Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider receives its world premiere performance tonight and Saturday at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis. Mehldau will perform with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Jeff Ballard, Larry Grenadier, Joshua Redman, and Matt Chamberlain. "Mehldau has built a career on mixing musical styles and influences into something celebrated as distinctly original," says the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "He has put that aesthetic to particular work in his newest album Highway Rider, a piece that flexes Mehldau's composing muscles as much as it does his jazz piano acumen." The New York Times calls it "this year’s most luxurious jazz release."
Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider receives its world premiere performance tonight at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Performing with Mehldau will be the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO), led by Scott Yoo, along with the artists featured on the Nonesuch recording of the piece: his trio mates Jeff Ballard (percussion) and Larry Grenadier (bass), label mate Joshua Redman on saxophone, and percussionist Matt Chamberlain.
Following an encore performance at the Walker on Saturday, the musicians head to Carnegie Hall (where Mehldau is the first jazz artist to hold Carnegie Hall’s Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair) to give the New York premiere of Highway Rider in Zankel Hall on Tuesday, which New York magazine included among the 20 Most Anticipated Events of the Fall for classical music. In a concert preview, New York Times music critic Nate Chinen calls the Highway Rider album "this year’s most luxurious jazz release, a double album with Romantic underpinnings and a stealth foothold in classic rock."
In a preview of tonight's premiere, Highway Rider is the subject of a feature article in the Minneapolois Star Tribune, which looks at this piece "at the crossroads of jazz and classical" music.
"Pianist Brad Mehldau has built a career on mixing musical styles and influences into something celebrated as distinctly original," writes the Star Tribune's Graydon Royce. "He has put that aesthetic to particular work in his newest album Highway Rider, a piece that flexes Mehldau's composing muscles as much as it does his jazz piano acumen."
Royce spoke with the SPCO's principal bass, Chris Brown, for the performers' perspective, and to the Walker's performing arts curator, Philip Bither (brother to Nonesuch Senior Vice President David Bither), about the orchestra's role in the live performance. SPCO President Sarah Lutman also explains how the orchestra first became involved with the piece and brought the world premiere to Minneapolis.
You can read the complete article at startribune.com.
For information on all of the upcoming performances of Highway Rider, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour. to pick up a copy of the album, head to the Nonesuch Store, where orders include an exclusive bonus demo track with the high-quality, 320 kbps available at checkout.
- Log in to post comments
