Brad Mehldau Trio : Skidmore - 4/6/08

It has been five years since I last witnessed any incarnation of the Brad Mehldau experience. Thinking back now to catching him solo at the Iron Horse in 2000, the trio at Freihofer’s Jazz Festival in 2003 and the trio again at Skidmore that fall. These moments with Brad’s music provided some unfortunate expectations for a recent appearance at Skidmore’s Filene Hall.

The classic (1994/5-2005) Brad Mehldau Trio featured Brad on piano, Larry Grenadier on upright bass and Jorge Rossy on the drum set. I always felt there was something special happening in that version of the trio’s musical and personal connection. It’s a very specific, yet open sound that hung with them throughout the course of the many albums that they recorded together. There was always enough room for each member to improvise within the expressionistic, gauzy framework. Whether it was an odd-meter reinvention of a jazz standard, an original, or an interpretation of a contemporary artist such as Radiohead, Soundgarden, or Elliott Smith the sound was forward-thinking and unique.

The “new” version of the Brad Mehldau Trio which now includes drummer Jeff Ballard (who replaced Rossy in 2005) kicked their Sunday, April 6th concert at Skidmore College with “Work”, a Thelonius Monk tune. While opening numbers often serve as a loosening up or a “getting used to the sound of the room” situation, I felt that “Work” displayed some inconsistent and unsupportive improvisation from the group which happened to set the tone for most of the rest of the evening. Perhaps it was where we were sitting that there was a dead spot in terms of piano volume and the drums seemed to overpower just a bit. Or maybe Ballard was simply overbearing in his rhythmic ideas, clouding the magic that Mehldau was attempting to create. Whatever it was, I felt distracted by the music - especially by a few mid-piano solo ride cymbal switches that didn’t seem to relate to what was happening with the lead instrument.

The band continued on to play three or four new, untitled original tunes that seemed like sketches on blank paper. All had “Mehldau-isms” attached - seamless polymeters, picturesque evocations and brooding melodies but like “Work”, I never felt that gel between the three members that used to eminate from the original trio. While Ballard’s ride cymbal beat swung harder than Rossy’s, I continued to find myself kicked out of the improvisational bubble that jazz usually conjures for me. The music felt like an exercise, not an experience.

Despite the group’s overall disjointedness, there were some individual triumphs and notable moments. As J Hunter noted in his AlbanyJazz.com review, during the encore (Nick Drake’s “River Man“) Mehldau “switched Nick Drake’s lyric from right hand to left on the last chorus, darkening the melody without changing the overall tone“. From our vantage point, I heard and witness him employ this technique at least one other time to great affect. The second or third original number featured the same kind of hand / melody switch during the outro while Ballard offered his most supportive drumming of the night holding down straight 8ths on a foot-manipulated tamborine. That and Brad’s extended cadenza on the Weill / Gershwin tune “My Ship” were my favorite moments of the evening.

Perhaps it was the Sunday evening-ness of it all. Perhaps it was all of my expectations from previous experiences (admittedly, not a great thing…). I left the concert feeling that it was good to have witnessed it, but not particularly moved or enriched. My next move is to check out the Live record they just released to see if my observations are the norm, or a rare off-night.