Брэдфорд Мелдoу: Американский джазовый пианист и композитор

American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger

Bradford Alexander Mehldau ('/m//ɛ//l/,/d//aʊ/; born August 23, 1970) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. 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.

Mehldau was born on August 23, 1970, in Jacksonville, Florida. His adoptive family was father Craig Mehldau, an ophthalmologist, mother Annette, a homemaker, and sister Leigh Anne, who became a social worker. and he initially listened to pop and rock music on the radio. His family moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, when Mehldau was 10. 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. Mehldau attended William H. Hall High School and played in its concert jazz band. While at high school, he began transcribing jazz solos from recordings, to improve his listening skills and gain insights into improvisation. 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. Mehldau described himself as being, up to this point, "a white, upper middle class kid who lived in a pretty homogenized environment". After graduating, Mehldau moved to New York City in 1988 to study jazz and contemporary music at The New School, Before the age of 20, Mehldau also had gigs in Cobb's band, along with fellow student Peter Bernstein on guitar. Mehldau also played as sideman with other musicians around this time. His performances with saxophonist Perico Sambeat included a tour of Europe early in 1993, and Mehldau's first released recordings as co leader, from a May concert in Barcelona. Mehldau toured for 18 months with saxophonist Joshua Redman. Mehldau graduated from The New School in 1993. He formed his first long term trio in 1994, with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy. In the following year, Mehldau recorded Introducing Brad Mehldau for Warner Bros., his first album as sole leader. It was well received, with The Penguin Guide to Jazz commenting that "it's as if he were aware of jazz tradition but entirely unencumbered by it." His second album for Warner Bros., The Art of the Trio Volume One, was recorded in 1996 and was widely praised by critics. The appreciation was not universal: some of the pianist's self penned liner notes and interview comments, which included philosophical musings and complaints about comparisons with pianist Bill Evans, engendered dislike in some, thereby, in critic Nate Chinen's words, "leaving Mehldau with a lingering reputation for pretentiousness and self indulgence." an assessment that was perhaps attributable more to race than to music. Another, non musical, similarity with Evans that was commented on was Mehldau's struggle with an addiction to heroin during the 1990s, up to 1998. Mehldau later stated: "Once I stopped using heroin, it was like a rush of creativity that had been held in check came out". In 1996, Mehldau made the first of several recordings with saxophonist Lee Konitz and bassist Charlie Haden. Mehldau's contributions to film music continued in 1997, with an accompanist role for some of the tracks recorded for Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Live at the Village Vanguard: The Art of the Trio Volume Two consisted entirely of standards, and was recorded at a series of 1997 concerts at the Village Vanguard, and released the following year. The title again attracted attention, as concert recordings from the same club had been issued by some of the biggest names in jazz, including Evans, and saxophonists Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. The studio album Songs: The Art of the Trio Volume Three followed later in 1998, and contained Mehldau originals, standards, plus Nick Drake's "River Man", and Radiohead's "Exit Music (For a Film)". This album was chosen by Fordham as his jazz CD of the year. Mehldau became established on the international jazz festival scene in the mid to late 1990s, having played at events such as the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1997, and the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1998. Also in 1998, the pianist reunited with Redman for the saxophonist's Timeless Tales (For Changing Times), and played on country artist Willie Nelson's Teatro. That summer, Mehldau spent a few months in Germany, developing his interest in its language, literature, and music. Also in 1999, Mehldau was pianist for two albums by saxophonist Charles Lloyd. In the following year, Places, an album containing both Mehldau solo piano pieces and trio performances, was released. All of the tracks were Mehldau originals, and were based on his experiences of visiting and revisiting various locations worldwide. Looking back on his earlier career, Mehldau commented in 2005 that "The trio created my identity". In 2001 Mehldau expanded from playing on film soundtracks, which had included The Million Dollar Hotel and Space Cowboys, to scoring, with the French film Ma femme est une actrice. While trio performances and recordings continued, Mehldau began in the early to mid 2000s to broaden the musical settings in which he appeared as leader. An early instance was his 2002 album Largo, which was Mehldau's first departure from piano solo or trio albums. It was produced by Jon Brion, whom Mehldau had met at a California club that hosted weekly happenings. As of 2010, this was reported to be Mehldau's best selling album. Anything Goes, released in 2004, contained performances of compositions by others; the Mehldau originals were released two years later on House on Hill. A solo piano recording from a 2003 concert, Live in Tokyo, showed greater lyricism appearing in Mehldau's playing,

In 2005 Ballard replaced Rossy as the drummer in Mehldau's trio. This, in the view of critic Ray Comiskey, did not radically change the trio's sound, but it did give them "a harder edge and pushed Mehldau more, with bassist Larry Grenadier left more in a fulcrum role, the centre around which piano and drums cavort." Another critic, Ben Ratliff, suggested that the new trio's sound was "denser and more tumultuous", with rhythms more overt than with the previous trio. In February 2005 Mehldau performed in Hong Kong for the first time, with his new trio. Their first album, Day Is Done, was recorded the following month. Mehldau continued to expand beyond trio and solo playing. In the spring of 2005 he premiered a song cycle that he had written for classical music singer Renée Fleming. Mehldau also collaborated with guitarist Pat Metheny from 2005 – they recorded two albums together that year, along with Grenadier and Ballard, and in 2007 went on a worldwide tour. Another Village Vanguard recording, Brad Mehldau Trio Live, was recorded in 2006 and released two years later. This also contained a variety of sources of material, including "Wonderwall" by rock band Oasis, "Black Hole Sun" by grunge band Soundgarden, and Chico Buarque's samba "O Que Será"; "it's business as usual – state of the art contemporary jazz piano", commented Fordham. Mehldau asserted that his third solo recording "is the beginning of a freer approach, [ ] and maybe [contains] more ease and fluidity in a musical texture with several simultaneous voices". In 2006 Mehldau also played on saxophonist Michael Brecker's final album, Pilgrimage. In March 2007 Mehldau first performed his piano concerto "The Brady Bunch Variations for Piano and Orchestra", with the Orchestre national d'Île de France at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Later that decade, Carnegie Hall awarded Mehldau another commission – to write the song cycle Love Songs for singer Anne Sofie von Otter; they premiered it together in 2009 and recorded the songs the following year. In 2009 Mehldau began a two year period as curator of London's Wigmore Hall jazz series, which included a performance with von Otter in the second year. In 2009 Mehldau also recorded Highway Rider, an album that combined his usual trio with guest musicians and a 28 piece orchestra. Mehldau's trio returned to the studio for the first time in several years in 2008 and again in 2011, resulting in Ode, an album of the pianist's originals, and Where Do You Start, an album of covers. DownBeat reviewer Jim Macnie commented that, on the former album, "More than ever, Mehldau uses his instrument as a drum, popping staccato notes into the maw of the rhythm section's formidable bustle." He also played and recorded piano duets with Kevin Hays. This collaboration was on arrangements by Patrick Zimmerli, with whom Mehldau had attended high school. had piano–mandolin duets with Chris Thile, and played a series of duet concerts with Redman in Europe, six pieces from which were released five years later on the album Nearness. In 2012 Mehldau and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performed his "Variations for Piano and Orchestra on a Melancholy Theme" in Europe. In 2013 Mehldau began touring with drummer Mark Guiliana as a synthesizer oriented duo that was given the portmanteau name "Mehliana". Their playing was largely improvised, and distantly influenced by dub, drum 'n' bass, electro, and funk. They released an album, Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, in February 2014. Late in 2015, a collection of solo piano recordings from Mehldau's concerts in Europe in the 2004–14 period was released, entitled 10 Years Solo Live. Another trio recording with Grenadier and Ballard, Blues and Ballads, was recorded in 2012 and 2014 and was released in 2016. Also in 2016, Mehldau and Guiliana formed a trio with guitarist John Scofield; they played in the United States before touring Europe. Mehldau's interest in classical music continued with commissions by several concert halls to write pieces that were inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach compositions; he played these and the Bach originals in solo performances during 2015. They were the origins of his solo piano album After Bach, which was recorded in 2017 and released the following year. This release was followed by Seymour Reads the Constitution!, another trio album with Grenadier and Ballard, later that year. His next album, released in 2019, was Finding Gabriel. In the same year, Mehldau performed another of his commissioned song cycles at Wigmore Hall, this time with Ian Bostridge.

Jacob's Ladder, an album that explored the progressive rock musical influences of Mehldau's youth, was recorded in 2020 and 2021 and released in 2022. He later commented that the album was made when he was going through "a breakdown. It's all there – the descent, the way through and the way out." A memoir covering his early life, Formation: Building a Personal Canon, Part 1, was published by Equinox Press in 2023. In a 2003 interview he commented on romanticism and nostalgia, linking pleasure and pain to musical expression:<blockquote>I love the part of the Orpheus myth where he is allowed to take his wife out of Hades on the condition that he doesn't look back at her for the trip on the river Styx. When he can't help himself, he looks back, and she is pulled back downstream away from him, taken away forever. Music is that moment right when he looks at her: seeing something that you love for an instant being taken away forever. There's an element of folly to the whole thing – you look even though you know you shouldn't. Music kind of yokes together the feeling of attainment and the feeling of loss at the same time. Fordham stated that "Mehldau demonstrates immense attention to detail, control of dynamics, and patience in developing an improvisation's shape over a longer span than the chorus structure of a popular song." He stated in 2002 that some of the content of his playing is affected by the music that he has recently been listening to: "If I'm digging a Brahms intermezzo that'll find its way in. If it's McCoy Tyner, there'll be more of that." He developed this ability over a period of around a year, with the help of Rossy.

Fordham described Mehldau's compositions as "miniature tapestries of taut lyricism and surprising turns". They met in 1997, and have three children. As of 2010, he divided his non touring time between living in Amsterdam and New York City; this remained the case until he let the lease on the Upper West Side property lapse during the COVID 19 lockdowns.