Brad Mehldau

Brad Mehldau ranks among the most celebrated pianists of his era, celebrated for his masterful command of the keyboard and his sensitivity to intricate, harmonically rich acoustic jazz. Though firmly rooted in that tradition as one of its most compelling and reflective voices, he remains open to drawing from rock-era sources, as demonstrated by his treatment of Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird.” Classical studies formed the core of his early education, yet jazz captured his attention while still young, and he has drawn from both lineages across his body of work. The approach surfaces clearly across the first of his five Art of the Trio releases, as well as on House on Hill from 2006 and Day Is Done from 2010. Original pieces sit alongside interpretations of enduring popular songs by Radiohead, Nick Drake, and Paul Simon, revealing a style shaped equally by the 20th-century impressionism of Claude Debussy and the example of Bill Evans. He has issued classically focused projects both alone and alongside vocalists Renée Fleming and Anne Sofie von Otter, while also venturing into cross-genre territory with After Bach, which reworks J.S. Bach compositions, and Variations on a Melancholy Theme, recorded with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Mehldau keeps extending the reach of jazz piano, whether reuniting with contemporaries Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade for Round Again and LongGone, or issuing solo statements such as the Grammy-winning Finding Gabriel, the 2022 prog-rock-inflected Jacob’s Ladder, and the 2023 collection Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays the Beatles.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1970, Mehldau began piano studies early. At roughly ten he relocated to West Hartford, Connecticut, where classical lessons commenced. During his teenage years jazz entered his listening, with Oscar Peterson, John Coltrane, and Keith Jarrett among the figures he absorbed. He performed in the Hall High School jazz band in West Hartford and received the Berklee College of Music’s Best All-Around Musician Award in his junior year. At the New School for Social Research in New York he pursued jazz studies with Fred Hersch, Junior Mance, Kenny Werner, and Jimmy Cobb. Cobb soon engaged him for Cobb’s Mob. Mehldau also appeared with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade in saxophonist Joshua Redman’s initial acoustic quartet before launching his own trio in 1994 and documenting the group’s debut Warner Bros. album, Introducing Brad Mehldau, the following year. Art of the Trio, Vol. 1 arrived in 1997, with the subsequent two volumes following in rapid succession. Two years later Mehldau issued Elegiac Cycle along with Art of the Trio, Vol. 4: Back at the Vanguard. Places appeared in 2000, an album of original compositions inspired by various cities.

A further Art of the Trio installment surfaced in 2001, yet Largo proved more pivotal, presenting Mehldau in configurations beyond his standard trio. The project marked a notable departure and required him to navigate fresh ensemble contexts. He followed the exploratory recording with the standards-oriented Anything Goes and Live in Tokyo in 2004, then Day Is Done the next year. In 2006 Mehldau released House on Hill together with Love Sublime, the latter a Nonesuch collaboration with soprano Renée Fleming. He next convened his trio plus Pat Metheny for 2007’s Quartet and followed that with the 2008 double-disc Live, captured at the Village Vanguard with the trio.

In 2010 Mehldau unveiled the expansive Highway Rider, a two-disc set of fifteen new compositions produced by Jon Brion that enlisted the trio, drummer Matt Chamberlain, saxophonist Joshua Redman, and a chamber orchestra directed by Dan Coleman; Mehldau handled all arrangements and orchestrations. That same year Carnegie Hall appointed him the first jazz artist to occupy the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair for the 2010–2011 season. Two live albums appeared in 2011: his own Live in Marciac and the ECM release Live at Birdland, recorded in 2009 with saxophonist Lee Konitz, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Paul Motian. Also in September 2011 Nonesuch issued Modern Music, a studio collaboration among Mehldau, pianist Kevin Hays, and composer-arranger Patrick Zimmerli that included originals by the principals plus works by Ornette Coleman, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass.

On 6 December 2011, as Mehldau began a world tour, Nonesuch released the box set Art of the Trio Recordings: 1996–2001, containing all five Art of the Trio albums plus a previously unreleased disc of Village Vanguard performances from 1997, 1999, and 2001. A year later the Brad Mehldau Trio delivered the all-original Ode and its companion covers collection Where Do You Start. Mehldau then partnered with drummer-electronicist Mark Guiliana for the 2014 duo project Mehliana: Taming the Dragon. The box set 10 Years Solo Live appeared in 2015, documenting European solo recitals from the prior decade. He rejoined his longstanding trio of Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard for 2016’s Blues and Ballads, which applied their collective precision to material by Cole Porter, Charlie Parker, Lennon/McCartney, and others. Also in 2016 he reunited with Joshua Redman for the Grammy-nominated duo album Nearness. The following year he collaborated with progressive bluegrass musician Chris Thile on Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau, then turned to J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier fugues on 2018’s After Bach. Months later the trio returned with Seymour Reads the Constitution!, Mehldau’s first trio outing since Ode to contain original material; the album balanced three new pieces with customary covers of pop songs, jazz works, and standards. Further explorations included guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel’s trio alongside Ambrose Akinmusire on the ECM date Where the River Goes, closing the year with the archival duo recording Long Ago and Far Away alongside the late bassist Charlie Haden, captured at the 2007 Enjoy Jazz Festival in Mannheim, Germany.

Mehldau next issued Finding Gabriel, a project that moved outside conventional post-bop parameters and aligned with earlier boundary-crossing efforts such as Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, Largo, and Highway Rider. The album comprised nine thematically linked originals on which Mehldau performed piano, synthesizers, percussion, and Fender Rhodes while contributing wordless vocals; guests included Akinmusire, Guiliana, Sara Caswell, Kurt Elling, Joel Frahm, Gabriel Kahane, Becca Stevens, and others. Drawing inspiration from biblical prophecy conveyed through the angel Gabriel, the recording earned the Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album upon its spring 2019 release. The following year Mehldau rejoined Joshua Redman’s 1990s quartet members Christian McBride and Brian Blade for Round Again. In July he released the solo recital Suite: April 2020, recorded in Amsterdam amid the COVID-19 pandemic and containing twelve original compositions plus three favored standards that, in the pianist’s words, “provide a musical snapshot of life in the last month in the world in which we’ve all found ourselves.” Issued digitally and in a limited run of one thousand deluxe 180-gram vinyl LPs, proceeds from the latter benefited the Jazz Foundation of America’s COVID-19 Musician’s Emergency Fund; subsequent CD and standard vinyl editions followed from Nonesuch in September, likewise directing substantial proceeds to the same fund. A collaboration with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Variations on a Melancholy Theme, appeared in June 2021. Jacob’s Ladder arrived in 2022, reflecting Mehldau’s engagement with scripture and his longstanding interest in prog rock, and featured guest appearances by Chris Thile, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Becca Stevens, and others. That year he also reunited with Redman, McBride, and Blade for the Grammy-nominated LongGone. The solo piano album Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays the Beatles surfaced in February 2023, presenting the pianist’s distinctive and intimate jazz readings of the band’s catalog.