Art of the Trio Vol. 3: Songs, released at the end of 1998, marks the third in the Grammy-nominated series “Art of the Trio.” Each album explores the limits of trio music by exploiting the fullness (or emptiness) intrinsic to the trio sound. In his last album, Live at the Village Vanguard, pianist Mehldau blanketed the crowd with sound. Songs breaks from this strategy: recorded in the studio, the album has all the emptiness, loneliness, and introspection characteristic of Bill Evans.

The album hits its high point on Mehldau’s cover of “Exit Music (for a Film),” from Radiohead’s incredible OK Computer. The song, about Romeo and Juliet, carries the same melancholy plot line as the torch-song standards that surround it. Though thematically “Exit Music” draws from jazz, Mehldau rearranges the song into something that sounds more like a piano sonata. A classically trained musician, Mehldau acknowledges that often during composing and improvising he adopts from his favorite composers—Brahms, Beethoven, and Chopin. “Song-Song,” an original that opens the album, is a sad, slow waltz. After the short intro, bassist Larry Grenadier uses a bow to create the orchestral feel of Marccone’s Cinema Paradiso score. In “Unrequited” and “Convalescent,” Mehldau leaves behind the constraints of time signature, chord progression, and tonality, conjuring phrases that seem to flow from sadness itself.

Mehldau only falters when he tries to be traditional. The standards seem forced, despite the efforts of Larry Grenadier and Jorge Rossy. With “At a Loss,” the album loses steam. But at its best, Songs makes up in originality what it lacks in jazz tradition. Pat Metheny has called Mehldau “the most exciting pianist since Herbie Hancock,” and the ability of a young pianist to make one feel so deeply makes Mehldau one to watch.