Mehldau / Metheny Tour:

Brad’s performances with Pat Metheny began earlier this year in the United States and Canada, and included 30 concerts, traversing east and west. The next tour, starting in late June, will cover Europe, and they will round out the year in the fall with concerts in Southeast Asia. The band features bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard as well. In concert, the group is playing material from the two albums they have released. First there was “Metheny Mehldau”, released late last year, which included a majority of guitar/piano duo performances; and more recently, “Metheny Mehldau Quartet,” which featured primarily the group with Grenadier and Ballard. In the live shows, Pat and Brad have been beginning in a duo setting, with Larry and Jeff joining them later. Of this format, Mehldau says, “What you get in the shows is a broad sonic canvas – there’s a large amount of variety there. The duo can really play at a whisper, but there are moments in the quartet part of the show where the intensity is more like rock’n’roll.” Pat plays a few different guitars throughout the set: you’ll hear his classic dark electric sound, and he also pulls out the roland synth for some ‘shredding’ moments, like on his own “Ring of Life”, or Brad’s “Secret Beach.” The beautiful ‘baritone’ guitar is featured on Pat’s own tune, “Make Peace”, from the first duo record, and the trippy 42 string ‘Picasso’ guitar on “The Sound of Water” from the more recent record. Mehldau says of the touring, “I haven’t toured this extensively in a while – my trio or solo tours are shorter in length. But this is really a blast so far – we’re on the Pat Express!”

New Michael Brecker Release:

Brad played on roughly half of Michael Brecker’s last recording, “Pilgrimage”, which was recorded last year. It is set for release on May 22, 2007. In Brecker’s compositions on his last album, there is a formal complexity to much of the music, yet it speaks with a direct emotional urgency. His playing is on as high a level as he ever reached in terms of his ever-present virtuosity and seamless execution of ideas. Herbie Hancock, played piano on the remainder of the record, and the rest of the group is made up of Pat Metheny, John Patitucci, and Jack DeJohnette. Michael Brecker’s recent passing was sad for so many people, but this record will be enjoyed for many years to come.

Joni Mitchell Tribute:

Brad plays one track on the recently released “A Tribute to Joni Mitchell”. The record features various singers interpreting Mitchell’s music, and Brad’s solo piano rendition of “Don’t Interrupt The Sorrow” is the only non-vocal performance on the album. Mehldau says, “I’ve been a fan of Joni Mitchell for a number of years. Her lyrics are deep and full of meaning, but one aspect of her music that has hit me the most is her unique style of phrasing. Rhythmically, her approach is multi-faceted and more like a jazz singer. In my performance here, I tried to capture her phrasing very closely.” Mehldau’s performance is twofold: We hear a transcription-like allegiance to Mitchell’s original sung melody, but it is placed in the context of a texture that is characteristic of Mehldau’s own particular piano solo style.

Sam Yahel's New CD:

Sam Yahel, the world-renowned jazz organist and pianist, will release a new record called “Truth and Beauty” on June 19, 2007. Sam and Brad are old friends and colleagues, and Brad has written the liner notes for the record.

Read Brad's Liner Notes >

May 2007: Message from Brad:

I am very sad to announce the recent passing of my manager and dear friend, Michael Davenport. He touched many people’s lives in a positive way and knowing him was truly a great experience.

Michael had a long career as a manager and agent, mostly working in the arena of jazz, which began when he was very young – one of his first jobs was booking and promoting Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry in the 1950’s while he was still in high school. Los Angeles was home to him for his whole life. Michael worked there the following decades as a promoter, and was partially responsible for some historical concerts, including when Miles Davis brought his band to the Filmore. He also worked as a literary and screenwriter’s agent, and I don’t think I will ever meet anyone who knew as much about movies and books as Michael did. Besides music, film and literature were two great passions of his. In the last several decades, Michael focused more on being a personal manager for jazz musicians, and his roster included, through the years, Freddie Hubbard, Charlie Haden, Joe Lovano, Jean-Luc Ponty, Dianne Reeves, Fred Hersch, Enrico Pieranunzi, Eddie Daniels and Manhattan Transfer. I worked with him from 1995 until his passing.

Michael brought so much grace and tact to his profession – he never was unpleasant to anyone he came in contact with in all the years I knew him. Yet he accomplished so much for me personally, and for other musicians he worked with, demonstrating that a person in his position needn’t be pushy or abrasive. Michael charmed everyone he came in contact with his genuine friendliness and quiet intelligence. He had an instinctive sense of fair play that almost always won out in an argument. As a businessman he was a formidable communicator, and always tried to build bridges between parties rather than alienate people – this was simply in his nature.

Michael had a sharp, refined sense of how to talk to just about anyone and put him or her at ease, and this was the key to his longstanding success in his work. He brokered so well on his clients’ behalf by being non-confrontational in the best sense of the word. His ability to gain what was in the interest of the musicians he worked with without cutting anyone’s head off had to do with a lack of ego. When Michael was confronted with a bit of nastiness, he would often simply say, “I just don’t take it personally,” and that was very instructive to me. His cool-headed way of taking the high road is, sadly, not the norm, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have worked with him as long as I did.

As a manager, Michael brought a wide range of experience to the table. The most enjoyable thing about working with him, and one reason why I became such a great friend with Michael, was that he had a true passion for music. This meant that there was always a genuine enthusiasm that permeated into his work that was completely independent of the commerce aspect of his job. He loved what he was doing, in a big part, because he loved music and the arts, and was intrigued by the creative process. As a manager, Michael will always be the model for me, because he was also creative. He had an intimate understanding of each individual musician he was working with – what made him or her tick, what was special about him or her – and so he was able to think alongside with the musicians he worked with, creating opportunities for them that were new and challenging.

Michael’s range of knowledge, not just about music, but the arts in general, was very wide, and in the process of knowing him I learned a lot. In keeping with his personality, he had a way of imparting knowledge that was never preachy or didactic, and this aspect of our friendship was also instructive to me: He demonstrated that there is a right way to gain people’s sympathy and interest in one’s own pursuits, one that involves subtlety, clarity and economy of words. In the end, it is Michael’s friendship that I will miss the most, because he was truly a giving person; I never felt that was an effort for him.

Two of Michael’s other passions were photography and travel – he had a great curiosity about culture in general and documented his travels with beautiful photographs. He always traveled with his wonderful wife of many years, Judy Davenport, who survives him. Judy and Michael were a fantastic couple, and shared their lives together in a formidable way. My wife Fleurine and I send Judy lots of love and wish her strength and grace in this period of her life.

– Brad Mehldau

Metheny Mehldau CD Reviews:

Brad's new album with guitarist Pat Metheny is among the top reviewed albums of 2006.

BBC:
"From the opening notes, it's clear that the pair are incredibly well suited, despite never having played together before this session (their writing is also surprisingly similar too). Mehldau brings out an unadorned clarity in Metheny's playing."
Read the Complete BBC review >

All About Jazz:
"It really is a collaborative effort. Each voice remains strong and distinct, but ultimately the two players create something that sounds like both of them and, strangely, also like neither."
Read the Complete All About Jazz review >

Jazz Houston:
"Mehldau, whose work in the last few years has become increasingly introspective, truly has a pianism of his own making. His now famous style is one that draws from the varied likes of Hancock, Jarrett, Newborn, and even has classical influences, particularly Schubert as is evidenced on the opening number."
Read the Complete Jazz Houston Review >

Blog Critics.org:
"This is truly a collaboration. Regardless of who wrote a particular song, Metheny and Mehldau do not simply trade leads while the other "comps." In fact, if there is any tendency in the songwriting, it is to give the other person the opening. Particularly on the songs in which it is just Metheny and Mehldau, there is a comfortable and tight interplay between the two."
Read the Complete Blog Critics Review >

Jazz Review:
"Brad Mehldau is a modern master of the piano, an eclectic and very creative musician in mainstream clothing, at home with jazz standards as well as songs by the Beatles and Nick Drake."
Read the Complete Jazz Review >

New Writing from Brad Now Available:

Two new essays from Brad are now available in the Writing section of this website. They are for the albums House On Hill and Love Sublime. In addition, there is the complete Poem Text for Love Sublime.

Go to the Writing section >

Gramophone, October 2006 Review of "Love Sublime"

Brad Mehldau
'Love Sublime'
Songs from the Book of Hours: Love Poems to God; The Blue Estauries. Love Sublime

Swoops and swoons from Fleming in song cycles specially written for her

Renée Flemming is a fan of the maverick jazz pianist/composer Brad Mehldau, and thanks to her Carnegie Hall commissioned this pair of song-cyles. Mehldau is a deep thinder when it comes to compositional technique and structure. Thus, while at first hearing it may seem that there's little or no tone-painting in the selections from The Blue Estuaries (based on poems by Louise Bogan), further listening reveals subtle associations. In "Tears in Sleep," for example, the vocal line slides over slippery harmonies, suggesting dreamy restlesness.

Mehldau's setting of poems from Rilke's early, angst-ridden collection The Book of Hours is more overtly descriptive. The desolate, chiming piano part of "Your first word was light" is an ideal foil for the soprano's tortured entreaties. In "I love you, gentlest of ways," the spare, hymn-like opening becomes quietly awesome, underlining the sudden weight of the line "you, the forest that always surrounded us." The bluesy, syncopated character of "I love the dark hours of my being" may come as a surprise, however - though as the harmonies grow more exploratory, the song begins to sound like an Expressionist spiritual, which is somehow apt. Love Sublime, served here as an encore, is an exquisitely melancholy mélodie that Fauré surely would have loved.

Fleming sings with plush tone and deep feeling, often sacrificing textural clarity in the process, and her swoops and swoons help bring out the connections to jazz. Her approach works, though it would be fascinating to hear this music sung in a purer, cleaner style. As for Mehldau, his playing is simply brilliant.

Andrew Farach-Colton

June 26, 2006: The New York Times Reviews

Following are reviews of Brad's two new albums, House On Hill and Love Sublime:

Brad Mehldau Trio
"House on Hill"
(Nonesuch)

Brad Mehldau and Renée Fleming
"Love Sublime"
(Nonesuch)

Last year the pianist Brad Mehldau replaced the longtime drummer in his trio, Jorge Rossy, with a much more loamy percussionist, Jeff Ballard. The results, as heard in performance by the new trio and on Mr. Mehldau's last Nonesuch album, were salutary, like drawing the curtains to let the daylight in. Still, Mr. Mehldau's original trio, with Mr. Rossy and the bassist Larry Grenadier, was a joy throughout its 10-year run. And it bowed out on a high note, with the exceptional standards album "Anything Goes," in 2004.

Mr. Mehldau had recorded a partner album of original material, but his label, Warner Brothers, imploded its jazz division before it could be released. That phantom material has now materialized in the form of "House on Hill" on Nonesuch, a Warner Music Group company. The album is a marvel of collective self-assurance, worth hearing not only for Mr. Rossy's weightless time feel but also for Mr. Mehldau's thoughtful compositions.

"Love Sublime," Mr. Mehldau's collaboration with the soprano Renée Fleming, is thoughtful too, sometimes achingly so. Its centerpiece is a song cycle, commissioned by Carnegie Hall, based on an early, prayerful bundle of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke; its style is regal yet austere. It succeeds handsomely as a showcase for Ms. Fleming, and as an example of Mr. Mehldau's deft calibration of pretense and personality. NATE CHINEN

Brad Mehldau Releases Two New Albums on June 27:

House On Hill, the brand-new album from the Brad Mehldau Trio is now available worldwide. The album features 9 tracks. “All of the songs were written between 2000 and 2002, and they form a time capsule of my writing then, and of the way the trio was playing together," Mehldau said.

Love Sublime, a beautiful new work featuring Renée Fleming is also now available. Mehldau had this to say about the recording: “I was deeply flattered that Renee was interested in working with me, and it made me very happy that she trusted me to write something for her. It was a challenge that I did not take lightly. The opportunity to compose music for someone of her stature was so great that it was daunting at times."

For more information about the albums, visit the Music page >

From Brad, April 2005:

Two years ago, I received a commission to compose music for soprano voice and piano accompaniment. The debut of the music will take place on May 15th at Zankel Hall, the new performance space directly below Carnegie Hall. For the performance, I will accompany the great soprano, Renée Fleming. Renée has known my music for several years and discussed the idea of my writing something for voice and piano with the late Robert Harth, who was the artistic director for Carnegie Hall. Mr. Harth gave me the commission before his untimely passing last year, and it is a great privilege and honor for me.

I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Harth just once in person, after a concert that I played with my trio at Zankel Hall soon after it opened. His achievements during his tenure at Carnegie Hall were wide ranging, and among many others, he will be remembered for spearheading the creation of Zankel Hall two years ago. Furthermore, in his choice of programming for the first season at Zankel, he immediately established it as an adventurous alternative to the prestigious hall above it, by booking jazz, world music, lesser known classical works, and commissioning new music, like the songs I’ve had the opportunity to write and will perform with Renée. The concert will be dedicated to Robert Harth’s legacy at Carnegie Hall.

I’ve chosen two poets to set to music: poems from American poet Louise Bogan (1897-1970) and from Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926). I wasn’t familiar with Louise Bogan until Renée Fleming introduced her poetry to me as we discussed what material we might use. The poems I’ve chosen come from “The Blue Estuaries,” a collection that Bogan herself culled near the end of her lifetime from all of her poetry, representing what she felt to be her strongest work. Her command of language, the rhythm of her words, and what she communicated in her poetry spoke to me immediately. I had to spend some time with the texts to really grasp their meaning and choose which poems would work in a musical setting. In particular, “Tears in Sleep,” one of the poems I’ve set from her, was a new kind of challenge for me, because of the female perspective it presents.

The Bogan poems that I’ve chosen do not constitute a theme; they are merely works from her that spoke strongly to me. The Rilke poems that I’ve selected, on the contrary, have a thematic unity. They are presented in an English translation by Anita Barrows and Joanna R. Macy, entitled “The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God.” They are early poems of Rilke, but some of the themes that he was to address in his great later works like the “Duino Elegies” are already present. There are two strong opposing impulses that make themselves felt in “The Book of Hours,” and Rilke struggles to reconcile them: On the one hand there is a deep thirst for an authentic religious experience, and on the other hand, there is a profound enmity towards the dogmatic, patriarchal entity that often constitutes a religious experience.

Although I’ve made my name as a jazz musician and have a deep love for jazz music, these songs are not jazz. The music has been written out completely; they are not jazz ‘charts’ that sketch out a guideline for the piano and allow the vocalist to take liberties with the rhythmic phrasing and melody. The songs draw from three principal influences: The art songs of classical music, particularly those of composers like Schumann and Fauré in the middle 19th Century; 20th Century American pop music, particularly the intimate music of singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake; and more generally, the harmony and piano writing of the 20th Century, from a wide range of composers like Prokofiev and Messiaen, jazz music, and pop music. Listeners who know my jazz playing might also hear certain rhythmic strategies that I’ve employed in my writing and improvisation, for example, with my trio.

Brad Mehldau