One of the most lyrical and intimate voices of contemporary jazz piano, Brad Mehldau has forged a unique path. Here, he embodies the essence of jazz exploration, classical romanticism and pop allure. Mehldau has garnered critical acclaim as a bandleader, and major international exposure in collaborations with Pat Metheny, Renee Fleming, and Joshua Redman. Furthermore, Mehldau continues to garner numerous awards and admiration from both jazz purists and music enthusiasts alike. His forays into melding musical idioms have seen brilliant reworkings of songs by contemporary songwriters. He covers The Beatles, Cole Porter, Radiohead, Paul Simon, Gershwin and Nick Drake, among others. Also, he has earned recognition for the ever-evolving breadth of his own significant catalogue of original compositions. With his self-proclaimed affection for popular music and classical training, “Mehldau is the most influential jazz pianist of the last 20 years”. (The New York Times)
Mehldau’s musical personality forms a dichotomy. He is first and foremost an improviser. He cherishes the surprise and wonder occurring 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. Thus, the effect is often something like controlled chaos.
Recommended for fans of Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Ahmad Jamal.
📸: Yoshika Horita
