If you’re a fan of the piano trio, you sure got a full evening of it at The Lobero Theatre on a beautiful Friday evening out of the 
direction of the fire a few towns away. Brad Mehldau’s team with Larry Grenadier/b and Jeff Ballard/dr opened the evening with a 1 ½ 6 song set that displayed Mehldau’s restless and forward looking musical spirit. Mixing material ranging from Paul McCartney’s cabaret pop pieces “My Valentine” and “Great Day’ to jazz classics like “Nardis” and “Dexterity” Mehldau even threw in modern material such as Gillian Welche’s “Dark Turn of Mind” and created relevant jazz interpretation so each piece.
Making selections consisting between single note runs, block chords, one hand trails or cross handed intricacies, Mehldau presented
each solo and melody with the deep ruminations; not a single nanosecond appeared glib or off the cuff. His interplay with Ballard on the hand drums on “Great Day” or the melancholy blues of “Valentine” that turned into a red hot poker with the fierce undercurrent of Grenadier’s bass turned each song into an intricate masterpiece, like a piece of a mosaic being dropped in moment by moment until a completed picture was observable. Closing with an astonishingly enjoyable take of Gregg Allman’s “Midnight Rider” Mehldau showed the audience that jazz is more of a verb than a noun.
Closing the evening was the Midwestern team of The Bad Plus who, in their own way also connect the tradition of jazz with the present musical and social milieu. Opening up with somber piano musings, pianist Ethan Anderson let his ivories slowly undulate and open until bassist Reid Anderson and drummer David King flowed in like contributing rivers along the Mississippi. Emphasizing material from their intelligent yet visceral recent release Made Possible, The trio spotlighted the idea of group concept and cohesion a bit more than the opening act, making each song feel more concisely wholistic as opposed to free flowing. Each had their place and appreciable moments on this balmy night in Santa Barbara
The Lobero Theatre will be undergoing a 6 month renovation, and will then be ready around December for a whole new jazz season. Details will be coming in the summer. Stay tuned!
www.loberotheatre.com