 Brilliant pianist Brad Mehldau will give a solo perfromance on April 30th at 7:00 PM at the Kuumbwa Jazz Canter in Santa Cruz. Skillfully balancing on the tightrope between composition and improvisation, Grammy-nominated pianist Brad Mehldau invariably offers audiences the virtues of both. His uncompromising musicianship transcends preconceived boundaries of idiom and elevates seemingly unsophisticated repertoire into the realm of high art. Recent collaborative endeavors have placed him alongside kindred spirits Kurt Rosenwinkel and Pat Metheny, but the solo format may be his true calling.
Brad Mehldau, born August 23, 1970, is a jazz pianist who has recorded and performed extensively since the early 1990’s. Mehldau has two sides to his musical personality that form a dichotomy. He is first and foremost an improviser, and greatly cherishes the surprise and wonder that can occur from a spontaneous musical idea that is expressed directly, in real time. But he also has a deep fascination for the formal architecture of music, and it informs everything he plays. In his most inspired playing, the actual structure of his musical thought serves as an expressive device. As he plays, he is listening to how the ideas unwind, and the order in which they reveal themselves. Each tune has a strongly felt narrative arch, whether it expresses itself in a beginning and an end, or something left intentionally open-ended. The two sides of Mehldau’s personality – the improviser and the formalist – play off each other, and the effect is often something like controlled chaos.
"…the most exciting pianist to come along since Herbie Hancock.” – Pat Metheny Mehldau has performed around the world at a steady pace since the mid-nineties, 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. In addition to playing and recording with his trio and solo, Mehldau has performed and recorded 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 played and recorded with several musical peers whom he respects greatly: the guitarists Peter Bernstein and Kurt Rosenwinkel, and tenor saxophonist Mark Turner. Mehldau has also appeared on a number of recordings outside of the jazz idiom, like Willie Nelson’s ‘Teatro’ and singersongwriter 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 composed an original soundtrack for the French film, ‘Ma Femme Est Une Actrice’. Mehldau’s latest project is a work commissioned by Carnegie Hall for voice and piano, to be performed in the spring of 2005, with the great classical soprano, Renee Fleming.
Brad Mehldau, Solo
Kuumbwa Jazz Canter
April 30th
$22/Adv $25/Door
7:00pm Tickets available from ticketweb - (866) 777-TWEB, or at Logos Books & Records, 1117 Pacific Ave. Santa Cruz, CA (831) 427-5100 Hours: 10am – 10pm Daily
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Wednesday, 03 December 2008
