Brad Mehldau
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Brad Mehldau (born August 23, 1970 in Jacksonville , Florida ) is an American jazz pianist .
biography
Mehldau took piano lessons at the age of six. He studied piano and composition at Berklee College of Music and the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music . Among his teachers were Kenny Werner , Junior Mance and Fred Hersch , who probably had the greatest influence on Mehldau.
In 1994 he was a member of the ensemble of the Joshua Redman Quartet's European tour , consisting of Mehldau, Joshua Redman , Christian McBride and Brian Blade . The following year, 1995, he founded the Brad Mehldau Trio together with Larry Grenadier (b) and Jorge Rossy (dr), whose first album "Introducing Brad Mehldau" received much praise that same year.
The main influences in Mehldau's music come from Franz Schubert as well as from Oscar Peterson and Keith Jarrett - but also from Miles Davis and John Coltrane . His way of playing the piano is often compared to that of Bill Evans , even if - also according to Mehldaus himself; see. Liner notes on "The Art of the Trio IV" - there are significant differences in the musical conception. In addition to his own compositions and jazz standards, Mehldau has at first glance integrated music that is far from jazz into his repertoire . B. from the alternative band Radiohead or the folk singer Nick Drake and the Beatles .
Mehldau, whose Germanophilia and interest in German culture shines through in the names of numerous original compositions (“Sehnsucht”, “Zauberberg” etc.), can be considered one of the most important jazz pianists of the last decade. In addition to the elegiac attitude of his music-making, his ability to improvise two-handed contrapuntal with independently led voices is particularly characteristic of him. He is widely praised for translating pop songs like “Paranoid Android” from Radiohead into jazz idioms. "In fact, this seems to be an example, has made the school," says the writer and music critic Robert Fischer , for Mehldau to the pop heard ulärsten pianists of recent years.
For the album Where Do You Start (Nonesuch / Warner) released by the Brad Mehldau Trio , the pianist received the Grand Prix de l ' Académie du Jazz in the category Best Jazz Album (Abroad) of 2012.
In March 2018, the album After Bach ( Nonesuch / Warner ), inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier , was released .
Between 1998 and 2020, Mehldau was nominated ten times for a Grammy . In 2020 he won the Finding Gabriel award in the best jazz instrumental album category .
Mehldau is the father of three children and lives partly in New York and partly near Amsterdam .
Discographic notes
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 II - Live at the Village Vanguard (1997)
- The Art of the Trio III - Songs (1998)
- Elegiac Cycle (1999)
- The Art of the Trio IV - Back at the Vanguard (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 the new drummer Jeff Ballard, 2005, Nonesuch)
- House on Hill , Trio (L.Grenadier, J.Rossy, 2006, Nonesuch)
- Love Sublime , Songs (song cycle composed by Mehldau; piano: B.Mehldau, vocals: 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 third-party compositions; piano: B. Mehldau, vocals: 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)
- 10 Years Solo Live (Boxset, Nonesuch Records, 2015)
- After Bach (Nonesuch / Warner, 2018)
- Finding Gabriel (Nonesuch / Warner, 2019)
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
- Don't Explain (2004) Mehldau, Joel Frahm
- Metheny Mehldau (2006) Mehldau, Pat Metheny , Larry Grenadier , Jeff Ballard
- Metheny Meldau Quartet (2007) Mehldau, Metheny, Grenadier, Ballard
- Modern Music (Nonesuch, 2011), with Kevin Hays
- Live at Birdland (ECM, 2011), with Lee Konitz , Charlie Haden , Paul Motian
- Hyperion with Higgins / The Water Is Wide (ECM, 2000), with Charles Lloyd
- Mehliana: Taming the Dragon (Nonesuch, 2014), with Mark Guiliana
- Nearness (Nonesuch, 2016), with Joshua Redman
- Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau (Nonesuch, 2017), with Chris Thile
- Charlie Haden & Brad Mehldau: Long Ago and Far Away (Impulse !, 2018)
Film music
- 1997: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil)
- 1999: Eyes Wide Shut
- 2000: Space Cowboys
- 2000: The Million Dollar Hotel
- 2001: My wife, the actress (Ma femme est une actrice)
- 2004: Happy ending with obstacles (Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants)
- 2019: Mon chien Stupide
swell
- ↑ Chart sources: Germany / Switzerland
- ^ Cf. Robert Fischer : Anything goes. In: All that Jazz. The story of a music. Reclam publishing house, Stuttgart. 3rd, expanded and updated edition 2007, p. 426
- ^ L'Académie du Jazz couronne Émile Parisien, Pierrick Pédron et Brad Mehldau , francetv.fr, January 16, 2013, accessed February 3, 2013
- ↑ Brad Mehldau: The new album "After Bach" will be released on March 9th . In: Warner Music Germany . February 2, 2018 ( warnermusic.de [accessed February 19, 2018]).
- ↑ Brad Mehldau in the Grammy Database, accessed January 27, 2020
- ^ Stefan Hentz: Celebration hours of the piano. Zeit Online , December 29, 2015, accessed December 30, 2015 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mehldau, Brad |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz pianist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 23rd August 1970 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Jacksonville , Florida , USA |