| Brad Mehldau Trio - The Interpretation Of Dreams |
| Thursday, 26 April 2012 11:34 |
The Brad Mehldau Trio has an aura about it that no one could have predicted when they first came together. Filling concert halls all over the world since their much talked-about debut Day Is Done, the trio’s latest album Ode marks a more dream-like phase in the trio’s evident maturity. Brad Mehldau, Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard talk to Alyn Shipton
In the last year or two, Brad Mehldau has been involved in a variety of projects that have taken him away from his long-running trio with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. Now they’re back together with a new studio album called Ode. In the interim, Brad has, for example, been curating his concert series at the Wigmore Hall in London, which included a number of one-to-one encounters, including memorable nights with such musicians as Joshua Redman and mandolinist Chris Thile. So, when we started talking about his return to the trio format, my first thought was whether these other activities had given him experiences that would enrich the work of the trio.
“Yes, I think so,” he says. “The trio was feeling a little easy for me, and it’s become a challenge again. That’s kind of a strange answer – saying that you’re glad something is less easy – but I guess I mean that being out of a comfort zone for a while gives one the opportunity to renew mindfulness of what it is one is doing all the time. In doing so, you realise that it’s wonderful all over again, that there are always fresh challenges if you’re open to them.”
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