Brad Mehldau Trio – in concert at Marciac Jazz Festival, Marciac France – August 8, 2002 – Radio France Musique –
Over to France this weekend for a performance by the Brad Mehldau Trio, featuring Larry Grenadier, bass and Jorge Rossi on percussion, recorded at the 2002 Marciac Jazz Festival on August 8, 2002 by Radio France Musique.
Coming to Jazz by way of Progressive Rock (a very logical move, by the way), Brad Mehldau has taken a whole file cabinet full of influences and weaved them into truly engaging tapestry – one that bodes well for the future of Jazz as the Great Meeting Place for Genres to hang out and explore.
Jazz has always had that uncanny ability to meet, greet and cross-pollinate with a lot of other genres while maintaining that deep sense of identity and borrowing from others to create something new in the process. It’s a great spreader of joy, while at the same time hitting neurons. It’s nice to have a form of music you can groove and think to at the same time. That’s why Jazz is, at least for me, one of the great comfort foods life offers.
But don’t take my word for it – In 2013 Chinen stated that “Mehldau is the most influential jazz pianist of the last 20 years”.Pianist Ethan Iverson, a contemporary of Mehldau’s, stated that Mehldau was the principal influence on his peers, beginning in the late 1990s. Pianist Gerald Clayton (born 1984) summarized Mehldau’s importance in a 2013 interview: “He brought in a new feel and sound in jazz. I don’t know a single modern pianist who hasn’t taken something from Brad. I told him that I should be arrested for all the stuff I’ve stolen from him.” Redman said in 2010 that Largo had been particularly important to musicians: “Brad has had a lot of influential records, […but] if you talk to musicians, especially younger musicians, so many of them will name that as a defining record.” Marco Benevento and Aaron Parks are among the improvisers who have been affected by the 2002 album.
I rest my case – hit the play button and dive in.
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