Carnegie Hall Welcomes Brad Mehldau to Zankel Hall Tonight

Brad Mehldau, one of the foremost jazz pianists of his generation, returns to Carnegie Hall for an intimate solo piano recital tonight, October 22 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall. Mehldau's last solo performance at the Hall was during the 2010-2011 season when he was the first ever jazz artist appointed to hold Carnegie Hall's Debs Composer's Chair.

The upcoming performance will include the world premiere of Three Pieces After Bach, a new work co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall as part its 125 Commissions Project in celebration of the Hall's 125th anniversary. The project will see at least 125 new works commissioned from leading composers and premiered at Carnegie Hall between 2015 and 2020. The program will also feature several well-known selections from Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, weaved between Mehldau's jazz improvisations inspired by the Baroque master.

Mehldau previously composed three works commissioned by Carnegie Hall for voice and piano: The Blue Estuaries and The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, which were performed in the spring of 2005 with the acclaimed classical soprano Renée Fleming; and Love Songs which he performed with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter in February 2009. The pair reunited to perform an extended version of Love Songs in winter 2011, and during that same season Mehldau premiered Rock 'n' Roll Dances Nos. 3 & 4 for two pianos, six winds, and percussion, also commissioned by Carnegie Hall.

This performance takes place on the heels of the Nonesuch Records release of Mehldau's 10 Years Solo Live, an eight-LP vinyl box set including selections from 19 live recordings made over a decade of the pianist's European solo concerts and is divided into four thematic subsets of four sides each: Dark/Light, The Concert, Intermezzo/Rückblick, and E Minor/E Major.

About Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau has performed around the world at a steady pace since the mid-1990s, with his trio and as a solo pianist. His performances convey a wide range of expression. There is often an intellectual rigor to the continuous process of abstraction that may take place on a given tune, and a certain density of information. That could be followed by a stripped down, emotionally direct ballad. Mehldau favors juxtaposing extremes. He has attracted a sizeable following over the years, one that has grown to expect a singular, intense experience in his performance.

Mehldau's most consistent output over the years has taken place in the trio format. Starting in 1996, his group released a series of five records on Warner Bros. entitled The Art of the Trio. Mehldau also has a solo piano recording entitled Elegiac Cycle, and a record called Places that includes both solo piano and trio songs. Elegiac Cycle and Places might be called "concept" albums. They are made up exclusively of original material and have central themes that hover over the compositions. Other Mehldau recordings include Largo, a collaborative effort with the innovative musician and producer Jon Brion, and Anything Goes-a trio outing with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy. After ten rewarding years with Rossy playing in Mehldau's regular trio, drummer Jeff Ballard joined the band in 2005.

His first record for Nonesuch, Brad Mehldau Live in Tokyo, was released in 2004. Mehldau's latest release, a monumental eight-LP vinyl box set, 10 Years Solo Live, will be released on October 16, 2015. The set is culled from 19 live recordings of his European solo concerts, made over the course of a decade, and is divided into four thematic subsets of four sides each: Dark/Light, The Concert, Intermezzo/Rückblick, and E Minor / E Major. 10 Years Solo Live will be released digitally and on CD in November 2015.

In addition to his trio and solo projects, Mehldau has worked with a number of great jazz musicians, including a rewarding gig with saxophonist Joshua Redman's band for two years, recording and concerts with Charlie Haden and Lee Konitz, and recording as a sideman with the likes of Wayne Shorter, John Scofield, and Charles Lloyd. For more than a decade, he has collaborated with several musicians and peers whom he respects greatly, including the guitarists Peter Bernstein and Kurt Rosenwinkel and tenor saxophonist Mark Turner. Mehldau also has played on a number of recordings outside of the jazz idiom, like Willie Nelson's Teatro and singer-songwriter Joe Henry's Scar. His music has appeared in several movies, including Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut and Wim Wender's Million Dollar Hotel. He also composed an original soundtrack for the French film, Ma Femme Est Une Actrice. In March 2007, Mehldau debuted the piano concerto The Brady Bunch Variations for piano and orchestra at Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris with Orchestre National d'Ile-de-France.

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