IT was standing room only Brad Mehldau's TCD Jazz Society recital last week. Deservedly so, for Mehldau is a pianist of rare talent.
Accompanied by Derek Oles (bass) and Jorge Rossy (drums), he opened with The Way You Look Tonight; starting mid tempo and moody, there was a fine tension between piano, bass and the drummer's work on brushes. This dynamic was the hall mark of the night's recital, in which Mehldau and Rossy often played as one, Oles's bass solos providing an almost welcome break from the intensity of the playing of his fellow musicians.
The sound was excellent; piano and bass were finely balanced and the drums were left unamplified.
Mehldau's piano introduction to John Coltrane's Countdown employed a fascinating mixture of Bachlike fugal figures and barrelhouse before breaking into the body of the tune and a rich improvisation. Thelonious Monk's Think of One is not technically blues; be that as it may, Mehldau exhibited fine blues feeling in his playing of it. With Young And Foolish he was in Bill Evans territory and handled the ballad with the same degree of sensitivity as the master.
At this stage in his career Mehldau is already a formidable jazz artist. If he has a fault, it is to overtax his audience with virtuosity. No doubt, given time, he could well mature into one of the finest pianists in the world.
