Largo

Contemporary Jazz aficionados need little introduction to the legend in his own lifetime that is New Yorker Brad Mehldau. For the non-Gitane smoking brigade, Mehldau is quite simply the finest jazz pianist alive and Largo is another dazzling display of his breathtaking artistry. Playing the keys with an awesome fluency that transcends the slavery of genres or terminology, Brad Mehldau should not be the exclusive preserve of jazz buffs, as his talent is so raw and unique it deserves the widest audience humanly possible.

Even though Largo is instantly accessible for its sheer beauty and exquisite musicianship, it is also a daringly progressive musical odyssey with few if any peers or parallels. The recording of Largo saw Brad move out to the West Coast, hanging out in the West Hollywood night club of the same name and hooking up with resident Jon Brion. Brion became the producer of the Largo sessions and brought a stunning line up of players along for the ride who make this record truly special. Two of the bright sparks involved are bassist Justin Meldal-Jonson and drummer Victor Indrizzio, both of Beck’s band. Consequently, Largo is a landmark collision of freeform jazz and prog rock, classical and pop, traditional playing and dazzling electronic flourishes.

‘Dropjes’ sounds like something that could be released by Warp, only far better than most of that great label’s output. Meanwhile, Oxford’s most famous multi-instrumentalists Radiohead will be thrilled to Miles Davis’ heaven on hearing a mind-boggling rendering of ‘Paranoid Android’. Given that Amnesiac in particular looked to classic jazz for its inspiration – jamming with Humprey Lyttleton and cogging the syncopated rhythms of Bitch’s Brew and Sun Ra – this amazing cover version wonderfully joins the freestyle dots. Brad also exhibits impeccable taste in tackling ‘Dear Prudence’ – one of my all time favourite Beatles’ tunes. Mehldau reads and plays it like a true great, imbuing the Fab Four classic with an entirely new sense of beauty.

When it comes to modern jazz with true vision, only Chris Bowden has elicited a similar reaction from the arbiters of taste. Largo is a far superior album to Bowden’s over-rated Slightly Askew from earlier this year, and one that any curious music fan would be well advised to get closely acquainted with. Blank those horrid chill-out compilations and put your feet up to this. Music to watch the hours go by.