Brad Mehldau - Places (2000)

  • 14 Aug, 08:21
  • change text size:

Artist:
Title: Places
Year Of Release: 2000
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Genre: Jazz
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue,log,scans) / MP3 320 Kbps
Total Time: 01:09:30
Total Size: 389 Mb / 226 Mb
WebSite:

Tracklist:

01. Los Angeles
02. 29 Palms
03. Madrid
04. Amsterdam
05. Los Angeles II
06. West Hartford
07. Airport Sadness
08. Perugia
09. A Walk in the Park
10. Paris
11. Schloss Elmau
12. Am Zauberberg
13. Los Angeles (Reprise)

Personnel:
Brad Mehldau - piano
Larry Grenadier - bass
Jorge Rossy - drums

Brad Mehldau is becoming a more interesting, more thought-provoking, more individualistic musician with each release -- breaking away from the same old models, finding new ones to integrate into his own personality. The 11 compositions on this CD were conceived on the road, and only midway through did Mehldau realize that they developed similar ideas. Which indeed they do, seizing upon repeated riffing and vamps that Keith Jarrett has explored and sending them in cogent directions. The designated theme is travel; each selection bears the name of a place or mood, and the catchy, contemplative "Los Angeles" serves as the album's bookends, as well as a solo pit stop in the center. Like Elegiac Cycle, Places works like a song cycle; a unified, beautifully proportioned conception, with lots of rambunctious, swinging outbreaks amidst the contemplation. The titles in themselves mean nothing as far as the content of the music is concerned -- or so he writes in another lengthy, provocative liner note. Rather, the album is about the constancy of his personality and musical language, taking all of your personal mental baggage with you wherever you travel. This is an important album, one that anyone interested in piano jazz ought to check out.