A few months ago I bought at the Starbucks of the PSA Building a CD of piano jazz music entitled Upright, Grand and All Right. The first piece was Exit Music (For a Film) by the Brad Mehldau Trio and I was entranced by this piece, in which this Jazz pianist demonstrates an amazing mastery of counterpoint. The piece sounds like a jazzy Bach prelude, with the left hand playing the "bourdon" and the right hand the melody and, in time, an extraordinary improvisation. It starts with 40 seconds of a piano solo introduction of the melody. Then the drums comes in, very sweet and low key, and at one minute into the piece, the piano left hand starts the bourdon while the right hand gives variations on the melody as the double bass comes in as well, and you are immediately transported in a dreamy atmosphere. It goes on from there, with the pianist's left hand solid as a rock in the role of the bourdon of a baroque piece, while the right hand gets more and more creative and explores amazing improvisations resolving themselves in an avalanche of gorgeous piano sounds, until it quiets itself down slowly in a nice lullaby-like melody ... The whole thing lasts only slightly more than four minutes but you want it to go on forever.
Woww....
After this introduction, I bought from Amazon.com three CDs of Brad Mehldau, called The Art of the Trio. The third volume, Songs, is my favorite and contains this Exit piece, and nine other songs, all remarkable. It really is the art of the jazz trio, with an amazingly creative and talented pianist, and a solid accompaniment of elastic bouncing rhythms on the drums (oh, so subtle and intricate ... not too noisy ... just right) and beautiful improvisations and melody renditions on the double bass.
Bravo to Brad Mehldau, pianist, Larry Grenadier, bassist, and Jorge Rossy, drummer ... this is beautifully and so tastefully done ... You gave me and are still giving me much joy.
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