With Ride Into the Sun, pianist/composer Brad Mehldau returns to themes he introduced in the wake of his rumination on the COVID phenomenon, Suite: April 2020. That very same year’s revisitation of influence from the Beatles, Your Mother Should Know, presaged a rediscovery of his roots in progressive rock titled Jacob’s Ladder.
The latter two works set the stage for this recognition of Brad’s rapport-by-proxy with the late Elliott Smith. However, it’s not really necessary to be familiar with the source works to come away impressed by the ingenuity on display here: that surplus of inspiration lends itself to enough solo piano from Mehldau to anchor the narrative and remind us why he is so worth listening to in the first place.

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