Brad Mehldau, solo piano, Martinskirche, Basel, 15 February 2025

This evening, at the second of his two solo shows at the Martinskirche in Basel, pianist Brad Mehldau played many of his own compositions alongside a wide range of pop covers, from Elliot Smith ("Satellite") and Kurt Cobain ("Lithium") to Neil Young ("Old Man") and The Beatles (Lennon's "She Said, She Said" and Harrison's "If I Needed Someone"), along with Billy Roberts's "Hey Joe" (based, naturally, on Jimi Hendrix's arrangement). On the covers, Mehldau mostly stuck closely to the original melodies, making the tunes his own with his elaborations of the harmonies. On his originals – and "Hey Joe" – he left the melodies behind in long improvised lines and torrents of arpeggios. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 15 February 2025)