This extended exploration of ten covers – with just the single composition, Jam, from the pianist – is successor to the trio's Ode album, which itself was an uncharacteristic set of Mehldau originals.
The tracks here have been culled from sessions in spring 2011 and November 2008, yet such is the unity of this trio's sound they might have been recorded at any time in the past decade.
A pioneer, alongside The Bad Plus and EST, in the contemporary extension of the repertoire for this well-tried musical format, the surprise here is not the presence of tunes by Sufjan Stevens, Elvis Costello and Nick Drake, but rather the inclusion of Clifford Brown's Brownie Speaks and Sonny Rollins's Airegin. The former is a great tune and the latter a lightning-fingered exercise for bassist Larry Grenadier as well as Mehldau, held in strict time at rapid pace by drummer Jeff Ballard.
Costello's Baby Plays Around is a relatively slight co-composition with Cait O'Riordan, here given a much darker extended work-out, and it is followed by a version of Hendrix hit Hey Joe that will likely prove the disc's most aired track. Highly accomplished stuff.
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