Bradford Alexander "Brad" Mehldau (born August 23, 1970) is an American jazz pianist.
Mehldau has led the Brad Mehldau Trio since the mid 1990s. The group features bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. Mehldau has also performed with many renowned artists, including Joshua Redman, Charles Lloyd, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter, Peter Bernstein, Christian McBride, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter, Brian Blade, Jimmy Cobb, classical vocalists Renée Fleming and Anne Sofie von Otter, and singer-songwriters Chris Thile, John Mayer and Elliott Smith.
Mehldau was born in 1970 in Jacksonville, Florida. His family moved to Connecticut where Mehldau spent most of his childhood and high school. He attended William H. Hall High School in West Hartford and participated in Hall's prestigious jazz program. While a sophomore in high school, he won Berklee College's Best All-Around Musician Award. Mehldau moved to New York in 1988 to study jazz at The New School, studying under Fred Hersch, Junior Mance and Kenny Werner.
Mehldau went on to play as sideman with a variety of musicians, most notably with the Joshua Redman Quartet featuring bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade. Mehldau formed his own trio in 1994, with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy, and later Jeff Ballard, who succeeded Rossy in 2005. In addition to his trio work, Mehldau collaborated with guitarist Pat Metheny, releasing two albums with him and embarking on a worldwide tour along with Grenadier and Ballard. In 2012, Mehldau joined drummer Mark Guiliana for a synthesizer-oriented duo project called "Mehliana", and launched a tour in 2013, alternating performances with another duo project of Mehldau's featuring Chris Thile.
Recording primarily for Nonesuch Records, Mehldau plays original compositions, jazz standards and jazz arrangements of popular music, especially rock music. With his trio, he has recorded arrangements of the music of Nick Drake, the Beatles, Radiohead and Paul Simon among others, and recorded Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" on his 2008 album, Live. Mehldau has also expressed an interest in and knowledge of philosophy, in particular of music and art.
Mehldau cites Larry Goldings, Kevin Hays, Peter Bernstein, Mark Turner, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jesse Davis, David Sánchez and the other members of his own trio as influences. He implements his classical training by often playing a separate melody with each hand in unusual rhythmic meters. For example, he plays his arrangement of Jerome Kern's standard "All the Things You Are" on Art of the Trio, Vol. IV in A major (a half-step up from the original key, A-flat major) played in 7/4 time. On Day Is Done, he also plays Paul Simon's "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" in 7/4. Another of Mehldau's signature techniques is to create an ostinato in his right hand whilst developing a motivic idea in his left hand (e.g. on Live in Tokyo, during the last three minutes of "Someone to Watch Over Me", where he keeps a constant A pedal).
Mehldau cherishes Brazilian music, citing Milton Nascimento, Chico Buarque and Simone.
Mehldau is married to Dutch jazz vocalist Fleurine, with whom he has recorded and toured.