Lucy nicked a review copy of this from her office and gave it to me 18 months ago. I'm sure it's around here somewhere, possibly just feet away, mulched into what Thomas Pynchon memorably described as the smegma of a long-disorganised desk. But I can't find it now. It doesn't help that I can't remember what it looked like — certainly this version didn't have the same cover as the commercial release.
I'm sure I was grateful to Lucy at the time, for I was having a short forage around in modern jazz piano trios — the American ones like The Bad Plus, rather than the Scandinavian lot (Esbjörn RIP).
However, listening to the album on We7, I can't remember ever having heard it before — at least not all the way through. That goes to show the limits of gratitude as they apply to freebies.
And the other thing is how free on-demand streaming has changed the appeal of freebies in as little as 18 months. I mean, who really wants or needs a free review copy now? Even if I knew where mine was, laziness might mean that I would still listen on We7 instead (I should explain that I also somehow got sent a year's ad-free listening on We7 — I've still got 29 weeks left — which makes that service especially palatable).
I guess if I really liked the album, then having a CD copy would be useful to listen to 'properly' on the hi-fi. But I don't.
Mehldau is one of those artists I think I ought to like - he ticks all the right boxes - but I really, REALLY don't.
Conceited self-important git.
Posted by: Patrick | 17 May 2010 at 01:03 PM