An advance copy of pianist Brad Mehldau’s forthcoming album showed up in the mail yesterday bearing the title Anything Goes. With a title like that I figured the disc would be a follow-up on the eclectic, electric sound we heard on Mehldau’s last CD, Largo. Nope, Anything Goes finds Mehldau (pictured) back in the trusted trio format, with longtime mates Larry Grenadier (on bass) and Jorge Rossy (on drums). This isn’t a complaint. I pretty much like any Mehldau I can get.
Turns out the album is named after the Cole Porter-penned standard, which appears on the album along with nine other cuts, which are mostly standards, plus a Paul Simon number and the obligatory Mehldau cover of a Radiohead tune-this time it’s “Everything in its Right Place,” from the British rock band’s not-very-rock-at-all Kid A album. (Fun fact: As JT editor Christopher Porter discovered while interviewing pianist Robert Glasper, Radiohead based the main riff in “Everything in Its Right Place” off of Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage.” You can read more about that in our current print issue.)
Anything Goes comes out February 24 via Warner Bros. and was produced by Matt Pierson, who produced all five albums in Mehldau’s Art of the Trio series. A track list lies below, but all y’all Mehldau fans might also want to read up on his recent record with saxophonist and childhood friend Joel Frahm by clicking here. And all y’all Mehldau superfans might also want to listen to the interview on the pianist’s Web site ( www.bradmehldau.com that details the making of his last album-it may not remain online once Anything Goes is released.
Anything Goes track list:
Get Happy (Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler)
Dreamsville (Raymond B. Evans/Jay Livingston/Henry Mancini)
Anything Goes (Cole Porter)
Tres Palabras (Osvaldo Farres)
Skippy (Thelonious Monk)
Nearness of You (Hoagy Carmichael/Ned Washington)
Still Crazy After All These Years (Paul Simon)
Everything in Its Right Place (Radiohead)
Smile (Charles Chaplin/Geoffrey Claremont Parsons/James John Turner Phillips)
I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face (Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe)
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