Brad Mehldau
The Art of Trio, Vol. 3

THE REVIEW

One of the many merits of Miles Davis is that he gave importance to the silences, the pauses between one note and the other, just as much as to the "played" music.

In Kind Of Blue, in particular, the notes breathe, they expand, giving the listener time to think, savor, and enjoy. In that absolute album, Bill Evans' contribution is fundamental, a pianist with exquisite taste and immense talent, especially for ballads. In that work, he is the one who holds the harmonic structure of the tracks together, linking the soloists' work while sparingly using the notes on his piano.

Forty years later comes Brad Mehldau with what, in my opinion, is the most beautiful Jazz album of the '90s.

At first listen, there is much of Evans in Mehldau's work, a classically trained pianist who turned to Jazz. The attitude on the instrument is similar, the empathy that he is able to reach with the bassist and drummer I would dare say reaches the levels of that of Evans' trio in Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby... but above all, the sound! The sound of that piano that seems crafted in heaven and of which Mehldau exploits all the tonal possibilities expressing himself to the fullest both in the up-tempo, rare in this album, attacking the keyboard, and in the down-tempo, caressing the ivory keys and seeking with them an intimate dialogue that he consistently manages to obtain.

You will have understood that I am not a fan of completely improvised free jazz nor of pure bop with 100 note-per-second solos. Therefore, following my very personal tastes, I feel I can recommend this recording to anyone wishing to approach jazz without undergoing the traumas that afflicted me and aimed at the listening of that sonic chaos which is "Free Jazz" by Ornette Coleman, warmly recommended to me by a dear friend who had the merit of instilling in my neophyte mind an unconditional hatred towards this music, which thank god I learned to appreciate only many years later.

From the subtitle "Songs" the Mehldau trio seeks improvisation while maintaining the "song" structure, making Art of The Trio Vol 3 accessible to any of you curious folks wanting to listen to Jazz, to anyone who loves piano music, but especially to anyone who has the time and the will to pay attention. Yes, because sometimes even music requires a minimum of attention to be appreciated. In this sense, jazz is like a treasure chest full of records that can be real treasures... and Brad Mehldau might give you the key to open it.