Brad Mehldau

Brad Mehldau ( born August 23, 1970 in Jacksonville, Florida) is an American jazz pianist.

Biography

At the age of six years Mehldau got piano lessons. He studied piano and composition at the Berklee College of Music and the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music. His teachers included Kenny Werner, Junior Mance and Fred Hersch, who exercised the greatest influence on well Mehldau.

In 1994 he was a member of the ensemble of the European tour of the Joshua Redman Quartet, consisting of Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride and Brian Blade. In the following year, 1995, he founded the Brad Mehldau Trio with Larry Grenadier ( b ) and Jorge Rossy (drums ), their first album "Introducing Brad Mehldau " in the same year received much praise.

The main influences in music come from Mehldau Franz Schubert as well as Oscar Peterson and Keith Jarrett - but also by Miles Davis, John Coltrane. His way of playing the piano is often compared to that of Bill Evans, even if it - even by his own admission Mehldau; see liner notes to " The Art of the Trio IV" - are significant differences in the musical conception. Mehldau integrated into his repertoire includes original compositions and jazz standards at first glance jazz distant music, such as of the alternative band Radiohead or from folk singer Nick Drake and the Beatles.

Mehldau, whose germanophilia and interest in German culture in the name of numerous original compositions shines through ( "Sehnsucht ", " The Magic Mountain ", etc.) can be considered as one of the major jazz pianists of the last decade. In addition to the elegiac attitude of his music-making in particular is its ability to two-handed contrapuntal improvisation with independently managed voices characteristic of him. He is praised often that he has delegated pop songs like " Paranoid Android " by Radiohead into the jazz idiom. "In fact, that seems to be an example, has made the school ," says the author and music critic Robert Fischer, belongs to Mehldau 's most popular pianists of the past few years.

For the album Where Do You Start ( Nonesuch / Warner ) by Brad Mehldau trio of pianist to win the Grand Prix de l' Académie du Jazz in the category of Best Jazz album received (abroad) of 2012.

Mehldau is the father of three children and lives partly in New York and partly in the nearby Amsterdam.

Albums as a leader or as a soloist

• Introducing Brad Mehldau (1995 )
• The Art of the Trio ( 1996)
• Marian McPartland 's Piano Jazz ( 1996)
• The Art of the Trio III - Songs (1998)
• Elegiac Cycle (1999)
• Places ( 2000)
• The Art of the Trio V - Progression (2000)
• Largo (2001)
• Anything Goes (2002)
• Live in Tokyo (2004)
• Live in Tokyo (2005, double CD, Nonesuch Japan)
• Day is Done, Trio ( first CD with new drummer Jeff Ballard, 2005, Nonesuch )
• House on Hill Trio ( L.Grenadier, J.Rossy, 2006, Nonesuch )
• Love Sublime song ( song cycle composed by Mehldau, Piano: B.Mehldau, singing Renée Fleming, 2006, Nonesuch )
• Brad Mehldau Trio - Live (2008, live recording from the Village Vanguard: 10/2006 )
• Highway Rider ( original compositions with trio, saxophone and chamber orchestra, 2010)
• Love Songs ( song cycle composed by Mehldau and second CD with foreign compositions; Piano: B.Mehldau, vocal: Anne Sofie von Otter, Double CD, 2010, Naïve )
• Live in Marciac (2011, solo concert in August 2006; double CD with DVD)
• Ode ( Nonesuch, 2012)
• Where Do You Start ( Nonesuch, 2012)

Albums as co-leader

• New York -Barcelona Crossing Volume 1 (1993 ) Mehldau, Rossy, Rossy, Sambeat
• New York -Barcelona Crossing Volume 2 (1993 ) Mehldau, Rossy, Rossy, Sambeat
• When I Fall In Love (1993 ) Mehldau & Rossy Trio
• Consenting Adults (1994 ) Mehldau, Turner, Bernstein, Grenadier, Parker
• Alone Together (1997) Mehldau, Haden, Konitz
• Close Enough For Love (1999) Fleurine
• Friendship ( 2003) Mehldau, Sambeat, Rosenwinkel
• Do not Explain (2004) Mehldau, Joel Frahm
• Metheny Mehldau (2006) Mehldau, Metheny, Grenadier, Ballard
• Quartet ( 2007) Mehldau, Metheny, Grenadier, Ballard
• Modern Music ( Nonesuch, 2011), with Kevin Hays
• Hyperion with Higgins / The Water Is Wide ( ECM, 2000), with Charles Lloyd

Soundtracks