The Brad Mehldau Trio provided an evening of virtuostic jazz, with no opening act, two sets and two encores.
The first set was comprised of 4 numbers, with the first three being of pretty much the same tempo. Mehldau seemed to effortlessly cruise through the show on the piano, often playing with his eyes closed. There was a dominance of laid back, mid-tempo numbers, which, while superbly executed, made me wish there was a bit more variety.
At one point, Mehldau picked up the microphone to talk to the audience, tapped it several times and gave up in frustration as the sound did not come on. Moments later, as it did return during the opening bars to a quiet tune, Mehldau scolded the sound person by asking him if he planned to have the sound off or on. It was a momentarily awkward moment but it did not sour the trio's interest in playing two encores.
Bassist Larry Grenadier was received with the warm applause of recognition for his status as one of the top musicians in jazz and his performance was equal to his reputation. The surprise for me was drummer Jeff Ballard, whose name has flown below my radar, but who almost stole the show. In the early numbers, Ballard displayed an adeptness for percussion as he tapped away and utilized a tambourine with one of his feet and a maraca with one of seemingly many hands. His sound ran the gamut of dynamics from the slinky and subtle to the "louder than bombs" explosiveness, which would have awakened anyone in danger of falling asleep due to the overall mellowness of the show.
Some of the tracks were much more up tempo and provided the level of energy and excitement that I was anticipating, but there just wasn't enough of it. The performance was stunning musically but also a little too laid back for my liking.
The Manitoba Theatre Centre looked quite packed so I would guess they had at least 1000 people in attendance. Next up, the John Scofield Trio on Thursday, June 26.