Bradford Alexander Mehldau is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. 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. 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. “Few performers dissolve into their music as completely as Brad Mehldau. To watch him live is to witness a man disappearing into his own interior, as though the piano were a threshold. In Mehldau’s hands, the piano becomes both confessional and sanctuary; an instrument for meeting the unmet parts of the self. His gift lies in making his interior feel universal, turning inwardness into a kind of communion.”
– Grace Easton, The Line of Best Fit

Mehldau was born 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. The family moved from Roswell, Georgia, to Bedford, New Hampshire, in 1975. There was always a piano in the house during Mehldau’s childhood, and he initially listened to pop and rock music on the radio. His family moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, and by the age of 14 he was listening more to jazz, including recordings by saxophonist John Coltrane and pianist Oscar Peterson. Keith Jarrett’s Bremen/Lausanne helped Mehldau realize the potential of the piano as an instrument. 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. After graduating, Mehldau moved to New York City in 1988 to study jazz and contemporary music at The New School on a partial scholarship. He studied under pianists Fred Hersch, Junior Mance and Kenny Werner, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. 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. Before the age of 20, Mehldau also had gigs in Cobb’s band, along with fellow student Peter Bernstein on guitar. Mehldau’s first recording was for Hollyday’s The Natural Moment in 1991; his first tour of Europe was also with the saxophonist during the same year. Mehldau’s interest in classical music returned when he was in his early twenties, and spurred him into developing his left-hand playing technique. He led his own trio from at least 1992, when he played at New York’s Village Gate. 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. The association with Redman began in 1993, but they had played together for a short period the previous year. Redman and his band attracted attention, with their 1994 album Moodswing also aiding Mehldau’s profile. They also played together for the soundtrack to the film Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), for which Redman wrote the music. 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. By the mid- to late 1990s, Mehldau was regarded by some as one of the leading jazz musicians of the day. his main influences, which previously had often been given as Evans. 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. Around 1996 he moved to Los Angeles, to try to overcome his problem with drugs. Mehldau became established on the international jazz festival scene in the mid- to late 1990s.

Mehldau often plays a separate melody with each hand, and one of the central features of his music is the playing of improvised counterpoint. He stated in 2002 that some of the content of his playing is affected by the music that he has recently been listening to. Mehldau indicated that some of his compositions address a specific need, such as integrating a particular rhythm into his trio, while others emerge from something he has played while improvising. He is best known for his long-running trio and his ability to fuse traditional jazz with elements of classical romanticism and modern pop/rock. He is famous for reimagining rock and pop classics by artists like Radiohead, The Beatles, and Nick Drake, treating them with the same harmonic rigour as jazz standards. His solo work, showcases his “splitting the brain” technique, where he plays independent, contrapuntal melodies with each hand.