Brad Mehldau Trio

Brad Mehldau Trio – Seymour Reads the Constitution! (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:04:20 minutes | 1,15 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch

With his faithful acolytes Jeff Ballard on the drums and Larry Grenadier on the double bass, Brad Mehldau intertwines three new compositions with covers of pop (Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson), jazz (Elmo Hope, Sam Rivers) and Great American Songbook (Almost Like Being In Love) classics. Without disrupting this great formation’s values, Seymour Reads The Constitution! once again highlights the strong complicity between the three protagonists always inspired in their improvisations and exchanges. They already peaked with their 2016 release Blues And Ballads, but this 2018 opus is even more intoxicating with the piano maestro displaying an incredible versatility and ringing a thousand colours. We already knew the American virtuoso could play anything. But with Seymour Reads The Constitution!, Mehldau keeps the listener off balance at all times, drops countless references, wanders around the history of piano jazz, and always finds the right note, the perfect chord to create the most endearing, touching and astounding music. In his already extensive discography (though not on par with Keith Jarrett’s, one of his great influences), this album will, when push comes to shove, undeniably occupy a most prominent place…  – Max Dembo
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Brad Mehldau Trio – Blues And Ballads (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 55:43 minutes | 963 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Nonesuch

Nonesuch Records releases the Brad Mehldau Trio’s Blues and Ballads, the trio’s first new release since 2012’s Where Do You Start, on June 3, 2016. The previous release received critical acclaim, with the Financial Times saying, “Mehldau never lets his peerless technique and meticulous timing interrupt the narrative flow of a well-told tale. Here, the pianist and his trio burrow deep into left-field pop and the American songbook, and give an adventurous sheen to modern jazz.” Blues and Ballads similarly comprises interpretations of songs by other composers, this time with the focus on blues and ballads implied by the album’s title. The Brad Mehldau Trio is Mehldau on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Jeff Ballard on drums.
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