Listening to pianist/composer Brad Mehldau is always an intense experience, but perhaps never more so than on April 2020. As provocative in its own way as any of his previous solo, trio or larger ensemble settings, his dozen new compositions, combined with three carefully-chosen covers, represent something like a blank slate upon which the discerning listener can project his or her own experiences from this fateful month (and beyond).
Brad Mehldau wrote the new songs while sheltering at home with his family in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic this spring. He was subsequently able to record them safely in a solo piano setting in an Amsterdam studio, the result of which is a solo piano album on which this brilliant artist captures what he was experiencing. So, while early tracks in the sequence, “Waking Up,” for instance, hover around the two-minute mark, deeper into this roughly forty minutes total, the fleeting traces of anxiety on longer cuts such as “The Day Moves By” inexorably morph into a tangible sense of acceptance as sounds ring, echo, cut and waft from the keyboard.
Crucially, the clarity in the notes Mehldau chooses suggests there’s always at least an undercurrent of optimism to match the sense of resignation, as in “Stopping, Listening: Hearing.”
Traversing the intricacies in the songs, he plays with a fluid grace that renders his musicianship all the more engrossing, especially on the last of his own tunes, “Lullaby:” its restful air functions as a direct extension of, and contrast to, the playful jollity permeating “In The Kitchen” and “Family Harmony.” Meanwhile, songs such as “Keeping Distance” reveal how, even in such relatively short hindsight, the profundity of this year’s moment(s) becomes palpable: the commanding technique by which Mehldau performs “Stepping Outside,” “Waiting” and “Yearning,” separates the subtleties of emotion and intellect, so that we understand the distinction (more) directly through his performances.
That in turn renders the cover material even more effective. Each in its own way hearkens to Brad’s own “Remembering Before All This,” so that, placed at the end of the track sequence rather than interspersed among the other cuts, the songs of Neil Young, Billy Joel and Jerome Kern respectively can represent memories of what life used to be: their familiarity blends conjures as much possibility as a paradox. Consequently, whether as a composite or each on its own terms (or both), “Don’t Let It Bring You Down,” “New York State of Mind” and “Look for the Silver Lining” illuminate the extreme circumstances in which we all found ourselves this past spring; literal-minded in a way Brad’s originals are not, these tunes simultaneously reflect and focus and, in doing so, clarify a more broad and deep perspective. It’s a process not unlike that which ensues as the man’s hands move with such authority on his ivory keys through the structure of any given number.
Releasing the record via Nonesuch Records, initially on (limited edition) vinyl and digital forms (CD comes in September), Brad Mehldau partnered with like-minded proprietors of goods and services to expediently manufacture and distribute April 2020, thereby maximizing funds available for donation to the Jazz Foundation of America’s COVID-19 Musician’s Emergency Fund. That charitable premise alone makes the album worth getting, but the reality is, there are multiple other attractions as well, all reminiscent of this man’s best work in the past.
