Brad Mehldau and the musicians featured on his 2010 Nonesuch release, Highway Rider, gave the final live performance of the album, at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles Friday night. The Los Angeles Times says: "It wasn't classical-jazz, jazz-pop or some other hyphenated hybrid. It was just a great ride." Mehldau gives a New York Times–recommended solo set at Carnegie Hall this week, featuring songs off Highway Rider and Mehldau's forthcoming Live in Marciac, as well as works by Brahms, Bach, Fauré, Radiohead, and Jeff Buckley.
Brad Mehldau and the musicians featured on his 2010 Nonesuch release, Highway Rider, gave the final live performance of the album, at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles Friday night. Those featured musicians—Mehldau's Trio, with Larry Grenadier on bass, Jeff Ballard on drums; label mate Joshua Redman on saxophone; and Matt Chamberlain on drums—were joined by a chamber orchestra led by conductor Scott Yoo for the event. The Los Angeles Times's Chris Barton, in his concert review, noted the work's genre-defying nature, concluding: "It wasn't classical-jazz, jazz-pop or some other hyphenated hybrid. It was just a great ride." Read the complete review at latimes.com.
The New York Times's Allan Kozinn, reviewing the piece's New York premiere at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall last fall, called the piece Mehldau's "grandest effort yet" joining classical music and jazz. Kozinn's fellow Times music critic Nate Chinen had called the Highway Rider album the "year’s most luxurious jazz release, a double album with Romantic underpinnings and a stealth foothold in classic rock."
Mehldau returns to Carnegie Hall, where he is the holder of the Debs Composer's Chair this season, for a solo set in Zankel Hall this Wednesday. On the program are works written by Mehldau, including "John Boy" off of Highway Rider, and "Trailer Park Ghost" and "Goodbye Storyteller," which can be heard on Mehldau's forthcoming 2CD+DVD Nonesuch release, Live in Marciac, as well as works by Brahms, Bach, Fauré, Richard Rodgers, Radiohead, Lennon/McCartney, and Jeff Buckley. The New York Times recommends the concert, with Chinen explaining: "In his solo piano recitals Mr. Mehldau blends judicious pop offerings, archaic songbook standards and intricate originals, employing a touch that runs from sprightly to somber."
For more information on the upcoming concert, with limited ticket availability, visit carnegiehall.org.
To pick up a copy of Highway Rider with the complete album plus a bonus demo track included as high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s at checkout, head to the Nonesuch Store, where you can also pre-order Live in Marciac, due out February 22.
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