Brad Mehldau Trio: Ode (2012)

This is pianist Mehldau’s first trio recording since his 2008 live set at New York’s Village Vanguard club, and it’s all original, so some regular admirers might feel shortchanged by not being invited to play “spot the pop song” among his usual smouldering buildups and improvisations. But it’s full of seductive melody, and in its blues and bop references and surging swing, it’s explicitly jazzy, too. The often spindly, casually sown melodies are constantly enriched by Mehldau, bassist Larry Grenadier and firecracker drummer Jeff Ballard unfolding them collectively. The pianist plays call-and-response with himself on an enigmatic dedication to the late Michael Brecker, and the title track is a gentle theme over a chordal pulse in which right-hand piano figures are constantly swept up and spun by the left, like a dancer encountering an entranced partner. It bears a lot of replaying.

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album

song: Twiggy