A Conversation with Brad Mehldau

This article was first published at All About Jazz in 2002.

All About Jazz: Do you recall your first jazz record?

Brad Mehldau: I think the first real jazz record I listened to was an Oscar Peterson and Joe Pass duo album, one of those Pablo things. A friend of my father's bought it for me when I was eleven years old. Oscar was really the first guy I really listened to. That was the one.

AAJ: What drew you to play the piano?

BM: Well, I have been playing classical piano from the time I was about six years old, but sort of improvising a lot. Not really jazz, of course, because I had not been exposed to that, but I think when I heard Oscar, after hearing recordings of Horowitz and things like that of classical virtuosos, I could kind of relate to that, in the sense that his technique was so astounding. He was playing completely different kind of music. That kind of roped me in with jazz, to sort of know that that was possible to do that on the piano.

AAJ: Do you have a favorite classical piece or a classical composer?

BM: I am always listening to a lot of Brahms piano solo music. I would say that some of the Brahms is probably the stuff that's closest to my heart.

AAJ: Who were your influences?

BM: I heard a bunch of different players, around that time, who were all pretty diverse. It was just, sort of, what people gave me. About a year later, a friend of mine gave me Keith Jarrett's Bremen and Lausanne that solo, three record thing, for my birthday. Again, it was kind of like, discovering that that was possible on the piano, what he was doing. I think I could relate to it, coming from the classical side of things. When I was more like thirteen or fourteen, I really just started buying records, sort of a buying frenzy, listening to all sorts of different piano players and a lot of horn players too. I have probably been influenced by horn players and different instruments, just as much as piano.

AAJ: Who were some of these horn players?

BM: Definitely Miles, early on, and always for a sense of melody or phrasing, and Coltrane, for sure. Bird, when I really got the be-bop bug. Of course, I loved Bud Powell and Monk, the piano players in that time period, but it was Bird's solos that I was transcribing, trying to go to the source. I still get off on his music, almost like an addiction.

AAJ: You were a member of Joshua Redman's quartet and crucial to its success. Did you feel pressure from the hype and expectation that surrounded Redman and the quartet? And did that aid in your development and outlook?

BM: I think it was pretty cool, because the whole thing happened, really organically, and in a sense it was very natural. He just, sort of, put together that band and we didn't know whether it would be special or not. We knew that it was going to be good, but then it developed into a pretty special thing. I can still listen to that album and really enjoy it. I think it, kind of, holds up for time, hopefully, at least for me. And basically, with Josh, I probably learned a lot about leading a band, and as a bandleader, how to become satisfied creatively, and also how to keep it interesting for the other guys. He is always giving everybody else a chance. The way he writes his tunes and structures them form wise, everybody gets a chance to express their own thing. So it never felt like I was taking up space or being just a sideman.

AAJ: You have drawn quite a few comparisons to Lennie Tristano and Bill Evans. Are those comparisons fair?

BM: The Lennie Tristano, I have gotten that a lot, and it's always interesting because I really have not explored his music hardly at all. Although, what I have heard, I love it. And the Bill Evans, I kind of checked him out, but he doesn't really stand out, anymore then McCoy Tyner, or Herbie, or Wynton Kelly, or a whole host of others. Of course, it's a flattering comparison just because I love him. I love his music. I think it's more that maybe there's just sort of a overlap of a sensibility towards music in terms of an introspective quality that happens in the ballads a lot. Of course, there are surface comparisons, like being a trio and things like that, and playing standard songs. I think it's cool. It's flattering. At first it used to bug me a lot because I was constantly being compared to someone else, hopefully, you want to think that you have your own voice, but it's flattering.

AAJ: How important is it to develop your own voice early?

BM: I think it's crucial. I don't know if it is something that you have to willfully do early on. But, I think for me, it's been all about getting to that point and that's how I judge my growth creatively. I think with most jazz musicians in their developmental stages, you kind of, go through this period where you become entrenched with the history of the music and it's fun as hell. In college and in high school, that's what I did with friends, just listening and becoming obsessed with the chronology of the music, and who proceeded who, and what came out of what. I think that very important, but at a certain point, for me it was not a defining point, it was not like a catalyst moment, but you sort of internalize those influences and you're not thinking about them when your playing. That's what you want to get to, to when you're sitting down to play with anyone, you have all that inside of you, but it's not something you're consciously aware of when you're improvising.

AAJ: Let talk about your new album The Art of the Trio, Volume Two: Live at The Village Vanguard. How did that project evolve?

BM: I was not really sure what I wanted to do because there is always so many different options for a recording. The way it went down was playing at The Vanguard once before that with my own trio, I felt a special affinity for that place and a real inspiration that came from playing that room, because of the audiences that are there and the kind of intensity that they have when they're listening. The room itself, for the kind of music we play, and most people feel that way, acoustically, it is so wonderful, because you can hear everything perfectly. So there's all sorts of subtleties that get lost a lot when you play in other venues, like a festival or whatever. Of course, playing live is a totally different thing then trying to create something in the studio. I asked Matt Pierson, the producer, if I could record the whole week and put it out and he said yes. Then, I just knew I wanted to do it, just because I had the opportunity to. Because, for me, if I had the option, in a perfect world, I would make every album live and just put five or six songs on there. Those are my favorite albums, Miles Davis at the Plugged Nickel or Blackhawk or Coltrane at Birdland, where you hear them getting into that place they get when they're allowed to stretch out and there's no constraints. The music gets transcendental for me.

AAJ: How long have you been playing with your trio?

BM: Actively, probably about four years now.

AAJ: In this day and age, with record executives opting for so called "all-star" bands, is it difficult to keep a band together?

BM: There is a lot of that. That's a good point. That's something that never attracted me at all, to play with two people who are great musicians or whoever, but that you have never played with. For me it's all about rapport that you get with people, and also a certain level of trust that comes with playing with people over and over again, and giving each other leeway. Just a lot of things that happen, even on a personal side off the bandstand that definitely contributes to what you do when you're playing. So for me, more and more, I have really become cognoscente that this trio is really it for me, with Larry Grenadier, and Jorge Rossy specifically. Sometimes an interviewer will ask, 'What would be your dream band? Billy Higgins, or Ron Carter, or Joe Henderson?' And I say, 'Well, really, this is it.' Because of the space that I can get into when I'm playing with them. It's the most fulfilling for me. I'm really aware of that and it's important for me to admit sticking to that. I'm just pretty confident in the process itself and it will continue to grow, because it always has. Every time we play together it just constantly evolving.

AAJ: What is more important to you at this stage of your career, response from the audience or acclaim from the critics?

BM: It would have to be response from the audience. I think more important then either of those things is when you go to bed at night, with you and the guy upstairs, or whatever it is, there's a satisfaction that I did something that you were going for. It's a very illusive thing. Sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not. Definitely, feeling like I am connecting with the audience is really vital. Feeling like I am connecting with them because I am expressing who I am in an honest way and not pandering to them or getting into a trick bag at all. Doing things that I know will work.

AAJ: What is it that attracts you to the trio format? And is the quartet or larger ensemble something you would like to explore in the future?

BM: The trio is still really compelling and stimulating. We made a decision to stick with it for a while, at least, and don't really have any definite plans to do anything else, at least with me as a leader. The nice thing about that is that I have been getting to work with Josh Redman recently. We're just finishing up his next recording here in New York, you know, as a sideman, and sort of returning to that after I stopped playing with him for a few years. To me that's equally satisfying in a different way. To be part of somebody else's musical vision, if it's a good vision, which it is with Josh. So it's nice to be able to do that as well.

AAJ: Who else is in that band?

BM: It's Brian Blade and Larry Grenadier is playing bass.

AAJ: At the beginning of your career you lived in New York and now you are living in Los Angeles. Is there a difference in the two scenes, as most East Coast musicians would lead you to believe?

BM: I think a lot of people from New York have a conception of Los Angeles specifically as sort of being dead jazz-wise, which for me, after living there for two years, is not really the case for me. In New York, you have a structured geographically for sure. In New York, you have a definite jazz scene, Greenwich Village and the West Village, and all the arts are like that in New York, it's more of an old-fashioned approach. You have your classical scene up in Lincoln Center, theaters in Times Square, the publishing houses are up on the upper Westside, and that's kind of how it is. You can get sort of an in-bred thing within each community, sort of cliquey. That's been a turn off for me sometimes when I lived in New York. In Los Angeles, it's completely different, as far as musicians, you have people who are much more versatile because they're doing soundtracks projects. A lot of them are equally adept at scoring for films and writing for strings and comfortable in the more pop genre, but not cheesey pop, you know, creative pop music which I have been exposed to a lot of. I've gotten to do some great stuff more on the pop side of things. Since I've been out in LA doing some recording projects have been really fun and interesting and that's helped me grow a lot. I think each person has to find out for themselves. People always ask, 'Should I go to New York?' I think that it's a real subjective thing. For me it definitely was, there was no question, that's what I waned to do when I got out of high school, because I wanted to go where all my heroes were, still alive and playing the music. But now in LA it's sort of much more interesting just to learn about different things and to be involved with different kinds of genres.

AAJ: What is the state of jazz today? What direction do you feel it should go in the future?

BM: I think it's in a pretty healthy state today. I think you have a thing that wasn't in a jazz before, which is a lot of media attention thrown on it, almost like how the media gets attracted to pop music. They grab on to someone, not as much for their music, but for their story or their image or whatever, and sort of run with that for a while. The problem with that kind of pop mentality is that there is a built in expiration date. A lot of people in jazz seem to sort of come and go. They get this big record contract and then sort of disappear after a few years. And that's kind of disconcerting. That has nothing to do with the actual level of musicianship. For me, it's just as great as it has ever been. There are so many great players who are getting to record their music and there's so many who just aren't in that situation now, right here in New York, but who are really incredible musicians. In terms of actual music, I don't think it is suffering at all. It is hard to say where it will go in the future. I think one thing that might happen is that you have this sort of renaissance that took place in jazz and a lot of the young musicians of my generation, myself included, sort of almost had an obsession with the history, going back and examining what's happened in the last century. That's all well and good, but I think one thing that might happen is people will start moving ahead and just being in the moment, playing music that doesn't have this sometimes sort of bad consciousness about it, just over aware of the history. If we can sort of get through that and be in the nineties here.

AAJ: You have been out on the road so much this year, have you been able to practice? How important is practicing, at this stage of your career?

BM: It's really important. It's one of the things that I have to take my lumps that I don't get to practice when I'm on the road and I've been on the road so much, particularly in the last year or so. I've done a lot of work with my trio for the first time. I just don't get to practice that much on the road. But when I am home, it's very important and I try to make time for it.

AAJ: Do you have any favorite types of songs or any favorite standards?

BM: I love the real simple ones. Simple songs that have just a really strong melody. I'm really attracted to ballads a lot. Discovering new ballads, discovering old ballads.

AAJ: If you were not playing jazz, what career path would you have taken?

BM: I'm sure I'd be involved with music somehow. It would have to be, the thing that attracted me about jazz, and always did, before I heard jazz, the thing that was really fun for me that I can remember, when I was eight or nine years old, I would just sit down and improvise at the piano. And jazz, more then any other western music that I'm aware of, really makes improvisation sort of the thing and that's what gets me off. It's hard to say what I would be doing if it wasn't in the jazz format, but I think it would have to involve improvisation somehow.

AAJ: Any musicians out there that you feel the public and record companies should be aware of?

BM: There's a lot. Right here in New York, well, someone that will probably start getting a lot more attention, Mark Turner, he's an incredible tenor saxophonist. He's finally being discovered. He has his first album out on Warner Brothers. And a lot of musicians that he's played with, this guitarist named Kurt Rosenwinkel, who's absolutely phenomenal. It's a mystery to me why he doesn't have a record contract. His music's incredible and original. Some of the musicians that I play with, like Jeff Ballard, great drummer, and a whole host of great tenor players, a lot of the guys who play at Small's, here in New York. A bassist named Avishai Cohen who is from Israel and who has a very unique approach to his music. Just a whole host of musicians. One of my favorite musicians from my generation is Peter Bernstein, a great guitarist. He's not too well known.

AAJ: What have you been listening to lately?

BM: I'm not listening to too much jazz at the moment. Just whatever I sort of brought as I was leaving my apartment, a sort of grab bag. I really love this new album by this band, Radiohead called OK Computer. That's one that's been on heavy rotation. Another album that just came out that I'm on, actually, if I can give it a plug is a singer/songwriter named Scott Weiland (12 Bar Blues).

AAJ: The old Stone Temple Pilots singer?

BM: Yeah. I'm on his first solo album. It's really fun music. I've gotten to work with him in LA a little.

AAJ: How much of a transition is it from playing jazz to playing rock?

BM: The audience is definitely different, and it's really a trip. I've done a couple gigs with him in LA. One in particular was this Christmas K-ROQ, a big station there, Christmas Extravaganza or something (Acoustic Christmas). It was at Universal Amphitheater with thousands of people, and going out there, dressing up, the whole thing, and the audience sort of screaming and going nuts. It's a totally different kind of thing. It's a lot of pomp and circumstance and drama. It's not just about the music, it's very much about the image and package and personality of the band and the singer. I think it's something I used to turn my nose on when I got really into jazz. Truthfully, I shouldn't, because the music I really grew up listening to was rock and roll, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead, all that kind of stuff, Steely Dan. Before jazz and during jazz I listened to a lot of that music. I don't know if it would be just as satisfying to tour with a band like that, because you don't get to improvise. But if it's a good band, which this one was. Some other stuff, I just did a good record date with Willie Nelson, that was really fun. He had a great band. There is a different kind of satisfaction you get, it's a very visceral, physical thing that happens. It's a really sort of gut, primal level. It's really satisfying. It's very different.

AAJ: Most jazz purists frown on rock. They seem to be adverse to acid jazz or fusion. Do you find that kind of mentality is healthy for jazz or does it convey an elitist message?

BM: You said it. It's elitist. The thing about jazz that I see, looking at it through history is that people consider it high art, in the sense that they only like Miles Davis Kind of Blue or John Coltrane. There's a whole legacy of recordings. There's a whole canon that's going to stick with us forever. That's unquestionable, so why do we have to have such bad faith in it? Because historically what jazz has done is borrow from all sorts of genres and have an almost sacrilegious approach to what it takes. That's not unique in jazz. Classical music has done that, borrowing the minuet dance forms and making it the third movement in some of the greatest symphonies in the world. Taking folk songs and turning them into these beautiful lieder. The same with jazz, Dizzy Gillespie borrowing from the Cuban music, then borrowing from classical music, Art Tatum, going over Debussy. Jazz is always not been afraid to take from anything and then transfiguring it and really raise it up to another level. I think that's what can keep on happening now. That's what attracts me. You can take a pop song from any period and if it's a good song and it's got a good strong melody, you can express that melody and you get to improvise and sort of throw it away if you want and turn it inside out. There's no need to keep it inbred and away from everything else. It only alienates the audience. It's very elitist. It turns people off.

AAJ: Do you have any future projects in mind?

BM: I think I will continue to work with the trio. That's will definitely be the primary thing and recording with them again. More originals, I have got a lot of originals that I have been sitting on. The last album (The Art of the Trio, V. 2) was all standards. Working with Josh as well. Hopefully, at some point, I would like to do a solo record or something. I have shied from and have really just waited until I felt like I had something really strong to say, and I'm starting to get to that point. So maybe, in the next few years, doing a solo recording of original music.

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