase of Mehldau's growth as both a composer ...
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