Four Musicians Thinking Together in Real Time
Turner's tenor cuts through with clarity while the rhythm section breathes underneath, never rushing.
In This World is a conversation between four musicians who clearly trust each other. Mark Turner's tenor saxophone sits front and center, warm and articulate, while Brad Mehldau explores the keyboard with spare, deliberate touch — never filling space just to fill it. Kurt Rosenwinkel's guitar enters and recedes, sometimes strumming chords, sometimes playing single notes that hang in the air like questions. Larry Grenadier anchors everything on bass, solid and responsive, pushing and pulling the tempo with a feel that sounds lived-in rather than metronomic. The overall mood is introspective but alert — nothing here drags, nothing oversells itself. These are jazz ballads and midtempo standards where the players seem to be listening more than showing off. Turner's tone is clean and unhurried; Mehldau doesn't waste notes; Rosenwinkel colors the edges rather than dominating. The album feels like chamber jazz, the kind where the room itself becomes part of the sound. It's the kind of record you notice you've been leaning forward to hear better. This sits early in Turner's career, before he became a bandleader in his own right, and it captures him in a setting where restraint and taste matter as much as technical command. If you want to hear what modern jazz sounds like when nobody is trying to impress anyone — just four good players making music together — this is it.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by Mark Turner
All 35 albums →
The musicians on this record
Songs: The Art of the Trio, Vol. 3 1998
Brad Mehldau
plays piano here
plays piano here
The Enemies of Energy 2000
Kurt Rosenwinkel
plays guitar here
plays guitar here
