Ian Patterson (All About Jazz magazine) writes:
For many, pianist Brad Mehldau's recording Day is Done (Nonesuch Records, 2005) with drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier came as close to trio perfection as is reasonable to expect in your wildest dreams. Perhaps perfection is a chimera, yet even if attainable it's at best fleeting by nature. But for Mehldau that doesn't stop the hunt for the stuff of his own wildest dreams.
That elusive 'in-the-zone' quality when the music seems to play the musician rather then the other way round comes more freely in dreams than on the stage, and dreams—or rather the magic music that reveals itself in that unselfconscious state—is in part the driving force behind Mehliana: Taming the Dragon (Nonesuch Records, 2014), Mehldau's stunning duo collaboration with drummer Mark Guiliana. The recording is also about harnessing power and on Mehliana: Taming the Dragon Mehldau draws energy from deep-rooted influences that find a voice here as never before.
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