Despite being classically trained from a young age, Mehldau’s main interest lay in the jazz genre and played in the Hall High School jazz band of Hartford, Connecticut, U.S., later winning the Berklee College of Music’s Best All-Around Musician Award. After studying under Fred Hersch, Junior Mance and Jimmy Cobb amongst others at New York’s New School for Social Research, Cobb hired Mehldau to play in his band Cobb’s Mob.
The pianist later formed his own trio and made his recording debut with the Warner Bros. issued “Introducing Brad Mehldau” in 1995, followed by “Art of the Trio, Vol. 1, 2, & 3” in 1997. He subsequently released “Elegiac Cycle” and "Art of the Trio, Vol. 4: Back at the Vanguard” in 1999, and “Places” in 2000. Wanting to expand his musicianship and defy genre lines, Mehldau recorded “Largo” in which he adapted himself to unusual and challenging lineup situations. “Anything Goes” and “Live in Tokyo” arrived in 2004, followed by “Day is Gone” in 2005, “House on Hill” and “Love Sublime” in 2006, and “Quartet” in 2007. These releases exposed the musician’s extensive, if not relentless recording schedule, which Mehldau matched with his live performances at the some of the world’s most revered music and jazz festivals.
Along with his tried and tested trio, drummer Matt Chamberlain, saxophonist Joshua Redman, and a small chamber orchestra, Mehldau issued the album “Highway Rider” in 2010 – an ambitious double-disc CD of new compositions. After being awarded the esteemed Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair for the season of 2010-2011, the pianist released two live albums “Live in Marciac” and “Live at Birdland”, and the collaborative album “Modern Music” with pianist Kevin Hays and composer Patrick Zimmerli.
Mehldau has also made a name for himself by taking influence from the rock genre and has been known to compose elaborate jazz pieces to existing material including the songs “Bittersweet Symphony”, “Smells Like Teen Sprit” and Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android”.
In 2011 Mehldau embarked on a world tour, and in support of his label Nonesuch issued the box set “Art of the Trio Recordings: 1996-2001” featuring past and unreleased material from Mehldau’s trio. A year later the musician, alongside the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performed “Variations for Piano and Orchestra on a Melancholy Theme” throughout Europe, and the U.S. the year after. In another collaboration, this time with drummer Mark Guiliana, the duo operated as a synthesizer-orientated pairing under the name “Mehliana” later releasing the album “Mehliana: Taming the Dragon” in February 2014.
Brad Mehldau makes time stop still. When you hear him play, you'll discover you've forgotten to breathe – and you can't quite bring yourself to exhale and take the next breath, in case you'll somehow stop the notes bubbling out of the piano.
I remember seeing Brad Mehldau at the Sage in Gateshead in 2008 and being struck by the silence after every tune finished. Silence which seemed to last for hours: not because he had disappointed, but because collectively all of us in the audience felt the reluctance to applaud and shatter the spell. All you could hear was the creak of the piano stool as Mehldau straightened up and smiled.
Brad Mehldau can even weave that spell of intimacy and time-on-hold when on stage at a large festival – whether he's deconstructing a pop song (he plays a lot of Radiohead), a standard, or playing one of his own compositions. If you've ever seen Keith Jarrett live (or heard those legendary ECM recordings), Mehldau's playing is in a similarly absorbing, improvisational vein, and so it catches you completely unawares when you suddenly realise that what you're hearing is a melody by Nirvana!
More recently Mehldau has been playing more synths and keyboards, as part of his Electric Duo with drummer Mark Guiliana, so his acoustic piano performances may be somewhat rarer these days.
tomclarke
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