"[6] Peter Hum of Ottawa Citizen wrote: "for those who think Mehldau’s music can be too formidable for their tastes, Blues and Ballads should be a more straightforward but still deeply satisfying delight, as it will be for his legions of devotees".

[7] The Times's Chris Pearson wrote, "Brad Mehldau is adept at bending almost any music to the will of the jazz tradition, whether it’s alternative rock or, as heard at the Wigmore Hall last December, establishment baroque.

Mehldau and his longstanding trio (with Larry Grenadier on bass and drummer Jeff Ballard) play with a preternatural relaxation and ease throughout, often using a subtle Latin feeling.

There is an incredible amount of space within the center of these performances, and those gaps and silences, those pauses between notes and beats, open up huge possibilities that the musicians fill with imagination.

Forward-thinking envelope-pushers deserve a break now and then as much as anyone, and Blues and Ballads makes an enticing rainy-day listen to give their down time and ours a most beautifully cool accompaniment.