We're off to see one of my favourite jazz pianists, Brad Mehldau, at the Barbican. This will be our first visit to the Barbican since the man-bun debacle; it will also be, by my count, the 9th time we will have seen Mehldau in a trio format - the last time was at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival last year.
A straightforward run on the 15.12, and then a couple of stops on the tube. We arrived to find that the Barbican was hosting a two-day conference - Cannabis Europa London 2025 and the normally spacious building was packed out. We made our way through the crowd and out to sit in the sun and people-watch. Every second that I spent observing the conference attendees I thanked God for the fact that I'm retired and now never have to feign interest in, or enthusiasm for, anything ever again.
Pappardelle with ox-cheek ragu & Parmesan for
Amanda, and a BBG Hereford beef burger with cheese & bacon, fries and Amazonian wild chilli
mayonnaise for yours truly:
Recalling the events of our last visit, I had taken care to ensure that we had seats in the front row of the balcony, thereby avoiding the possibility of being disturbed by children, man-buns or accompanying embonpoints. Most acceptable:
The first time we saw Mehldau was at the Royal Festival Hall in November 2002, as part of the London Jazz Festival. I remember the gig - not so much for the music, as for the fact that bad weather on the continent meant that the support band, headed by saxophonist Chris Potter, were delayed in transit and arrived late. This meant that Mehldau - who should have been head-lining - played first, and it was inevitably a bit of an anti-climax to end the evening with Potter's band (who were, actually, excellent).
On that first occasion, Mehldau was accompanied by the trio he had formed in 1995, consisting of himself, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Jorge Rossy on drums. The next time we saw Mehldau was at the Barbican in October 2008. and by that time Rossy had been replaced by Jeff Ballard, who remained in the band until 2024. It was this version of the trio that we had seen most over the years. While almost any gig that Mehldau plays is virtually assured of an A grade, for me the presence of Ballard had always lifted it a further notch to A+. This is no slight to Rossy - merely that Ballard's playing always seemed to me to spur the others on the levels not often seen. Thus, it was interesting at Cheltenham last year to see the "new trio" of Mehldau, Rossy and newcomer, 27-year-old Felix Moseholm playing together. That gig was, predictably, superb - but didn't quite induce the state of rapture that the earlier trio had done on a number of occasions.
And so to tonight's gig, also featuring the "new trio". Another fantastic evening of inventive, lyrical playing, with each member of the trio contributing equally, and another solid A grade performance. And yet... I still miss Ballard and the way that he could shift gears so easily as the earlier trio progressed, almost imperceptibly slowly, from a gentle, hesitant expression of a familiar melody to a driving, insistent, samba-esque rhythm over the course of ten minutes or more. I'm nit-picking; I would gladly have sat through this gig again immediately after it finished.
Out, and a brisk walk to Barbican Underground Station. We arrived back at St Pancras with plenty of time to pick up refreshments and then sit and people-watch until our train left at 23.35.
Back in Leicester by 01.45 and home and in bed by 02.15.
Setlist (not complete, and in no particular order)
- Estate
- Satellite
- Convalescent
- Between the Bars
- Schloss Elmau
- A Walk in the Park
- At a Loss
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