Track Listing

1. When It Rains
2. You're Vibing Me
3. Dusty McNugget
4. Dropjes
5. Paranoid Android
6. Franklin Avenue
7. Sabbath
8. Dear Prudence
9. Free Willy
10. Alvarado
11. Wave/Mother Nature's Son
12. I Do

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47794 in Music
• Released on: 2002-08-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Having essayed the art of the trio on several albums boasting that tag, pianist Brad Mehldau opens up his style on Largo to embrace horns and strings, electronics and robo-beats. Produced by popmeister Jon Brion (Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple), with whom Mehldau hooked up at the Largo nightclub in Los Angeles, the CD is thick with atmosphere: titles such as "When It Rains" shouldn't be taken lightly. But its studied romanticism, while cutting back on the pianistic posturing that has turned off some jazz critics on Mehldau (while intensifying the devotion of others), is ultimately thin in substance. At its best, as on the freewheeling "Paranoid Android", the music attains a kind of hermetic intensity. At other times, it recalls the acoustic experimentation of Medeski, Martin and Wood with its decorative grooves and empty claims on free expression. Cocktail music is but a few degrees of banality away, which, depending on your taste, is either reason to stay away or reason to make Mehldau even more of a hot property. --Lloyd Sachs

Customer Reviews

Flawed but fascinating
I bought this becasue I was fascinated what Mehldau would do with Radiohead's Paranoid Android. To some extant I was quite disappointed- I was surprised at how closely he stuck to the original arrangement. I'm sure Miles Davis would have done something truly stunning with this material.

The rest of the album is OK, though Sabath is a bit embarrasing (I mean playing a piano through a wah pedal ??) and I was not struck on the recording quality- very "old school" with virtually everything recorded in mono and heavily compressed, making it a bit hard on the ears to be honest.

This is definitely young man's Jazz (and yes I'm fairly young myself) but this doesn't really do much for me to be honest. I only wished Mehldau took a few more risks.

Brad Mehldau goes pop?
No, he doesn't. Although this is a somewhat "easier" record than his more seminal The Art of Trio series, it doesn't mean Brad Mehldau has gone mainstream. In a certain way it's a more risky album as Mehldau tries to do things we are not very used to, both in arrangements as in instrumentalization.
Mehldau's rendition of Radiohead's Paranoid Android, though not as inovative as some might expect, is by all means a very beautiful piece of music, and is responsible for bringing a lot of new (and young) people to BM's music.
This album also confirms Brad Mehldau as a very enthusiastic composer. His pieces never fail to stand up, even among the more familiar tunes of Tom Jobim and Lennon/McCartney.

A Welcome Change
Mehldau and his trio are amongst the hottest properties in Jazz at the moment. This album is probably an attempt to court a wider audience and claw back the lead that Esbjorn Svensson and his trio have stolen over the past couple of years. Both groups are truly excellent but it is undeniable that Svensson and his guys are far more exciting both on record and in concert. Mehldau has mostly stuck rigidly to a formula of classically tinged piano trio up to now with a few unexpected excursions into interpretations of contemporary rock. This formula tends to work well in concert but it also means that on record, a deal of effort is required to get the most out of it. This was music that made demands of its listener - far from easy listening. If you wanted background music, then forget it. Svensson, on the other hand used electronics to vary the colour pallette and his compositions tended to be more groove based. On this album, Mehldau draws closer to the Scandanavian and even outdoes Svensson with a variety of devices to add interest. He largely succeeds. It is his most approachable set to date and should win him many new friends. Im also glad to see that he has abandoned his sleeve-note essay writing habit, the results of which Im afraid to say was way above my head and even made Keith Jarrett's musings seem unpretentious. Highly recommended.