Cheap Anything Goes (Music) (Brad Mehldau) Price

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Customer Reviews of Anything Goes

back to the trio....
anything goes is a return to the relative sanctuary of the acoustic piano trio after largo's underwhelming excursions into electronica, prepared pianos and free-playing. larry grenadier and jorge rossy are back in tow providing sympathetic and intelligent support for mehldau on a range of standards covering everything from show tunes, thelonious monk to the obligatory radiohead cover. it is no great progress for mehldau, an enjoyable album that lacks the excitement of the live releases or performances of his own compositions which often have an added intensity. in that respect, i look forward to the upcoming album of originals that was recorded at the same session.

in the meantime, there is much to enjoy on anything goes. there are signs of mehldau eschewing his considerable virtuosity for a more considered approach. he remains a wonderfully discursive soloist - on tres palabras, his comping has an edge and an independent voice of its own that point his solo in unexpected directions. he builds up to a quiet intensity that is perfectly in keeping with the tune's mood, a tune you really can't imagine him doing in his formative years. he has always been a ballad player of considerable ability and there is more (too much?) evidence on tunes like dreamsville and nearness of you. mehldau's is never a sentimental tour-guide delineating the ballad's invariable prettiness. instead he writes little essays on the melody, abstracting it, shaping it into something new and original, simply throwing in a quirky phrase - all serve to demonstrate the inexhaustible nature of the simplest musical materials, surely the modus operandi for any jazz musician.

other highlights are the appropiately skewed interpretation of cole porter's anything goes and the melancholic performance of smile, both of which demonstrate mehldau's keen sense of irony. monk's skippy is played respectfully without banishing memories of one of jazz's greats. the radiohead cover may not capture the sense of alienation of the original and isn't as convincing a jazz vehicle as was exit music but is still good music - notice how the word "right" in the song coincides with a chord that sounds distinctly wrong. detractors may point to that as an example of the wilfully clever aspect present in mehldau's playing but i find that mehldau always has musical merit first and foremost and that the humour is a welcome addition to some of the seriousness of his playing.

overall, a good album with the realization that mehldau will have to find a way of expanding his horizons and immerse himself in more challenging situations before he can be considered one of the greats. anything goes seems a safe recap of what mehldau has said before, unlikely to disappoint loyal fans and an ideal initiation for any newcomer wanting to hear a serious jazz album. the same can be said of all mehldau's studio albums - for the real sparks though, i'd still recommend the art of the trio vol. 4 and vol. 5 over this.

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bi-polar
It really hard to write about the latest Brad Mehldau. I have listened and thought about this for a long time (it did not instantly grab me). Well, it's new and it's different. I can't think of a better word for this album than bi-polar. There are wonderfully beautiful, thoughtful songs and there are dissonant trainwrecks. Disconnects. This being said, it a big improvement over most of the Trio's more recent efforts.

Soemtimes the group has that well-touted telepathic quality, sometimes they are pulling in opposite directions. Some of the music is sensitive, played from the heart and sometimes it is like twelve-tone music, all cerebral. Sometimes it seems like Brad forgot what tune they were playing and starts hammering hard on the piano, repeating one passage over and over while the rest of the group meanders aimlessly until Mehldau remembers what song they were playing and it comes to a finale.

Sometimes he is thoughtful, sometimes he can be too clever by a half playing stuff that is all head and no heart.

I saw him play at the Kennedy Center two months ago. He did his Toccata and Fugue on "Come on - Get Happy" going on and on all by himeself for 30 minutes at a time. It's pruned back here to a better length.

But then there is wonderful songs like "Dreamsville", "Tres Palabras", and "Still Crazy after all These Years", "I've Grown Accoustomed to her Face" and "Nearness of You" where he finds a new slant and new emotional depth in these more familiar songs. In "Smiles" the melody starts on the bass with the piano doing comping behind, and then a switch. This one is clever and actually works.

I agree with what is stated below, why does he keep doing Radiohead songs? I like the idea of adding new songs to the set of "standards" but how about rock songs with more melody?

When they are good, they are very, very good;...

Brad Mehldau Trio's best work was and continues to be "Art of the Trio", vol 3, vol 1 and maybe vol 2. I would direct people who are curious to these wonderfully inventive albums first.

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above the average
I've listened to Brad Mehldau since his debut (+saw him twice in concert, one was great(1997), the other (2000) was uneven, rather disappointing) but I must say that the pianist is above the average.
First, he's found his own style (of course his influences go from European classic music -Schubert, Schumann, Chopin- to modern jazz -he rightly denied the influence of Bill Evans in his volume 4, but for the mise en place of the trio, there's no way. As far as the melody goes, he would be closer to a Keith Jarrett than a Bill Evans-. But let's not fuss about it. The point is that the talent(?) of a pianist is when we can recognize him. We can recognize Brad Mehldau. Brad plays Mehldau. After that, should we love or not love what he does, it's a mere question of personal taste and... culture. To really appreciate, one has to get a somewhat consistent knowledge on, say, piano jazz or piano trios. Of course taste is subjective. Quite. But when one is interested in jazz and Brad Mehldau, and should he say he/she doesn't know Earl Hines, Fats Waller, The Amazing Bud Powell, Money Jungle by Duke Ellington, Waltz for Debby by Bill Evans, Solo Monk, Scratch by Kenny Barron, Upon Reflection by Hank Jones, etc... if so, I think one cannot fully and truely appreciate this recording by Brad Mehldau. Besides having this "culture" helps one from being addicted to only one artist. I listen to many jazz artists (all kind of blues, avant guarde, classic, fusion, bop, etc...) and I'm not focussing on one expecially.
With Anything Goes, we find some of the most interesting (some surprises) performances of the artist. Detours, empathy with the other musicians. It's not transcendent, but it's worth listening once in a while.