Elegiac Cycle

Artist: Brad Mehldau
Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 093624735724
EAN: 0093624735724
ASIN: B00000J7J7

Release Date: 1999-06-08

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Tracks:

Bard
Resignation
Memory's Tricks
Elegy For William Burroughs And Allen Ginsberg
Lament For Linus
Trailer Park Ghost
Goodbye Storyteller (For Fred Myrow)
Ruckblick
The Bard Returns

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Customer Reviews:

awesome.......2006-03-06

Not being a fan of piano too much, I stumbled onto Brad randomly from a recommendation of a friend. This--from listening to the rest of his albums--is the best solo stuff I've heard in a bit. Brad fuses avant-guarde, talent, precision, and a splash of classical into an album great for listening, studying, or cooling off after a long night. He's like a bartender for sweet sound that knows every drink receipe in the book and can't be stiffed even with the most complex of orders.

The music is so intricate, you wonder how there can be notes to accompany--yet, so precision, that you double-take attempting to reproduce such beautiful music without notes.

I've seen a video of him playing and it's almost magical; it's as if he has an earpiece with the music and lineage beind fed to him remotely.

Inspirational, always; sloppy, hardly; Beauty, primarly; Harmonic, secondairly; this is Brad Mehldau. He's got a big fan base and it takes only one listen of his work to figure out why.

Beautifull, Melancholic, touching.......2004-09-14

Elegiac Cycle evoked the deepest melancholic feelings with a sense of beauty surely will be subject of study for future piano jazz students since establishing a precedent in solo jazz albums.

HM

Elegiac Cycle - a solo piano landmark.......2004-01-15

Finally there's a piano solo album in my collection that can match Keith Jarret's 'Facing You' (1971). It's Brad Mehldau's 'Elegiac Cycle'. Haven't heard such a great piano solo album in years. 'Elegiac Cycle' -released in 1999- was a revelation to me. This guy's playing takes your breath away. On 'Elegiac Cycle' Mehldau plays improvisations inspired by the theme of 'loss'. His playing is daring and adventurous, and because he has a perfect sense of structure as well, he never gets lost and keeps everything in perfect balance. And on top of this, his playing is deeply moving. In Mehldau's playing we can discern a lot of influences from the realms of classical and jazz music. I hear a lot of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, but, much more important, I hear foremost a pianist with a distinct style of his own. His classical training seems to contribute to this distinctness of his playing. On 'Elegiac Cycle' I hear the influence of Bach's contrapunt, especially in 'Memory Tricks'. I hear a bit of Debussy in 'Rýckblick', and each and every time it's a big sensation to hear the opening and ending-segment of 'Trailer Park Ghost', which sounds in my ears as the perfect blending of the enraged energy of Schubert's 'Der Strom' and the odd-mystical melodic intervals in the middle section of Scriabin's piano-piece 'Poýme vers la flamme'. In the longest piece on the cd, 'Goodbye Storyteller', Mehldau reveals all his poetic qualities -using a Rachmaninoff-touch here and there- and makes a deeply moving and unsurpassable statement about the way 'beauty and loss' are interconnected. Brad Mehldau's 'Elegiac Cycle' is my favourite album of 1999, and most certainly one of my all time favourite albums. It's a masterpiece, and nobody with a serious interest in good and enriching contemporary piano music can afford to miss this album.[22-1-2000]

A Simple, Soulful Reverie.......2003-09-27

My brother, a jazz composer, recommended this disc to me and I have since thanked him for it. Mehldau's contemplative sound challenges without resorting to the jarring and antagonist atonalism that many modern composers rely on to get your attention. If you like piano music, Mehldau fuses your favorites: the elegant simplicity of Satie, echoes of Chopin sonatas, Keith Jarrett's stylistic joie de vivre. The result is something original. Try track #2, "Resignation." It sticks to you.

Heroic........2003-02-14

A brilliant blend of jazz with romantic and modern piano styles(though it would be crass to call it fusion), this long variation set is in the 'great' tradition of piano variation sets (Bach, Beethoven, Rachmaninov and Brahms). Amazing lyricism in the playing, alongside crystal-clear voicing (for example in track 2, 'Resignation') and the ability to cut loose in dramatic fashion. A work (it sounds crass to call it a CD!) that is highly, highly recommended.

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