Piano

Brad Mehldau

(1970–)

Jacksonville, FL, United States·Manhattan School of Music

Brad Mehldau (b. 1970) — Piano. Led The Art of the Trio, Vol. 3, Day Is Done, Metheny Mehldau. Worked with Larry Grenadier, Joshua Redman, Jeff Ballard.

Mehldau brought rock and pop sensibilities into the jazz piano trio without diluting either. Radiohead, Beatles — whatever he covers becomes completely jazz. His right hand spins long, sinuous phrases with a distinctive rhythmic elasticity that is impossible to imitate. The definitive contemporary trio pianist.

Brad Mehldau's leader album

The Art of the Trio, Vol. 3

Brad Mehldau · 1998

The late-90s Mehldau trio inherited the conversational model of the Bill EvansBill Evansビル・エヴァンス trio while treating rock and pop songs as raw material for improvisation. His contrapuntal right-hand lines became a signature.

Larry Grenadier

Jorge Rossy

Brad Mehldau's albums

MoodSwing

Joshua Redman · 1994

MoodSwing (1994) captured these four in the middle of their separate ascents. MehldauBrad Mehldauブラッド・メルドー, McBrideChristian McBrideクリスチャン・マクブライド, and BladeBrian Bladeブライアン・ブレイド each went on to build defining careers of their own. In 2020 the same band reunited as RoundAgain.

Joshua Redman

Christian McBride

Brian Blade

Brad Mehldau's albums

Uneasy

Vijay Iyer · 2021

Aventurine

Linda May Han Oh · 2019

Born in Australia, Linda May Han OhLinda May Han Ohリンダ・メイ・ハン・オー arrived in New York through Manhattan School of Music and became a central presence in the jazz scene. AventurineAventurineLinda May Han Oh · 2019 (2019) showed her compositional voice on the bass. Uneasy Uneasy UneasyVijay Iyer · 2021 (2021) with Brad MehldauBrad Mehldauブラッド・メルドー crystallized their shared conversational approach to music in duo form.

— Linda May Han Oh, Wikipedia, 2024

Linda May Han Oh

Brad Mehldau's albums

Brad Mehldau's videos

Brad MehldauBrad Mehldauブラッド・メルドー Trio's full 2024 concert at the Opéra National de Lorraine with Felix Moseholm and Jorge RossyJorge Rossyホルヘ・ロッシー, distributed via Qwest TV.

— Brad Mehldau Trio - Live at Opera National de Lorraine, Nancy, Qwest TV, 2024

Jorge Rossy

Videos featuring Brad Mehldau

On 2018's After Bach, Brad MehldauBrad Mehldauブラッド・メルドー alternated Bach preludes with his own responses. He described counterpoint as a device that erases the line between composition and improvisation.

— After Bach, Wikipedia, 2024

On his 1995 debut Yam Yam, Mark TurnerMark Turnerマーク・ターナー fused Warne Marsh and John ColtraneJohn Coltraneジョン・コルトレーン's vocabularies. Brad MehldauBrad Mehldauブラッド・メルドー appeared as a sideman, beginning a long collaboration.

— Yam Yam (album), Wikipedia, 2024

Mark Turner

Jorge RossyJorge Rossyホルヘ・ロッシー was the original drummer in Brad MehldauBrad Mehldauブラッド・メルドー's trio from 1994 to 2003. The rhythm section he formed with Larry GrenadierLarry Grenadierラリー・グレナディア established the trio's distinctively contrapuntal sonic identity.

— Brad Mehldau on After Bach and the Pursuit of Counterpoint, JazzTimes, 2018

Jorge Rossy

Larry Grenadier

Brad Mehldau said

"Counterpoint is a device that erases the line between composition and improvisation. I use it to converse with myself."

Said to JazzTimes about the making of After Bach (2018).

↗ JazzTimes

Brad Mehldau on After Bach and the Pursuit of Counterpoint

2018

Brad Mehldau's quotes