Brad Mehldau Trio

Brad Mehldau stands among the most celebrated pianists of his era, delivering virtuosic performances steeped in the intricate harmonic language and subtle expressive range of acoustic jazz. Although he ranks among the idiom’s most reflective and engaging exponents, Mehldau readily incorporates songs from the rock canon, among them Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird.” Classical study formed the core of his early training, yet jazz captured his attention in adolescence, and he has drawn upon both traditions ever since. The synthesis appears clearly across the initial installment of his five-volume Art of the Trio series, as well as on the 2006 release House on Hill and the 2010 album Day Is Done. Whether shaping original material or reinterpreting standards by Radiohead, Nick Drake, and Paul Simon, his pianism and writing draw equally from Claude Debussy’s twentieth-century impressionism and from Bill Evans. Solo and collaborative recordings with vocalists Renée Fleming and Anne Sofie von Otter emphasize the classical side of his work, while After Bach merges his own improvisations with J.S. Bach’s keyboard pieces and Variations on a Melancholy Theme unites him with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Mehldau keeps extending the lineage of jazz piano through partnerships with Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade on Round Again and LongGone, and through solo projects such as the Grammy-winning Finding Gabriel, the prog-rock-oriented Jacob’s Ladder of 2022, and 2023’s Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays the Beatles.

Jacksonville, Florida, was his birthplace in 1970; piano study began in childhood. Relocating at roughly age ten to West Hartford, Connecticut, he commenced formal classical lessons. Jazz entered his listening during the teenage years through recordings by Oscar Peterson, John Coltrane, and Keith Jarrett. Participation in Hall High School’s jazz ensemble led to the Berklee College of Music’s Best All-Around Musician Award before senior year. At New York’s New School for Social Research he pursued jazz studies with Fred Hersch, Junior Mance, Kenny Werner, and Jimmy Cobb; Cobb soon enlisted him for Cobb’s Mob. Mehldau also appeared with Christian McBride and Brian Blade in Joshua Redman’s inaugural acoustic quartet, then assembled his own trio in 1994 and issued his debut Warner Bros. album, Introducing Brad Mehldau, the next year. Art of the Trio, Vol. 1 appeared in 1997, followed within months by the subsequent two volumes. Elegiac Cycle and Art of the Trio, Vol. 4: Back at the Vanguard both surfaced two years later. Places, issued in 2000, comprised entirely original pieces inspired by specific cities.

A further Art of the Trio installment arrived in 2001, yet Largo proved more pivotal by placing Mehldau in ensembles beyond his customary trio. Anything Goes and Live in Tokyo followed in 2004, with Day Is Done appearing the year after. House on Hill and the Nonesuch collaboration Love Sublime with Renée Fleming both reached the market in 2006. Quartet, featuring Pat Metheny, came in 2007, succeeded by the 2008 double-disc Live, taped at the Village Vanguard with the trio. The ambitious double-disc Highway Rider, containing fifteen new compositions and produced by Jon Brion, emerged in 2010; the project employed Mehldau’s trio alongside Matt Chamberlain, Joshua Redman, and a chamber orchestra directed by Dan Coleman, all of whose parts the pianist arranged and orchestrated. That same year Carnegie Hall named 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 Live at Birdland on ECM, the latter documenting a 2009 performance with Lee Konitz, Charlie Haden, and Paul Motian. September also brought Modern Music on Nonesuch, a studio encounter with Kevin Hays and Patrick Zimmerli that included works by the three principals plus pieces by Ornette Coleman, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass.

Nonesuch released the box set Art of the Trio Recordings: 1996–2001 on December 6, 2011, encompassing the five original Warner Bros. volumes plus a sixth disc of previously unreleased Village Vanguard material from 1997, 1999, and 2001, all issued as Mehldau embarked on a world tour. The Brad Mehldau Trio returned in 2012 with the all-original Ode and its companion standards collection Where Do You Start. Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, a duo project with Mark Guiliana, appeared in 2014. Ten Years Solo Live, documenting European solo recitals from the preceding decade, followed in 2015. Blues and Ballads reunited Mehldau with Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard in 2016 for interpretations of works by Cole Porter, Charlie Parker, Lennon/McCartney, and others. The same year produced the Grammy-nominated duo album Nearness with Joshua Redman. Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau appeared on Nonesuch the next year; After Bach, exploring J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier fugues, arrived in 2018. Seymour Reads the Constitution!, his first trio album since Ode to contain original compositions, followed months later and balanced three new pieces with customary covers. Wolfgang Muthspiel’s ECM session Where the River Goes also featured Mehldau and Ambrose Akinmusire that year. The archival duo recording Long Ago and Far Away with the late Charlie Haden, captured at the 2007 Enjoy Jazz Festival in Mannheim, Germany, closed the year.

Finding Gabriel, released in spring 2019, ventured outside conventional post-bop territory toward the more hybrid terrain of Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, Largo, and Highway Rider. Nine thematically linked originals featured Mehldau on piano, synthesizers, percussion, Fender Rhodes, and wordless vocals, with guest contributions from Ambrose Akinmusire, Mark Guiliana, Sara Caswell, Kurt Elling, Joel Frahm, Gabriel Kahane, Becca Stevens, and others; the project drew inspiration from biblical prophecy conveyed through the angel Gabriel and earned the Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. Round Again reunited Mehldau with Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade in 2020. Suite: April 2020, a solo recital recorded in Amsterdam amid the COVID-19 pandemic, comprised twelve original compositions and three standards that, according to the pianist, “… 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 edition of one thousand deluxe 180-gram vinyl LPs whose proceeds benefited the Jazz Foundation of America’s COVID-19 Musician’s Emergency Fund, the album later received wider CD and standard vinyl release on Nonesuch in September, again directing significant proceeds to the same fund. Variations on a Melancholy Theme with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra appeared in June 2021. Jacob’s Ladder, issued in 2022, reflected Mehldau’s engagement with scripture and progressive rock and included appearances by Chris Thile, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Becca Stevens, and additional guests; LongGone, another reunion with Redman, McBride, and Blade, earned a Grammy nomination that year. The solo piano album Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays the Beatles arrived in February 2023, presenting the pianist’s distinctive jazz interpretations of the Beatles’ catalog.