Remedy du Jour -- September 22, 2012

I consider jazz pianist Brad Mehldau to be one the finest musicians of this or any era. It's a shame he is making this great music at a time when people, especially young people, have no clue about jazz. It's truly a shame. If this were the 1950s, Mehldau's trio wouldn't have go on tour all over the world to make a living. I am going to feature his recent album Ode.

Ode is the first original songs from the Brad Mehldau Trio since 2008’s live Village Vanguard disc and the first studio trio recording since 2005’s Day is Done, features 11 previously unreleased songs composed by Mehldau. The Brad Mehldau Trio comprises Mehldau on piano, Jeff Ballard on drums, and Larry Grenadier on bass. Ode is available for pre-order now at nonesuch.com, where an instant download of the title track is included with purchase. Brad Mehldau tours North America this spring with the trio, with label mate Joshua Redman, and in solo engagements.

“Ode is a collection of originals that I wrote specifically for my trio with Larry and Jeff,” says Mehldau. “I feel that what they bring to the music in the performance here is inseparable from the tunes themselves.” Most of the songs, he explains, “are tributes to someone else, and I began to think of them as odes, or poems that might be sung; in our case here it’s the singing only without all those pesky words.” Subjects include the late saxophonist Michael Brecker (M.B.), a character from the film Easy Rider (Eulogy for George Hanson), and the guitarist Kurt Ronsenwinkel (Kurt Vibe).

The Trio — Jeff Ballard, Brad Mehldau and Larry Grenadier