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OTTAWA - Ideally, if the weather is as hot as the music, the TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival is best served hot and fresh in the open air, where a fan can sweat it out with the players.
But in the case of the gifted piano improvisor Brad Mehldau, the park is too distracting a place to experience his rare talent. So it was a major coup that the jazz festival was able to get Mehldau and his trio -- Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums -- for two sold-out sets at the intimate Library and Archives Auditorium last night.
Fans at the first of two performances had to wait slightly after yesterday's extreme weather stalled the Mehldau trio in New York State for nearly four hours and threatened to cancel last night's Concert Under The Stars gig with Stefon Harris.
Another good reason for the indoor venue when the stakes are this high.
A breathtaking performance showed why the 36-year-old Mehldau is one of jazz's young lions.
Either as a solo artist or as part of a trio, Mehldau has played with all the giants, including Joshua Redman, Charlie Haden and Lee Konitz, while showing no fear of venturing outside jazz, scoring films such as Eyes Wide Shut and Wim Wenders' Million Dollar Hotel. He also recently recorded with opera soprano Renee Fleming.
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CBC host Andy Sheppard, who this year took over the interviewing reins of the festival's prestigious Connoisseur series, described Mehldau in his introduction as a talent who honours the tradition of legendary pianists such as Bill Evans while pointing to jazz's future.
Last night's performance was reminiscent of his last appearance at the jazz festival in 2002. Accompanied by Grenadier and Ballard, Mehldau played both traditional bop and hard-bop, opening with a searing instrumental take of an original tune, Artists. In his short but meaty 70-minute set, he played Jerome Kern's All The Things You Are, as well as a stunning and unsentimental cover of Sammy Cahn's I Fall In Love Too Easily. He also tried out two new original compositions -- the first a waltz and the second a Brazilian marimba. Surprisingly, he didn't cover one tune from his new Nonesuch album, House On the Hill.
Least surprising of all was that the gig was an electrifying display of brilliant ensemble playing, with Mehldau staying right in the middle of the keyboard, toning down the showier pyrotechnics for stunning tonal colour and rhythmic invention. In the case of his first yet-to-be-titled waltz, he methodically took a sweet little waltz and, without destroying its basic nature, explored its musical potential for about 10 jaw-dropping minutes.
Mehldau was well matched with Grenadier and particularly with newcomer Ballard, who played ecstatically.
For a talent as intellectually curious as Mehldau is, the gig was also a surprisingly emotional affair. He has often been accused -- with enormous affection, of course -- of using I Fall In Love Too Easily to show off his dazzling technique. While his playful invention and nearly Baroque love of structure was still very evident, Mehldau proved with the Cahn classic that he could put the piano licks on hold and just play a really good song.
He didn't say a word until the final tune. If there was one shortcoming, it was that this show might have been too much of a good thing. Watching Mehldau perform can be exhausting, even at a meagre 70 minutes.
You'll find the party over at Confederation Park. But for the fan who knows the intimate pleasure of curling up with a gifted musician such as Brad Mehldau, doing what he does best, the fewer distractions the better.