Brad mehldau jacob's ladder
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Brad Mehldau – ‘Formation’
One might imagine that pianist Brad Mehldau, one of this generation’s outstanding musicians, has dedicated his entire life and being to furthering his musical abilities and many-faceted output. Indeed, the serious nature he portrays on the bandstand would support this. However, Mehldau’s new book – the first part of a larger biographical series – paints an altogether different picture of a life interwoven with struggles with sex, drugs, music and philosophy.
The book itself, entitled Formation – Building a Personal Canon, Part I – is presented as a Bildungsroman; a German “formation-novel” which tells the story of a young person and how they grow into maturity. This first volume, then, details Mehldau’s early years, through high school, early life in New York and on the road, and culminating in considering suicide and moving to LA for rehab in the late 1990s after a record company intervention.
Rather than an exhaustive biography or list of musical highlights, Mehldau tells the com
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Brad Mehldau
American jazz pianist, composer and arranger (born 1970)
Musical artist
Bradford Alexander Mehldau (; 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
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About Brad
His first record for Nonesuch, Brad Mehldau Live in Tokyo, was released in September 2004. After ten rewarding years with Rossy playing in Mehldau’s regular trio, drummer Jeff Ballard joined the band in 2005. The label released its first album from the Brad Mehldau Trio—Day is Done—on September 27, 2005. An exciting double live trio recording entitled Brad Mehldau TrioLive was released on March 25th, 2008 (Nonesuch). On March 16, 2010, Nonesuch released a double-disc of original work entitled Highway Rider, the highly anticipated follow up to Largo. The album was Mehldau’s second collaboration with renowned producer Jon Brion and featured performances by Mehldau’s trio—drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier—as well as percussionist Matt Chamberlain, saxophonist Joshua Redman, and a chamber orchestra led by Dan Coleman. In 2011 Nonesuch released Live in Marciac—a two CD release with a companion DVD of the 2006 performance, and Modern Music, a collaboration between pianists Brad Mehldau and Kevin Hays and composer/arranger Patrick Zimmerli.
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