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Early Life
The American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, Bradford Alexander Mehldau, was born in Jacksonville, Florida. 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, Brad 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.
Later Life and Career
Brad Mehldau's first recording was for Hollyday's The Natural Moment in 1991; his first tour of Europe was also with the saxophonist during the same year. Mehldau's interest in classical music returned when he was in his early twenties, and spurred him into developing his left-hand playing technique. He led his own trio from at least 1992, when he played at New York's Village Gate. Mehldau also played as sideman with other musicians around this time. His performances with saxophonist Perico Sambeat included a tour of Europe early in 1993, and Mehldau's first released recordings as co-leader, from a May concert in Barcelona. Mehldau toured for 18 months with saxophonist Joshua Redman. The association with Redman began in 1993, but they had played together for a short period the previous year. Redman and his band attracted attention, with their 1994 album Moodswing also aiding Mehldau's profile. They also played together for the soundtrack to the film Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), for which Redman wrote the music.
Brad Mehldau graduated from The New School in 1993. He formed his first long-term trio in 1994, with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy. In the following year, Mehldau recorded Introducing Brad Mehldau for Warner Bros., his first album as sole leader. It was well received, with The Penguin Guide to Jazz commenting that "it's as if he were aware of jazz tradition but entirely unencumbered by it." His second album for Warner Bros., "The Art of the Trio Volume One", was recorded in 1996 and was widely praised by critics. The title was selected by producer Matt Pierson as one that would attract attention and help to build a brand.
By the mid- to late 1990s, Mehldau was regarded by some as one of the leading jazz musicians of the day: Guardian critic John Fordham described him as "the next great keyboard star of jazz". The appreciation was not universal: some of the pianist's self-penned liner notes and interview comments, which included philosophical musings and complaints about comparisons with pianist Bill Evans, engendered dislike in some, thereby, in critic Nate Chinen's words, "leaving Mehldau with a lingering reputation for pretentiousness and self-indulgence." Many critics did, though, reassess their judgment of his main influences, which previously had often been given as Evans, an assessment that was perhaps attributable more to race than to music. Another, non-musical, similarity with Evans that was commented on was Mehldau's struggle with an addiction to heroin during the 1990's, up to 1998. Around 1996 he moved to Los Angeles, to try to overcome his problem with drugs. Mehldau later stated: "Once I stopped using heroin, it was like a rush of creativity that had been held in check came out".
In 1996, Brad Mehldau made the first of several recordings with saxophonist Lee Konitz and bassist Charlie Haden. Mehldau's contributions to film music continued in 1997, with an accompanist role for some of the tracks recorded for Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. His series of trio albums also continued, employing some of the traditional elements of jazz while not conforming to or being restricted by its norms. "Live at the Village Vanguard: The Art of the Trio Volume Two" consisted entirely of standards, and was recorded at a series of 1997 concerts at the Village Vanguard, and released the following year. The title again attracted attention, as concert recordings from the same club had been issued by some of the biggest names in jazz, including Evans, and saxophonists Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. The studio album "Songs: The Art of the Trio Volume Three" followed later in 1998, and contained Mehldau originals, standards, plus Nick Drake's "River Man", and Radiohead's "Exit Music (For a Film)". This album was chosen by Fordham as his jazz CD of the year. "[Although it] might seem to some a little introverted, and certainly distinctly classical in flavor", he wrote, "the intricacy and counter-melodic richness of a great pianist is astonishingly balanced against the more direct and open eloquence a great vocalist might bring."
Brad Mehldau became established on the international jazz festival scene in the mid- to late 1990's, having played at events such as the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1997, and the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1998. Also in 1998, the pianist reunited with Redman for the saxophonist's Timeless Tales (For Changing Times), and played on country artist Willie Nelson's Teatro. That summer, Mehldau spent a few months in Germany, developing his interest in its language, literature, and music.
Brad Mehldau's interest in figures of 19th century German Romanticism, including Johannes Brahms, Schubert, and Robert Schumann, influenced his first solo piano release, "Elegiac Cycle", which was recorded in 1999 and broke the sequence of trio recordings under his name. "Art of the Trio 4: Back at the Vanguard" was recorded and released in the same year, presenting more performances from the Village Vanguard. The recording features standards, Mehldau originals, Miles Davis' Solar, and another version of Exit Music (For a Film). Also in 1999, Mehldau was pianist for two albums by saxophonist Charles Lloyd. In the following year, "Places", an album containing both Mehldau solo piano pieces and trio performances, was released. All of the tracks were Mehldau originals, and were based on his experiences of visiting and revisiting various locations worldwide. "Progression: The Art of the Trio, Vol. 5", the final album in that series, was another concert recording from the Village Vanguard, and was recorded in 2000 and released in 2001. Looking back on his earlier career, Mehldau commented in 2005 that "The trio created my identity". In the three or four years up to the end of 2001, his trio had toured for the majority of each year.
In 2001 Brad Mehldau expanded from playing on film soundtracks, which had included The Million Dollar Hotel[48] Space Cowboys, to scoring, with the French film Ma femme est une actrice. In the same year, he left Los Angeles. He first played with saxophonist Wayne Shorter that year, and recorded the Grammy Award-winning "Alegría" with him a couple of years later.
While trio performances and recordings continued, Brad Mehldau began in the early to mid-2000's to broaden the musical settings in which he appeared as leader. An early instance was his 2002 album "Largo", which was Mehldau's first departure from piano solo or trio albums. It was produced by Jon Brion, whom Mehldau had met at a California club that hosted weekly happenings. On the album, in addition to Mehldau's usual trio, rock musicians and instruments associated more with classical music were employed, as were experiments with prepared piano and "multiple layers of electronically enhanced sound". As of 2010, this was reported to be Mehldau's best-selling album.
The results of two further days of recording in 2002 were split over two trio albums: "Anything Goes", released in 2004, contained performances of compositions by others; the Mehldau originals were released two years later on "House on Hill". A solo piano recording from a 2003 concert, "Live in Tokyo", showed greater lyricism appearing in Mehldau's playing, and was released in 2004 as his first album for Nonesuch Records, an imprint of Warner Bros. In the summer of 2004 he toured Europe for three weeks with a band that included guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and Redman. That autumn, Mehldau formed a quartet, with Mark Turner on saxophones, Grenadier on bass, and Jeff Ballard on drums.
In 2005 Ballard replaced Rossy as the drummer in Brad Mehldau's trio. This, in the view of critic Ray Comiskey, did not radically change the trio's sound, but it did give them "a harder edge and pushed Mehldau more, with bassist Larry Grenadier left more in a fulcrum role, the centre around which piano and drums cavort." Another critic, Ben Ratliff, suggested that the new trio's sound was "denser and more tumultuous", with rhythms more overt than with the previous trio. In February 2005 Mehldau performed in Hong Kong for the first time, with his new trio. Their first album, "Day Is Done", was recorded the following month.
Brad Mehldau continued to expand beyond trio and solo playing. In the spring of 2005 he premiered a song cycle that he had written for classical music singer Renée Fleming. This association was based on a commission from Carnegie Hall; heir 2006 recording contained music set to poems by Rainer Maria Rilke and Louise Bogan. Mehldau also collaborated with guitarist Pat Metheny from 2005 - they recorded two albums together that year, along with Grenadier and Ballard, and in 2007 went on a worldwide tour.
Another Village Vanguard recording, "Brad Mehldau Trio Live", was recorded in 2006 and released two years later. This also contained a variety of sources of material, including Wonderwall by rock band Oasis, Black Hole Sun by grunge band Soundgarden, and Chico Buarque's samba O Que Será; "it's business as usual - state-of-the-art contemporary jazz piano", commented Fordham. A further recording from 2006 was released as "Live in Marciac" in 2011; this contained two CD's and one DVD of a solo concert by the pianist. Brad Mehldau asserted that his third solo recording "is the beginning of a freer approach, [...] and maybe [contains] more ease and fluidity in a musical texture with several simultaneous voices". In 2006 Mehldau also played on saxophonist Michael Brecker's final album, :Pilgrimage".
In March 2007 Brad Mehldau first performed his piano concerto The Brady Bunch Variations for Piano and Orchestra, with the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Later that decade, Carnegie Hall awarded Mehldau another commission - to write the song cycle Love Songs for singer Anne Sofie von Otter; they premiered it together in 2009 and recorded the songs the following year. In 2009 Mehldau began a two-year period as curator of London's Wigmore Hall jazz series, which included a performance with Anne Sofie von Otter in the second year.
In 2009 Brad Mehldau also recorded "Highway Rider", an album that combined his usual trio with guest musicians and a 28-piece orchestra. Again based compositionally on the theme of travel or a journey, the album was produced by Brion, and, in critic Mike Hobart's description, "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 2010-2011, in public performances of pieces from the album in the USA and Europe. Mehldau's trio returned to the studio for the first time in several years in 2008 and again in 2011, resulting in "Ode", an album of the pianist's originals, and "Where Do You Start", an album of covers. DownBeat reviewer Jim Macnie commented that, on the former album, "More than ever, Mehldau uses his instrument as a drum, popping staccato notes into the maw of the rhythm section's formidable bustle."
During 2010-2011 Brad Mehldau held Carnegie Hall's Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair, the first jazz musician to do so. He also played and recorded piano duets with Kevin Hays. This collaboration was on arrangements by Patrick Zimmerli, with whom Mehldau had attended high school. One piece from their album, Modern Music, featured the pianists playing a composed left-hand part while improvising with the other hand; "to do both at once is a real test. The brain feels like it's split in half", commented Mehldau. Also in 2011 Mehldau toured with von Anne Sofie von Otter again, had piano–mandolin duets with Chris Thile, and played a series of duet concerts with Redman in Europe, six pieces from which were released five years later on the album "Nearness". In 2012 Mehldau and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performed his Variations for Piano and Orchestra on a Melancholy Theme in Europe. The piece was originally for solo piano, but was converted by Mehldau for a commission by the Orchestra; it was performed in the USA the following year.
In 2013 Brad Mehldau began touring with drummer Mark Guiliana as a synthesizer-oriented duo that was given the portmanteau name "Mehliana". Their playing was largely improvised, and distantly influenced by dub, drum 'n' bass, electro, and funk. They released an album, "Mehliana: Taming the Dragon", in February 2014. Late in 2015, a collection of solo piano recordings from Mehldau's concerts in Europe in the 2004-2014 period was released, entitled "10 Years Solo Live". Another trio recording with Grenadier and Ballard, "Blues and Ballads", was recorded in 2012 and 2014 and was released in 2016. Also in 2016, Mehldau and Guiliana formed a trio with guitarist John Scofield; they played in the USA before touring Europe.
Brad Mehldau's interest in classical music continued with commissions by several concert halls to write pieces that were inspired by J.S. Bach compositions; he played these and the J.S. Bach originals in solo performances during 2015. They were the origins of his solo piano album "After Bach", which was recorded in 2017 and released the following year. This release was followed by "Seymour Reads the Constitution!", another trio album with Grenadier and Ballard, later that year. His next album, released in 2019, was "Finding Gabriel". In the same year, Mehldau performed another of his commissioned song cycles at Wigmore Hall, this time with Ian Bostridge. "Jacob's Ladder:, an album that explored the progressive rock musical influences of Mehldau's youth, was recorded in 2020 and 2021 and released in 2022.
Compositions
Fordham described Brad Mehldau's compositions as "miniature tapestries of taut lyricism and surprising turns". Mehldau himself indicated tsome of his compositions address a specific need, such as integrating a particular rhythm into his trio, while others emerge from something he has played while improvising. In the latter case, Mehldau likened the difficulty of the composition process to that of a game of chess: "The opening is always easy for me, the middle gets more difficult, more of an intellectual process, more trial and error at work, and the end is always difficult for me." These struggles to find satisfactory endings stem from the tension between needing to close a piece and his desire to leave a sense of open-endedness – "an escape duct of possibility".
Awards and nominations
Brad Mehldau won DownBeat's Readers Poll piano award in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2011, and 2012. He was the 2006 winner of the Miles Davis Prize, awarded by the Montreal International Jazz Festival for "jazz artists who have made significant artistic and innovative contributions to the genre". In 2015 Mehldau received the Wigmore Medal, which "recognises significant figures in the international music world who have a strong association with the Wigmore Hall." Mehldau has been nominated for several Grammy Awards. He was nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo on Blame It on My Youth from "The Art of the Trio Volume One" in 1998, Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group for "Art of the Trio 4: Back at the Vanguard" in 2000, Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group for "Brad Mehldau Trio Live" in 2009, Best Improvised Jazz Solo for the title track of "Ode" in 2013, and Best Improvised Jazz Solo for Sleeping Giant from "Mehliana: Taming the Dragon" in 2015. He received two further nominations at the end of 2016: for Best Improvised Jazz Solo on I Concentrate on You from "Blues and Ballads"; and for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for the duo album "Nearness", with Redman. At the end of 2018, "Seymour Reads The Constitution!" was nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental album, and De-Dah from that album was nominated for Best Improvised Jazz Solo. "Finding Gabriel: won Best Jazz Instrumental Album in 2020. |
