The DownBeat 72nd Annual Readers Poll results are in, including the Best Jazz Album of the Year: Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau's Metheny Mehldau. Metheny was also named Best Guitarist and Mehldau Best Acoustic Pianist. "There was a real exchange and richness of ideas," Metheny tells DownBeat about the making of the album. "We talked about the most complex, simple, detailed, or general idea at will. We moved around within three dimensions, sound-wise or texture-wise, harmonically or rhythmically."
Out this week is the December 2007 issue of DownBeat magazine and its 72nd Annual Readers Poll, featuring the greatest names in jazz. Named the Best Jazz Album of the Year: Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau's Metheny Mehldau. And it's only fitting, then, that readers should also name each of them the best on their respective instrument, with Metheny named Best Guitarist and Mehldau Best Acoustic Pianist.
In the issue, Pat tells DownBeat's Ken Micallef about the making of the winning record:
There was a real exchange and richness of ideas. We talked about the most complex, simple, detailed, or general idea at will. We moved around within three dimensions, sound-wise or texture-wise, harmonically or rhythmically. All my good associations have been like that.
Look for the magazine in newsstands tomorrow.
