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Mehldau times three

The American jazz wunderkind returns to Prague with his trio
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By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
October 31st, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Grenadier, right, was inspired by Czech bass players Mraz and Vitouš.
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Brad Mehldau Trio

When: Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 7:30
Where: Rudolfinum
Tickets: 300–700 Kč, though Ticketpro and at the National Theater box office on Národní

When jazz pianist Brad Mehldau played solo last November at the Rudolfinum, it was an outstanding show — and not just because his encore went on for almost an hour. Mehldau single-handedly won the hearts of Czech listeners and everyone else in the audience that night with a virtuoso performance. So his return to the same stage is a welcome highlight of the fall season.
But, even better, this year’s concert will be with his trio, featuring Larry Grenadier on bass and a new face, Jeff Ballard, on drums. Mehldau formed his original trio in 1996, with Grenadier and Jorge Rossy (from Barcelona) on drums. By combining the elegance of Bill Evans with the tough lyricism of Thelonious Monk, they gained a devout following, performing their own compositions and expressive interpretations of nonjazz songs by the likes of Nick Drake, the Beatles and Radiohead.
Grenadier says he’s looking forward to playing here. “This upcoming concert with the trio will be my first trip to Prague,” he says. “It just never seemed to happen that I had the chance to come before now, so I am very excited to play there.”
That’s partly because Grenadier has a special connection to the Czech Republic. “To show you how deep my interest actually is, I’ll tell you a story from my childhood,” he says. “When I was 12 or 13 years old, I was already playing bass and very much into jazz. I was particularly inspired at that time by the two great Czech bass players, George Mraz and Miroslav Vitouš.
“In my school, each class had to choose a foreign country to represent us for the year. I rallied our class to pick Czechoslovakia, because of my admiration for these great bass players! Since then I have been very interested in the country’s history, past and present. Your ex-president Havel was a great inspiration for me, and his book Living in Truth meant a lot to me when I read it some years back. All of this makes the trip to Prague very exciting.”
Last year, the trio hardly played together, as Mehldau and Grenadier dedicated most of their time to the Metheny-Mehldau Quartet touring the United States, Europe and Japan. But, after this hiatus, Grenadier says, “Now we are ready to get back to the trio and play some new music.”
Ballard was also part of the Metheny-Mehldau Quartet, and plays in Grenadier’s side project, FLY. The drummer brings a new sound to the trio. The slow-building songs with their lingering, sweet melancholia have been replaced with a faster pace — or, as Mehldau puts it in his liner notes to the trio’s newest recording, Day is Done: “This one is pretty high-octane.”
That’s certainly true of the frantic opening track, “Knives Out,” which is a cover of a Radiohead song. The title track, “Day is Done,” is an intricate, meandering version of a melancholic folk-rock song by the late British singer-songwriter Nick Drake. The trio’s cover of the Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home” is a cascading stagger of piano keys with a Monk-inspired, sped-up rhythm section. All of these tracks are further proof that the current trend of improvised jazz transformations of rock and folk songs is in full bloom.
The trio has a new record coming out in December, which was recorded live at the Village Vanguard. “So we have quite a bit of new material for this tour,” Grenadier says. “Our repertoire is always a mix of originals, standards and some contemporary cover tunes.
“I think that having the time off from the trio has made us
really look forward to our tour in November. We are all dying to play again!”

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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