IMN : Updates for Brad Mehldau

Brad Mehldau's "Imaginative Drive"

IMN

May 6th, 2013

From The Los Angeles Times

Review: Brad Mehldau, the Bad Plus push jazz further ahead at UCLA
By: Chris Barton

The night began with Mehldau and his graceful rhythm section of longtime bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard, who took over for Jorge Rossy in 2005. The trio locked into the rich, toe-tapping swing of Sam Rivers’ “Beatrice,” which Mehldau dedicated to Haden, who recorded the song with Joe Henderson.

Mehldau built a reputation on unconventional covers from the pop songbook, and this night was no exception, with a playful retake on the Beach Boys’ “Friends” and an impressionistic run at the Beatles’ “And I Love Her,” which developed from tentative, whispered contemplation to an anthemic declaration in a way that mirrored a long, heated romance.

Every shift Mehldau made, his taut rhythm section — which can also be heard with saxophonist Mark Turner in the Fly Trio — was locked behind him, shining brightest on a song that featured a keening, bowed melody from Grenadier and a set-closer that began with broken-hearted blues and stretched ever further behind Mehldau’s imaginative drive.

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Confirmed Tourdates As Of May 2nd, 2013

IMN

June 4th, 2013: Town Hall New York, NY USA [*Joshua Redman Quartet with Brad Mehldau, Larry Grenadier, Brian Blade & Orchestra ]
June 8th, 2013: BMW Jazz Festival - HSBC Theatre Sao Paulo, Brazil
June 9th, 2013: BMW Jazz Festival - Vivo Rio Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
June 11th, 2013: Libertador General San Martin Theatre Cordoba, Argentina
June 12th, 2013: Astengo Theatre Rosario, Argentina
June 13th, 2013: Gran REx Buenos Aires, Argentina
October 9th, 2013: Stern Auditorium New York, NY USA [*Orpheus Chamber Orchestra featuring Brad Mehldau, Composer and Pianist]
October 16th, 2013: The Triple Door Seattle, WA USA [*Mehliana: featuring Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana]
October 16th, 2013: The Triple Door Seattle, WA USA [*Mehliana Featuring Brad Mehldau & Mark Guiliana]
October 17th, 2013: The Independent San Francisco, CA USA [*Mehliana Featuring Brad Mehldau & Mark Guiliana]
October 17th, 2013: The Independent San Francisco, CA USA [*Mehliana: featuring Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana]
October 18th, 2013: Largo at the Coronet Los Angeles, USA [*Mehliana Featuring Brad Mehldau & Mark Guiliana]
October 19th, 2013: Largo at the Coronet Los Angeles, USA [*Mehliana Featuring Brad Mehldau & Mark Guiliana]
October 22nd, 2013: Evanston SPACE Evanston, IL USA [*Mehliana: featuring Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana]
October 23rd, 2013: Wexner Center for the Arts Columbus, OH USA [*Mehliana: featuring Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana]
October 24th, 2013: The HighLine Ballroom New York, NY USA [*Mehliana featuring Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana]
October 26th, 2013: The Sinclair Cambridge, MA USA [*Mehliana featuring Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana]
November 5th, 2013: Ferenc Liszt Music Academy of Music Budapest, Hungary [*solo]
November 7th, 2013: Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Netherlands [*solo]
November 8th, 2013: Theatre de Vevey Vevey, Switzerland [*solo]
November 10th, 2013: Auditorio Nacional Madrid, Spain [*solo]
November 14th, 2013: Theatre Sortie Ouest Beziers, France [*Mehliana: featuring Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana]
November 15th, 2013: Le Fil Saint-Etienne, France [*Mehliana: featuring Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana]
November 16th, 2013: Cargo de Nuit Arles, France [*Mehliana: featuring Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana]
November 20th, 2013: Fuzz'Yon La Roche Sur Yon Cedex, France [*Mehliana: featuring Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana]
November 26th, 2013: Opera Garneir, Le Printemps des Arts Monte Carlo, Monaco [*Mehliana Featuring Brad Mehldau & Mark Guiliana]
November 27th, 2013: Karlstorbahnhof Heidelberg, Germany [*Mehliana Featuring Brad Mehldau & Mark Guiliana]
March 18th, 2014: Maison de la Culture Amiens, France
April 2nd, 2014: Disney Hall Los Angeles, CA USA
April 5th, 2014: SF Jazz Theatre San Francisco, CA USA

Bobby McFerrin, Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau break barriers at Symphony Center

IMN

April 19th, 2013

from chicagotribune.com

Bobby McFerrin, Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau break barriers at Symphony Center
By: Howard Reich

Two other genre-benders collaborated Friday night at Symphony Center, even if, in retrospect, they seemed like specialists compared to the voraciously eclectic McFerrin.

At first glance, mandolinist Chris Thile and pianist Brad Mehldau would not appear to have a great deal in common. But Thile’s folk-pop-bluegrass impulses and mandolin pyrotechnics reflect an open-eared approach to music-making, while Mehldau’s jazz vocabulary always has pushed out into rock, classical and other unexpected repertory.

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Brad Mehldau, Chris Thile are two of a kind

IMN

April 15th, 2013

Brad Mehldau, Chris Thile are two of a kind

Strictly speaking, mandolinist Chris Thile is a bluegrass musician and pianist Brad Mehldau is a jazz musician. But genre categories disappeared when the two met at Berklee Performance Center Sunday night for a sold-out World Music/CRASHarts concert, the fifth show in a nine-city tour.

In fact, genre distinction is something that both musicians have worked hard to erase from their work. Mehldau’s day job is with his acclaimed jazz trio, but he likes to cover Radiohead and Nick Drake and work in a variety of contexts and collaborations. Similarly, Thile’s current outfit is the progressive-bluegrass band Punch Brothers (previously he was with Nickel Creek), but he’s also recorded and toured with Yo-Yo Ma’s Goat Rodeo Sessions band, and his next album is scheduled to be a collection of Bach violin pieces transcribed for mandolin.

To read the full article click here kind/OHy2oVFsI5bXNoEsJAiCrK/story.html

from bostonglobe.com

Brad Mehldau and Chris Thile team up for elegant, beautiful music

IMN

April 13th, 2013

Brad Mehldau and Chris Thile team up for elegant, beautiful music
By: Michael J West

Brad Mehldau and Chris Thile both play music in which technical virtuosity is front and center. The former is a jazz pianist, easily the most influential of his generation; the latter, an innovator of the bluegrass mandolin who won a MacArthur “genius” award last year. So their duo performance Friday night at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center was an achievement in itself. Their complex work translated to plain-faced beauty: simple, direct and exquisite.

To read the full article click here

from washingtonpost.com

For Thile and Mehldau, a meeting of musical minds

IMN

April 12th, 2013

For Thile and Mehldau, a meeting of musical minds
By: Jeremy D. Goodwin

If you squint hard and look from the proper angle, there are only a few degrees of musical separation between Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau.

They both excel in full-band scenarios as well as solo. They’re both virtuosic instrumentalists who venture into unfamiliar contexts. They both cover Bach and Radiohead.

And both have shown a penchant for unexpected collaborations. Mandolin wunderkind Thile is teaming up with Mehldau, a musician as comfortable playing jazz standards on solo piano as he is leading his trio through a long deconstruction of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” for a nine-show tour of duo performances that visits the Berklee Performance Center tonight.

To read the full article click here

from bostonglobe.com

Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau bond through mutual musical appreciation

IMN

April 12th, 2013

Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau bond through mutual musical appreciation
By: Wayne Bledsoe

Chris Thile once titled an album “Not All Who Wander Are Lost” after a poem by J.R.R. Tolkien. It could easily describe his life as a musician. Thile was known as a mandolin prodigy before he was a teen and became a star as part of the group Nickel Creek. He followed that act by forming The Punch Brothers and embarks on regular musical pairings with all manner of ace players, including Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Stuart Duncan in the “Goat Rodeo” project.

In conversation, Thile is always enthusiastic about music and where it’s taking him. The limited number of concerts he’s performing with jazz lion Brad Mehldau is a good example.

He says it was fellow Punch Brother Gabe Witcher who introduced him to Mehldau’s music.

To read the full article click here

from knoxville.com

Thile + Melhdau = Bluegrass + Jazz + Excitement

IMN

April 12th, 2013

Thile + Melhdau = Bluegrass + Jazz + Excitement

There may be no better Boston venue than the Berklee Performance Center for this Sunday’s Chris Thile/Brad Mehldau matchup, presented by World Music.

Both musicians established themselves very young, like the school’s students, and both have drawn young listeners to genres not necessarily favored by the iPod generation –bluegrass and improv jazz – with inventive pop covers. Listeners come for the Radiohead, and stay for the virtuosity.

To read the full article click here

from wbur.org

Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau, "Tireless musical explorers "

IMN

April 12th, 2013

Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau – Bowery Ballroom (New York, NY)

There are few pleasures in life that compare to encountering music that liberates us from our expectations. Tireless musical explorers Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau have set out on a collaborative journey that promises to take us into uncharted territory. Each a genius in their own right and each tethering an audience that has swelled beyond their requisite market, the duo have embarked on a U.S. tour that opened at New York’s Bowery Ballroom on a surprisingly warm spring night.

The set list ran the gamut, seemingly with contributions from each side and a few choices that nicely bridged their respective backgrounds. Among the most resonant with the hip New York crowd was a terrific arrangement of Radiohead’s “Knives Out,” which Thile owned convincingly on vocals. Jumping seamlessly between jazz, Irish folk reels and pop songs, Thile and Mehldau seemed to take every risk they could think of, all while avoiding the presumed pitfall of stepping on each others toes amidst constant improvisation.

To read the full article click here

from elmoremagazine.com

Bluegrass and Jazz, Meeting in More Than the Middle

IMN

April 10th, 2013

from nytimes.com

Bluegrass and Jazz, Meeting in More Than the Middle
By: Nate Chinen

Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau come from different worlds but the same species, and whatever feels unlikely about their pairing is eclipsed by what feels perfectly natural. Mr. Thile, the mandolinist and singer with Punch Brothers, is a progressive-bluegrass pacesetter; Mr. Mehldau is the most influential jazz pianist of the last 20 years. Both are team players who can still give the impression of aesthetic self-containment. Both love Bach and the Beatles, and both have developed fan bases bigger and broader (and younger) than their genre silos can accommodate.

On Tuesday night they played a sold-out show at the Bowery Ballroom, kicking off a nine-city tour that ends in Austin, Tex., on April 20. They worked together as an acoustic duo with no reinforcements, Mr. Thile cradling his mandolin in the crook of an arm and Mr. Mehldau seated at a Steinway that stretched nearly the length of the stage. There was some courteous give and take in their 90-minute show, but more often a balance of enthusiastic risk and intuitive accord. It felt unhurried but went by quickly.

To read the full article click here&

Mehliana bring on the baroque-electronica

IMN

March 12th, 2013

from jazzwisemagazine.com

Jazz breaking news: Mehliana bring on the baroque-electronica
By:Mike Flyn

Last December sample-busting cult producer DJ Shadow was told to curtail his latest, boundary pushing set at the Mansion Nightclub, Miami, for being “too future.” It was perhaps indicative of what happens when artists try to break out of their perceived stylistic box, only to be met with bemused looks and, worse still, rejection by their fanbase. Thankfully revered pianist Brad Mehldau’s new electronic jazz duo project with rising star drummer Mark Guiliana – dubbed Mehliana – only caused one minor negative reaction at last night’s London debut at Hoxton’s ultra-cool Village Underground. One song into the set a very disgruntled woman pushed her way through the crowd, face like thunder; she couldn’t leave the venue fast enough. Perhaps what had caused such consternation was the stripped back keyboards and drums pairing – a challenging set up for both musicians and audience alike – with Mehldau working overtime between three keyboards and Guiliana deep in concentration as his precision beat-making formed the backbone of this ever-morphing set.

While the pianist has readily acknowledged influences outside jazz, in particular Radiohead, among his repertoire of choice pop, folk and rock covers, his work on Fender Rhodes, or anything solely electronic, has never been as out front as it was here. The revelatory swathes of sounds phased from eerie baroque harpsichord-like ripples, to fully blown horror movie scores, with Vangelis, Jeff Wayne, Messiaen and Ennio Morricone all jostling for attention. Joe Zawinul and Chick Corea were in there somewhere too.

To read the full article click here

Mehliana"...created a series of unfolding, rhythmically compelling vignettes"

IMN

March 12th, 2013

from ft.com

Brad Mehldau & Mark Guiliana, Village Underground, London
By: Mike Hobart

Brad Mehldau’s recent projects range from solo piano recitals to orchestral showcases, but it is a series of intimate, genre-blending duets that have proved to be the most intriguing. These include opera with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, bluegrass with mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile and chamber music with fellow pianist Kevin Hays – the two Americans’ jazz/classical duet briefly toured the UK only last month. In each setting, Mehldau has shown an extraordinary sensitivity to his collaborator’s oeuvre without over-imposing his will or losing his identity.

This gig, billed as Mehliana, took on dance music in an equal-partners duet with the similarly jazz-rooted and open-minded drummer/programmer Mark Guiliana. Mehldau’s spidery lines and winsome melodies were delivered by keyboards and synths, snaking through the distant echoes of dub, electro and buzzsaw funk, much of it his own making.

To read the full article click here

Watch Elliott Smith, Jon Brion and Brad Mehldau in a lost TV pilot

IMN

January 18th, 2013

Back in 2000, the L.A. producer/musical gadfly Jon Brion pitched a TV pilot to VH1. “The Jon Brion Show” was pegged as a kind of neo-variety show with guest musicians (a familiar format to anyone who knows his Largo roundtables). Director Paul Thomas Anderson even lent his hand to the pilot.

The network declined to pick it up, but Anderson on Thursday posted a video with a note on his YouTube channel: “I tore up the floorboards at H.Q. the other day and came up with this little number on VHS. She holds up well.”

The clip is the show’s pilot episode, and it has some remarkable lost footage of the late, beloved singer-songwriter Elliott Smith performing alongside Brion and crossover jazz pianist Brad Mehldau.

To see the clip click here

"Where Do You Start" Wins Academie Du Jazz's Album of the Year

IMN

January 16th, 2013

from academiedujazz.com

On January 15, 2013 the Academie Du Jazz held it’s annual awards ceremony. Brad Mehldau’s latest release Where Do You Start was awarded Best Album of the Year.

To see the full list of winners and nominees click here

"Ode" on Ian Patterson's Best Releases of 2012

IMN

January 2nd, 2013

from allaboutjazz.com

Ian Patterson’s Best Releases of 2012
By: Ian Patterson

Seven years separate Ode from this trio’s last studio recording, the outstanding Day is Done (Nonesuch, 2005), which has come to mark a before-and-after in Brad Mehldau’s trajectory. Previously, the pianist had recorded in a traditional trio setting with few exceptions. Since Day is Done, however, Mehldau’s projects have covered much more diverse terrain: setting poetry to music with classical soprano Renée Fleming; rubbing shoulders with guitarist Pat Metheny; and blending classical and popular song with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. Highway Rider (Nonesuch, 2010) was an orchestral suite of cinematic scope, while Modern Voices (Nonesuch, 2011) paired Mehldau with pianist Kevin Hays, simultaneously working their way through the compositional frameworks of Patrick Zimmerli and other contemporary classical composers.

To the read full article and see the rest of the list click here

"Ode" Wins Hungarian Gramofon Award

IMN

December 18th, 2012

gramofon.hu

Brad Mehldau’s album Ode has won the 2012 Hungarian Gramofon Awards for International Jazz CD of the Year.

This year’s awards ceremony, followed as always by a jazz concert, was held on 10 December, at 8 pm at the new venue of Budapest Jazz Club. With this year’s concert Gramofon paid homage to the late István Regős, passed away in spring 2012, who for the last thirty years had been an important representative of the Hungarian jazz scene. Most members of the Regős István Tribute Band, performing at the event, played together with the composer-pianist on his last, posthumously published album entitled Cooperation. Their concert together with double bassist Tibor Csuhaj-Barna, former member of Regős István Trió, and vocalist Gábor Winand, featured a new composition written for Regős. It was a tribute to the artist and to their friend. Iván Nesztor – percussion, flute ; István Grencsó – saxophone ; István Gyárfás – guitar ; Tibor Csuhaj-Barna – double bass ; György Jeszenszky – drums ; Gábor Winand – vocals.

To see the full list of winners click here