This is Mehldau like you can only hear in your dreams. Subtle yet powerful, melodic yet inspiring... These performances made him one of the greatest pianists of our time. If you are new to Mehldau and want to buy one album, this is it.
June 22, 2008Not sure why Soundlab dissed this so much. I'm a huge fan of Brad, Pat Metheny, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and it's not fair to say that he lacks depth or emotion. "Message sent" is not always "message received".
All I can say is that of all my Brad Mehldau albums, this is the one I come back to again and again. Maybe not as often as Keith Jarrett 'The Melody at Night Without You' or the 'Live at the Blue Note' 5-disc box set (which is incredible - a true reference set staple).
I never write these reviews and am doing so here because I just got finished listening to 'Songs'. You won't be disappointed - great disc.
March 24, 2008 |  | Jazz that sounds like an acedemic exercise. |  |
I am so glad that I purchased this Brad Maldau album first. After seeing all these rave reviews for this album, with comments that tell me this is his trio at its strongest, I know that Mehldau is not for me. I will give him one star for his strong fundementals, but that is all I have good to say. Where is the heart, where is the fire. Some people say "you don'nt understand, it is supposed to sound cold and haunting"; to this I say, look at Bill Evans. Even at Evan's most sparse and meditative, he always had that subdued passion; that is just not there with Mehldau. Even Mehldau's syncopations seem forced and predictable. His voicings are the worst--tediously homogenous. The whole thing sounds so terribly forced: as if someone made him make the album at gun-point. The hipe about Mehldau must be the fact that there are'nt many new musicians playing this kind of original material these days. I could see people going to Mehldau as an easy access into this type of jazz (or jazz in general) and not knowing any better and thinking that he is expressive. Even worse, some might think that this is what "introspective" jazz is like and become completely turned off.
His playing is so lifeless that its scary. If you need an introspective, meditative pianist, look harder or look to the past.
January 9, 2007 | | Elegant, sensitive, melodic & contemporary | |
It's too long ago now that jazz performed by trios using acoustic piano as the center-piece was the mainstay of the genre. It's where everything started and ended. We heard how jazz could speak to us through melody AS WELL AS rhythm and be innovative at the same time. Clearly, Mehldau has inherited that tradition which some thought had suffered a pre-mature death. His debt to Bill Evans perhaps is the greatest, but Mehldau's lingering classical influence is also strongly felt. On some of these pieces we seem to hear Evans' voicings returning with a fresh new life. Treatment of the standards, especially "Bewitched . . .," is sensitive and lyrical. Yet the best selections to my taste are the original numbers, particularly "Song Song" (what a title) with harmonic structures that recall Chopin. While there are dynamic flourishes of technique, the salient feature is the clear musical statement. The bass and drums complement the piano in what becomes at once subtle and stirring. For my money, the album is Mehldau's best of his trio performances and one of the more reassuring contributions to a version of the art form that has been largely distorted if not ignored in recent years.
August 30, 2005As a serious fan of Bill Evans, but with little knowledge of the jazz world, I picked up the first four volumes of Mehldau's Art of the Trio recordings following a recommendation from a friend.
Volumes 1 and 3 are studio recordings; volumes 2 and 4 are live (I don't have volume 5, yet, another live volume, this one on 2 CDs). I think Mehldau is great, and I especially like the studio recordings. They are lyrical and melodic, whereas the live recordings tend more toward pyrotechnics and displays of virtuosity.
If you like the kind of music Bill Evans played, you'll certainly like volumes 1 and 3. You may prefer the live ones, especially if you're into Keith Jarrett (at least Mehldau doesn't grunt and squeal all the time). In any case, this is great music, well played and the trio has a great rapport. March 28, 2004
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