Brad Mehldau

At 54 years old, Brad Mehldau has this physical status:

Bradford Alexander Mehldau (born August 23, 1970) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Mehldau studied music at The New School, and toured and recorded while still a student.

He was a member of saxophonist Joshua Redman's Quartet with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade in the mid-1990s, and has led his own trio since the early 1990s.

His first long-term trio featured bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy; in 2005 Jeff Ballard replaced Rossy.

These bands have released a dozen albums under the pianist's name. Since the early 2000s Mehldau has experimented with other musical formats in addition to trio and solo piano.

Largo, released in 2002, contains electronics and input from rock and classical musicians; later examples include touring and recording with guitarist Pat Metheny, writing and playing song cycles for classical singers Renée Fleming and Anne Sofie von Otter, composing orchestral pieces for 2009's Highway Rider, and playing electronic keyboard instruments in a duo with drummer Mark Guiliana. Aspects of pop, rock, and classical music, including German Romanticism, have been absorbed into Mehldau's writing and playing.

Through his use of some traditional elements of jazz without being restricted by them, simultaneous playing of different melodies in separate hands, and incorporation of pop and rock pieces, Mehldau has influenced musicians in and beyond jazz in their approaches to writing, playing, and choice of repertoire.

Early life

Mehldau was born on August 23, 1970, in Jacksonville, Florida. His father, Craig Mehldau, was an ophthalmologist, and his mother, Annette, was a homemaker. His sister, Leigh Anne, became a social worker. There was always a piano in the house during Mehldau's childhood, and he initially listened to pop and rock music on the radio. His family moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, when Mehldau was 10. Up to this point he had played mostly simple pop tunes and exercises from books, but the move brought him a new piano teacher, who introduced him to classical music. This new interest lasted for a few years, but by the age of 14 he was listening more to jazz, including recordings by saxophonist John Coltrane and pianist Oscar Peterson. Keith Jarrett's Bremen/Lausanne helped Mehldau realize the potential of the piano as an instrument.

Mehldau attended William H. Hall High School and played in its concert jazz band. From the age of 15 until he graduated from high school he had a weekly gig at a local club, and performed for weddings and other parties, often with fellow Hall student Joel Frahm. In his junior year at the school Mehldau won Berklee College's Best All Round Musician Award for school students. Mehldau described himself as being, up to this point, "a white, upper-middle-class kid who lived in a pretty homogenized environment".

After graduating, Mehldau moved to New York City in 1988 to study jazz and contemporary music at The New School. He studied under pianists Fred Hersch, Junior Mance and Kenny Werner, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. In 1989, Mehldau was a member of saxophonist Christopher Hollyday's band that toured for several months; as a result of playing so often with one group, Mehldau was able to assimilate the music of Wynton Kelly and McCoy Tyner, his two principal influences on piano up to that point, and began to develop his own sound. Before the age of 20, Mehldau also had gigs in Cobb's band, along with fellow student Peter Bernstein on guitar.

Personal life

Mehldau is married to Dutch jazz vocalist Fleurine, with whom he has recorded and toured. They met in 1997, and have three children. The eldest is a daughter who was born in 2001. Mehldau stated early in 2006 that family responsibilities meant that he was making shorter tours. As of 2010, he divided his non-touring time between living in Amsterdam and New York.

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Later life and career

Mehldau's debut album was for Hollyday's The Natural Moment in 1991; the saxophonist's first tour of Europe came the same year. Mehldau's interest in classical music revived when he was in his early twenties and pushed him to refine his left-hand playing style. From at least 1992, when he competed at Village Gate in New York, he ruled his own trio. Mehldau performed as a sideman with other musicians at the time. Perico Sambeat's appearances in Europe began in 1993, and Mehldau's first recorded recordings as co-leader came from a May concert in Barcelona. Mehldau performed for 18 months with saxophonist Joshua Redman. The Redman relationship began in 1993, but the two teams had been playing together for a brief period of time this year. With their 1994 album Moodswing also aiding Mehldau's success, the Redman and his band attracted notice, with their 1994 album Moodswing also aiding Mehldau's profile. They also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Vanya (1994), for which Redman composed the score.

Mehldau graduated from The New School in 1993. In 1994, he formed his first long-term trio, with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy. Mehldau's first album as sole leader was released in the following year. It was well received, with The Penguin Guide to Jazz describing that "it's as if he were aware of jazz history but utterly unencumbered by it." The Art of the Trio Volume One, Warner Bros.' second album, The Art of the Trio Volume One, was released in 1996 and was widely praised by critics. Producer Matt Pierson selected the title as one that would grab attention and help with the establishment of a brand.

Mehldau was considered by some as one of the best jazz musicians of the day by the mid-to-late 1990s by Guardian writer John Fordham, who referred to him as "the next great keyboardist of jazz." The appreciation was not universal: some of the pianist's self-penned liner notes and interview remarks, which included philosophical reflections and skepticism regarding comparisons with pianist Bill Evans, engendered dissatisfaction with him, which led to hostility in some, in Nate Chinen's words, "leaving Mehldau with a lingering reputation for pretentiousness and self-indulgence." Several commentators did, however, reassess their verdict on his main influences, which had previously been attributed more to ethnicity than to music. Mehldau's struggle with an opioid use in the 1990s, up to 1998, was another non-musical similarity with Evans. Around 1996, he moved to Los Angeles to try to solve his heroin use. "Once I stopped using heroin, it was like a rash of creativity that had been held in check," Mehldau said later.

Mehldau's debut on his first album with saxophonist Lee Konitz and bassist Charlie Haden in 1996. Mehldau's contributions to film music began in 1997, with an accompanist role in several of the songs recorded for Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. His trio albums continued, employing some of the jazz classics but not conforming to or being restricted by its limits. Live at the Village Vanguard: The Art of the Trio Volume Two was entirely of standards, and it was released in 1998 at the Village Vanguard as part of a series of concerts. The name attracted renewed interest as concert recordings from the same club were released by some of jazz's top names, including Evans, and saxophonists Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. "The Art of the Trio Volume Three" was released later in 1998, and it contained Mehldau originals, specifications, plus Nick Drake's "River Man" and Radiohead's "Exit Music (For a Film). Fordham's choice of this album as his year's jazz album of the year was inspired by this collection. "While it may seem that a little introverted but also distinctly classical in style," he wrote, "the intricacy and counter-melodic richness of a great pianist is strikingly balanced against the more direct and transparent eloquence that a great vocalist could produce."

Mehldau made a name for herself on the international jazz festival circuit in the mid- to late 1990s, playing at acts such as the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1997 and 1998, and the North Sea Jazz Festival. The pianist performed on country artist Willie Nelson's Teatro in 1998, and he returned to Redman for the saxophonist's Timeless Tales (For Changing Times). Mehldau spent a few months in Germany, developing his interest in German literature, literature, and music, and poetry.

Mehldau's obsession with figures of 19th-century German Romanticism, including Brahms, Schubert, and Schumann, inspired his first solo piano release, Elegiac Cycle, which appeared in 1999 and ended a line of triple recordings under his name. Art of the Trio 4: Back to the Vanguard was recorded and released in the same year, featuring more performances from the Village Vanguard. The collection includes standards, Mehldau originals, Miles Davis' "Solar," and another adaptation of "Exit Music (For a Film)". Mehldau performed on two albums by saxophonist Charles Lloyd in 1999. Places, an album containing both Mehldau solo piano pieces and trio performances, was released in the following year. All of the tracks were designed by Mehldau's founders, and they were based on his travel and visiting various destinations around the world. The Art of the Trio: Vol. 1: Prosecutors, Vol. 5, the final album in the Village Vanguard series, was released in 2000 and 2001, and it was released in 2001. Mehldau said in 2005 that "the trio created my identity." Taking a look at his earlier work. His three children toured for the majority of each year in the three or four years leading up to the end of 2001.

Mehldau went from playing on film soundtracks, which included The Million Dollar Hotel and Space Cowboys, to scoring with the French film Ma femme est une actrice in 2001. He left Los Angeles in the same year as well. He first played with saxophonist Wayne Shorter last year and appeared on Grammy Award-winning Alegra with him a few years later.

Though trio performances and recordings continued, Mehldau began in the early to mid-2000s to broaden the musical styles in which he appeared as the leader. A young example was Mehldau's debut from piano solo or trio albums in 2002. It was created by Jon Brion, whom Mehldau had encountered at a California club that was hosting weekly events. The album features experiments with prepared piano and "multiple layers of electronically enhanced sound," in comparison to Mehldau's usual trio, rock players, and electronics associated more with classical music. This was to be Mehldau's best-selling album as of 2010.

The findings of two more days of recording in 2002 were divided on two trio albums: Anything Goes, which were released in 2004, contained performances by others; the Mehldau originals were unveiled two years later on House of Hill. Live in Tokyo, a solo piano recording from 2003, showed more lyricism in Mehldau's playing, and was released in 2004 as his first album for Nonesuch Records, Warner Bros' imprint. Kurt Rosenwinkel and Redman performed in Europe for three weeks in 2004. Mehldau formed a quartet in the fall, with Mark Turner on saxophones, Grenadier on bass, and Jeff Ballard on drums.

Ballard's trio's drummer Rossy was replaced by Bellard in 2005. This, in the eyes of analyst Ray Comiskey, did not dramatically change the trio's sound, but it did push Mehldau further, with bassist Larry Grenadier given more of a full orchestra in the center of which piano and drums cavort. According to Ben Ratliff, the new trio's sound was "denser and more tumultuous," with rhythms more tense than those of the previous trio. For the first time with his new trio, Mehldau performed in Hong Kong in February 2005. Day Is Done, the following month, was their first album.

Mehldau's career grew beyond trio and solo playing. He premiered a song cycle for classical music singer Renée Fleming in the spring of 2005. This group was based on a Carnegie Hall commission; their 2006 album contained music set to poems by Rainer Maria Rilke and Louise Bogan. Mehldau, guitarist Pat Metheny from 2005, released two albums with Grenadier and Ballard in 2005, and then went on tour around the world in 2007.

Brad Mehldau Trio Live, another Village Vanguard film, was released in 2006 and two years later. "Wonderwall" by rock band Oasis, "Black Hole Sun" by grunge band Soundgarden, and Chico Buarque's samba "O Que Será" said Fordham; "it's business as normal – state-of-the-art contemporary jazz piano," said the artist. In 2011, Live in Marciac was released; this set included two CDs and one DVD of a solo concert by the pianist. Mehldau said that his third solo album "is the start of a new one [...] and [contains] more ease and flexibility in a musical space with several simultaneous voices." Mehldau performed on saxophonist Michael Brecker's last album, Pilgrimage, in 2006.

Mehldau performed his piano concerto "The Brady Bunch Variations for Piano and Orchestra" at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in March 2007. Carnegie Hall gave Mehldau another chance to write the song cycle Love Songs for singer Anne Sofie von Otter in 2009; the two bands performed the songs the following year. Mehldau began working as curator of London's Wigmore Hall jazz collection in 2009, which included a performance with von Otter in the second year.

Mehldau's album Highway Rider, which flies to a live band and a 28-piece orchestra, was released in 2009. The album was based on a theme of travel or a journey, and in critic Mike Hobart's words, "probes the confluence of the arbitrary and non-arbitrary in music of balancing what is committed to the page with improvisation." This was pursued further in the winter of 2010-11 in public performances of pieces from the album's catalogue in the United States and Europe. Mehldau's trio returned to the studio for the first time in many years in 2008 and 2011, resulting in the release of Ode, an album of the pianist's originals, and Where Do You Start, an album of covers. "More than ever," Mehldau plays his guitar as a drum, triggering staccato notes into the muck of the rhythm section's ferocious bustle, according to DownBeat reviewer Jim Macnie.

Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair, Carnegie Hall's first jazz musician to do so, was held by Mehldau during 2010–11 Mehldau. He has also performed and recorded piano duets with Kevin Hays. Patrick Zimmerli, with whom Mehldau had attended high school, was involved in this collaboration. The pianists performed a planned left-hand section while improvising with the other hand; "to do both at once is a real challenge." "The brain seems to be split in half," Mehldau said. Mehldau performed a series of duet concerts with Redman in Europe in 2011, five pieces of which were released five years later on the album Nearness. On a Melancholy Theme" in Europe, Mehldau and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra conducted his "Variations for Piano and Orchestra." The piece was intended for solo piano but Mehldau's orchestrator converted it for a commission by the Orchestra; it was performed in the United States the following year.

Mehldau began touring with drummer Mark Guiliana as a synthesizer-oriented pair whose nickname was given the portmanteau name "Mehliana." Their playing was largely improved and somewhat influenced by dub, drum 'n' bass, electro, and funk. In February 2014, they released Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, an album. Earlier this year, a collection of solo piano recordings from Mehldau's performances in Europe in the 2004-2014 period was released, titled 10 Years Solo Live. Grenadier and Ballard, Blues and Ballads, was also a member of another trio that appeared on Grenadier and Ballard, 2010 and 2014, and was first released in 2016. Mehldau and Guiliana formed a trio with guitarist John Scofield in the United States in 2016; they performed in the United States before heading to Europe.

Mehldau's fascination with classical music developed by various concert halls; he performed these and the Bach originals in solo performances in 2015. They were the inspirations of his solo piano album After Bach, which was released in 2017 and then released the following year. This was followed by Seymour Reads the Constitution!, another trio album with Grenadier and Ballard later this year. Finding Gabriel was his next album, which was released in 2019. Mehldau performed another of his commission song cycles at Wigmore Hall, this time with Ian Bostridge. Ladder, Jacob's collection of musical influences of Mehldau's youth, was released in 2020 and 2021, but not in 2022.

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