Does anyone know what sort of album Mr. Mehldau is planning?  His piano trio discs have been mind-blowing, but pretty much all unaltered live recordings, so I'm truly curious what he would do with a producer on board (particularly one as interesting as Jon Brion).

As far as Joe Heney goes, it seems really odd that he would be dropped now, as his popularity seems to be growing quite a bit (particularly thanks to Madonna's nod to him, and the fabulous presence of Ornette Coleman on his last disc).  I wouldn't imagine it's be too hard for him to get a record deal, but then again I wouldn't imagine such things for David either...

Also, I don't really mind political topics, and I didn't mean to come off as some kind of "music-talk only" enforcer.  I just wanted to provide some kind of emotional antidote to the bombardment of evil conspiracy scenarios that have been everywhere here.  Not that I'm somehow set against those posts, but just that I tend to skip them, and I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.