Elan Mehler Trio: There Is a Dance

Newvelle Records focuses on meticulously crafted, limited-edition vinyl LPs designed to put profits into the hands of its artists. Ushering in Newvelle’s Renewal Collection, “a limited edition four-album series affirming the resilience of music through the anguish and loss of the Covid-19 pandemic,” is pianist Elan Mehler’s There Is a Dance. The LP contains ten original compositions paying tribute to the artist’s late mother, and it’s clearly a work of deep love. Mehler played each piece through once, solo, before cutting the tracks with bassist Tony Scherr and percussionist Francisco Mela. This freshness of approach pays off handsomely with music that’s meditative, lyrically inventive, often playful, and very beautiful. Recorded using all-analog gear and mostly vintage tube mics by Marc Urselli at New York’s East Side Sound, the album has outstanding sonics. Mehler’s piano has a large presence that spans the front of the soundstage, but it sounds life-like, not overblown, with a lovely richness of tone, great harmonic complexity, and outstanding top-to-bottom clarity and coherence. Scherr’s upright bass is likewise pristinely captured, clear as a bell without standing out, while drummer Mela’s subtly supportive brushwork and low-key presence are like a whispering, barely there, but key presence. Lovely stuff.