Brad Mehldau
Pianist Brad Mehldau has recorded and performed extensively since the early 1990s. Mehldau’s most consistent output over the years has taken place in the trio format. Starting in 1996, his group released a series of five records on Warner Bros. entitled The Art of the Trio. Mehldau also has a solo piano recording entitled Elegiac Cycle, and a record called Places that includes both solo piano and trio songs. Elegiac Cycle and Places might be called “concept” albums. They are made up exclusively of original material and have central themes that hover over the compositions. Other Mehldau recordings include Largo, a collaborative effort with the innovative musician and producer Jon Brion, and Anything Goes—a trio outing with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy.
His first record for Nonesuch, Brad Mehldau Live in Tokyo, was released in 2004. After ten rewarding years with Rossy playing in Mehldau’s regular trio, drummer Jeff Ballard joined the band in 2005. The label released its first album from the Brad Mehldau Trio—Day is Done—in 2005.
Mehldau’s musical personality forms a dichotomy. He is first and foremost an improviser, and greatly cherishes the surprise and wonder that can occur from a spontaneous musical idea that is expressed directly, in real time. But he also has a deep fascination for the formal architecture of music, and it informs everything he plays. In his most inspired playing, the actual structure of his musical thought serves as an expressive device. As he plays, he listens to how ideas unwind, and the order in which they reveal themselves. Each tune has a strongly felt narrative arch, whether it expresses itself in a beginning, an end, or something left intentionally open-ended. The two sides of Mehldau’s personality—the improviser and the formalist—play off each other, and the effect is often something like controlled chaos.
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Album Review
- RoundAgain by Friedrich Kunzmann
- RoundAgain by Robert Middleton
- Suite: April 2020 by Mike Jurkovic
- Suite: April 2020 by Emmanuel Di Tommaso
- Finding Gabriel by Emmanuel Di Tommaso
Live Review
Interview
Album Review
- Seymour Reads The Constitution! by Dan McClenaghan
- Seymour Reads The Constitution! by Doug Collette
August 23, 2020
Jazz Musician of the Day: Brad Mehldau
July 20, 2020
Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride & Brian Blade Reunite...
August 23, 2019
Jazz Musician of the Day: Brad Mehldau
November 09, 2018
Charlie Haden And Brad Mehldau Duo, At Long Last
August 23, 2018
Jazz Musician of the Day: Brad Mehldau
May 19, 2018
Brad Mehldau Trio's New Album, "Seymour Reads the Constitution!," Out...
March 16, 2018
Bill Frisell And Brad Mehldau: Alone
December 01, 2017
The Lead Sheet: Twin Cities Live Jazz, December 2017
August 23, 2017
Jazz Musician of the Day: Brad Mehldau
January 26, 2017
Mandolinist/Singer Chris Thile and Pianist Brad Mehldau Release Duo...
Photos
Brad Mehldau Concerts
Date | Detail |
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Jul11Sun |
Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, Brian...Barbican CentreLondon, UK |
Albums
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