Brad Mehldau - Elegiac Cycles

The first solo album of a young pianist, the 5 in chronological order, after the surprisingly mature and courageous Introducing the first 3 volumes of Art of the Trio, the challenge with the solo piano.

Broadening the horizons of what is called jazz, incredibly successful operation, always Brad revisits and reveals all its beauty from all walks of music, I cite as an example of Radiohead's Paranoid Android, explored only version in several concerts and Largo disc it gives an orchestral version. This disc is clearly delineates the personality 'and the sound of her piano that becomes distinctive, clearly recognizable as Mehldau. A disc that can 'be called Neo Classic in a sense, you can clearly hear the influences of classical piano (Debussy, Satie, Scriabin, Beethoven), all wonderfully harmonic conjugate with references linked to the jazz tradition.

Probably the key to interpretation of this record, reflective, intimate is located in the liner notes, Ars Longa Vita Brevis, continuous curiosity 'to receive stimuli from every kind of art, in the quote from Thomas Mann of the liner notes:

"The Artist must be unhuman, extra-human, he must stand in a queer aloof relationship to our Humanity; only know he is in a position ... to Represent it, to present it, to portray it to good effect. The very gift of style, of form and expression is nothing more than this cool and fastidious attitude Towards Humanity ... For sound natural feel, say what you like, has no taste "

See, hear, participate in a work of art attraversane whole story, are the concepts that emerge from this disk made of a lyrical and rhythmic piano playing at the same time, constantly seeking a balance that does not seem to get the feeling of loss typical elegy, laments associated with the loss, love and death. In this sense we have a hard romantic, but inside there are some hints of irony to the "fetishism" of some jazz critics as being always in the same Mehldau interesting liner notes, along with a fierce critic of what the world media is creating so mad, a world connected to an unlikely legend, demented youth, everything has an expiration date, how to create art in this world where we can not linked to the consumption more 'to have experience, paradox of the age 'information, forgetting, not being able to preserve their knowledge.

The flow of improvisation and 'the best memory of our mortality', ie 'who suddenly vanishes at the same time that is represented, played. This disc contains within it on philosophical grounds incredible sense of music and reflections on our time. A genuine hard, heard, certainly thought long, the result of countless plays, readings, thoughts. Do not expect this to swing hard, but intense vibrations, and appearances of "ghosts" of art in every moment of the musical journey

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