Brad Mehldau

Mehldau studied music at The New School, touring and recording while still a student. He was a member of saxophonist Joshua Redman's quartet in the mid-1990s, and has led his own trio since the early 1990s. His first long-term trio featured bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy; in 2005 Jeff Ballard replaced Rossy. These bands have released more than a dozen albums under the pianist's name.


Since the early 2000s, Mehldau has experimented with other musical formats in addition to trio and solo piano. Largo, released in 2002, contains electronics and input from rock and classical musicians. Later examples include: touring and recording with guitarist Pat Metheny; writing and playing song cycles for classical singers Renée Fleming, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Ian Bostridge; composing orchestral pieces for 2009's Highway Rider; and playing electronic keyboard instruments in a duo with drummer Mark Guiliana.


Aspects of pop, rock, and classical music, including German Romanticism, have been absorbed into Mehldau's writing and playing. Through his use of some traditional elements of jazz without being restricted by them, simultaneous playing of different melodies in separate hands, and incorporation of pop and rock pieces, Mehldau has influenced musicians in and beyond jazz in their approaches to writing, playing, and choice of repertoire.

Early life[edit]

Mehldau was born on August 23, 1970, in Jacksonville, Florida.^[1] His adoptive family^[2] was father Craig Mehldau, an ophthalmologist,^[3][4] mother Annette, a homemaker, and sister Leigh Anne, who became a social worker.^[3] The family moved from Roswell, Georgia to Bedford, New Hampshire in 1975.^[5] There was always a piano in the house during Mehldau's childhood,^[6] and he initially listened to pop and rock music on the radio.^[7] His family moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, when Mehldau was 10.^[8] Up to this point he had played mostly simple pop tunes and exercises from books, but the move brought him a new piano teacher, who introduced him to classical music.^[8] This new interest lasted for a few years, but by the age of 14 he was listening more to jazz, including recordings by saxophonist John Coltrane and pianist Oscar Peterson.^[8] Keith Jarrett's Bremen/Lausanne helped Mehldau realize the potential of the piano as an instrument.^[9]


Mehldau attended William H. Hall High School and played in its concert jazz band.^[10] While at high school, he began transcribing jazz solos from recordings, to improve his listening skills and gain insights into improvisation.^[11] From the age of 15 until he graduated from high school he had a weekly gig at a local club, and performed for weddings and other parties, often with fellow Hall student Joel Frahm.^[12] In his junior year at the school Mehldau won Berklee College of Music's Best All Round Musician Award for school students.^[13] Mehldau described himself as being, up to this point, "a white, upper-middle-class kid who lived in a pretty homogenized environment".^[14]


After graduating, Mehldau moved to New York City in 1988 to study jazz and contemporary music at The New School,^[10][13] on a partial scholarship.^[15] He studied under pianists Fred Hersch, Junior Mance and Kenny Werner,^[4] and drummer Jimmy Cobb.^[13] In 1989, Mehldau was a member of saxophonist Christopher Hollyday's band that toured for several months; as a result of playing so often with one group, Mehldau was able to assimilate the music of Wynton Kelly and McCoy Tyner, his two principal influences on piano up to that point, and began to develop his own sound.^[16] Before the age of 20, Mehldau also had gigs in Cobb's band, along with fellow student Peter Bernstein on guitar.^[13]