Jazz Articles about Brad Mehldau

About Brad Mehldau

Album Review

Brad Mehldau Trio: Seymour Reads The Constitution!

Read "Seymour Reads The Constitution!" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 24, 2018

Pianist Brad Mehldau has an adventurous and innovative side, one that he displays on Largo (Warner Brothers, 2002) and Highway Rider (Nonesuch, 2010), albums that feature expansive and--with Largo--electronic inputs. But he always returns to the acoustic trio format that brought him to prominence. It began with a series of five Art Of The Trio albums on the Warner Brothers label released between 1997 and 2001, a project that led to a rise that hit its zenith with the near ...

Album Review

Brad Mehldau Trio: Seymour Reads The Constitution!

Read "Seymour Reads The Constitution!" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
May 23, 2018

The track listing of Seymour Reads The Constitution! is ultimately as deceptive as the album's title (not to mention its cryptic cover image). The ten cuts feature only three compositions written by Brad Mehldau, yet these pieces constitute almost half the record's sixty-plus minutes playing time. As a result, the covers provide exceptional pacing because the pianist and his band explore that material just as deftly, only slightly less intently. And markedly less intensely than, for example, the ...

Album Review

Brad Mehldau: After Bach

Read "After Bach" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
April 4, 2018

The exacting rigor in pianist Brad Mehldau's playing made it inevitable he would one day issue a record devoted to a great classical composer. Yet, true to the open-ended implications of its title, After Bach is not merely a recitation of the master's work (not that it really could be, given Mehldau's penchant for improvisation). In fact, the seven original pieces here outnumber the five of Bach's from The Well-Tempered Clavier. And over the course of the dozen ...

Album Review

Brad Mehldau: After Bach

Read "After Bach" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
March 2, 2018

It seems that classical composer J.S. Bach has provided a surge of inspiration for some recent releases by artists on the Nonesuch label, starting with the Bach Trios led by an unusual yet explosive combination of musicians such as cellist Yo-Yo Ma, mandolinist Chris Thile, and bassist Edgar Meyer. Now we have another Bach-inspired release, this one by the highly acclaimed pianist Brad Mehldau, with works consisting of selection of the composer's compositions, along with several originals inspired by Bach's ...

Album Review

Brad Mehldau Trio: Blues and Ballads

Read "Blues and Ballads" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 19, 2016

Call Brad Mehldau's Blues and Ballads the pianist's “Every Man Set." There has been, from the beginning of Mehldau's career, a sense of the cerebral in his approach, with its classical music influences and his deep technical virtuosity. Throw the sometimes dense and erudite writing for selected liner notes (mostly earlier in his career) into that mix, and “Too deep for me" might be a reaction of the perennial everyman. Except for the beauty.

Album Review

Brad Mehldau Trio: Blues and Ballads

Read "Blues and Ballads" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
June 2, 2016

It's easy to play the blues--or at the very least it's easy to learn the basics--but keeping the form fresh and interesting is another matter entirely. Likewise, any beginner can tackle a quiet ballad, but presenting something simple and pretty is really harder than it sounds. The Brad Mehldau Trio manages its always-distinctive blend of all those things on this lineup's fifth release, still making song-sculpting and harmonic shifting into something both inventive and accessible.They run a vast ...

Live From Philadelphia

Brad Mehldau Trio / GoGo Penguin at World Cafe Live

by Geno Thackara
April 29, 2016

If there's one thing about music that keeps us all going, it has to be endless adaptability. There's no instrument or genre that doesn't have some fresh possibilities still to discover (except maybe hair metal, I suppose). Philadelphia's World Cafe Live offered yet another illustration of the idea by hosting two exceptional piano trios within the space of a week. The basic setup may be the same, but the results could have hardly been more different. Brad Mehldau ...