Serious

Brad Mehldau

Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau has recorded and performed extensively since the early 1990s. His most consistent output over the years has taken place in the trio format. 

Mehldau’s musical personality forms a dichotomy.  He is first and foremost an improviser, and greatly cherishes the surprise and wonder that can occur from a spontaneous musical idea that is expressed directly, in real time.  But he also has a deep fascination for the formal architecture of music, and it informs everything he plays.  In his most inspired playing, the actual structure of his musical thought serves as an expressive device.  As he plays, he listens to how ideas unwind, and the order in which they reveal themselves.  Each tune has a strongly felt narrative arch, whether it expresses itself in a beginning, an end, or something left intentionally open-ended.  The two sides of Mehldau’s personality - the improviser and the formalist - play off each other, and the effect is often something like controlled chaos.

Mehldau's latest album Highway Rider is out on 15 March on Nonesuch

Download Brad Mehldau's biography here