Jazz has always been as much an interpretive art as a creative one. Its improvisatory approach encourages open-minded musicians to tinker with the mechanics of the tune, to subvert traditional structures, to take a song apart and rearrange it in new ways. So it's not especially revolutionary or avant-garde for a jazz musician to cover modern rock. In fact, it's downright nostalgic, recalling a mid-century moment when similar reinterpretations were de rigueur. Too often, however, such coverage can revert to either easy irony (Lounge Against the Machine, which is hardly jazz but rooted therein) or stuntwork (The Bad Plus, who've recorded versions of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Iron Man").
On the other hand, Brad Mehldau, a New York pianist influenced by Bill Evans and Vince Guaraldi, has made the Radiohead jazz cover his personal calling card; he has reinterpreted two Radiohead songs on previous albums: "Exit Music (For a Film)" on The Art of the Trio, Vol. 4: Back at the Vanguard and "Paranoid Android" on Largo. It's skirting predictability, but it's not schtick: His versions are never ironic or showy, and Mehldau proves resourceful and intuitive in his approach.
On Anything Goes, which consists of ten covers, Mehldau tackles "Everything In Its Right Place", from 2001's Kid A, which seems to counter the musical philosophy encapsulated in the album title. It might seem a curious choice-- either incredibly daring or incredibly stupid. The original emphasizes Thom Yorke's digitized and mutilated vocals over the melody itself, which doesn't seem to incorporate more than three or four notes in a fairly simple rhythm.
But there's something compelling translated into a comparatively bare-bones arrangement. After a bass intro by Larry Grenadier, Mehldau elaborates on the theme thoughtfully, letting the tune spiral out from its center while maintaining the tense tone. What's missing is the original's eerie claustrophobia: In a sense, Mehldau liberates the song from the airless confines of Kid A and takes it for a walk around the park. He makes the song both evocative and cerebral, and it fits perfectly among the nine other reinterpretations.
While the rest of the album lacks the hipster cache of "Everything in Its Right Place", each track is similarly deeply thought out and deeply felt. Mehldau captures the folksy casualness of Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years" and the intimate ruefulness of Lerner and Loewe's "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face". "Get Happy" takes on a near-manic stride as Jorge Rossy spazzes out on drums, while "Dreamsville" and Hoagy Carmichael's "Nearness of You" flow patiently and pensively, easy and unrushed, as the trio explore their melodies.
Mehldau saves his boldest interpretation for the title song, which of all this album's tracks, strays farthest from its source material. The piano redefines the melody in the first verse, then Grenadier hammers the second verse out on bass, before the trio break it open completely. Cole Porter's original had pluck to match its wit; stripped of the lyrics, Mehldau's version is more inward-looking, a statement of artistic intent rather than a movie-house crowd-pleaser.
It helps that Mehldau co-produced the album, alongside longtime jazz producer Matt Pierson (Miles Davis, Count Basie, Bill Evans). Largo, his previous album, was helmed by Jon Brion, whose SoCal sheen gave the songs a clunky, busy sound and usually had Mehldau chasing his tail up and down the keyboard. Anything Goes has a much more refined sound: just bass, drums, piano, and no fidgety studio tricks to get in the way. The result is a more focused, but no less resourceful, album that finds a place between invention and interpretation, between its everything-in-its-right-place perfectionism and its anything-goes adventurousness.
