The latest live offering from Brad Mehldau again from the legendary setting of the Village Vanguard sees him continue to mix contemporary pop tunes with reworkings of standards from the American songbook and beyond. Paring down the very essence of the melody in a song and weaving it into an individual style is Mehldau’s forte and on the Oasis tune ‘Wonderwall’ the trio take the song in a whole new direction. Chico Buarque’s ‘O que sera’ improves on the already latinised tinge with a dramatic change of tempo part way through that is an album tour de force. A lengthy solo introduces the take on Coltrane’s ‘Countdown’ before Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums enter and Mehldau thereafter sets off on an exploratory romp. Of the other material, the self-composed ‘B-Flat Waltz’ harks back to Mehldau’s earliest recordings while blues-inflected playing on the standard ‘More than you know’ accompanies the sparse phrasing with the pianist at his most soulful. The intimacy of the session at the Vanguard comes across well, and as ever the recording.
