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Brad Mehldau: Maybe As His Skies Are Wide

By Mike Jacobs
February 26, 2024
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Long known for his absolute adventurousness, there isn't much that Brad Mehldau hasn't stylistically encompassed. Still, when the pianist released an exploration of the progressive favorites of his youth,—Jacob's Ladder (Nonesuch, 2022)—the results were like nothing else in his catalog. Among the album's most compelling tracks is the re-envisioning of a single famous melodic line from Rush's classic "Tom Sawyer." Mehldau loops it, reharmonizes it, displaces it rhythmically and improvises over all these newfound twists and turns, creating something truly singular.

Contact Mike Jacobs on All About Jazz.
Mike Jacobs is a serious music addict, writer and a composing/occasionally-performing musician.

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