Brad Mehldau – piano
Larry Grenadier – double-bass
Jeff Ballard – drums

Pianist and composer Brad Mehldau has been active since the early 1990s, and his most consistent work has taken place in trios. Starting from 1996, he first recorded a series of five albums called The Art of the Trio for Warner Bros., followed by a string of other albums in this format. So far, he has recorded 23 albums under his own name, as well as ten as a co-leader. Apart from trio and solo, he recorded in duos (with Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, Joshua Redman, Mark Guiliana…) and in larger formats. His latest work Finding Gabriel (2019), finally got him his first Grammy for the best instrumental jazz album. He also recorded as a sideman with many jazz greats, including Michael Brecker, Wayne Shorter, John Scofield, Lee Konitz and Charles Lloyd. For the Belgrade Jazz Fes0tival in 2007, he had an unforgettable solo concert at Kolarac Hall.

Mehldau’s musical personality forms a dichotomy. He is first and foremost an improviser, and greatly cherishes the surprise and wonder that can occur from a spontaneous 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. 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. On the other hand, an intellectual rigor to the process of abstraction that may take place on a certain tune in the program could be followed by a stripped down, emotionally direct ballad. Mehldau favors juxtaposing extremes.

https://www.bradmehldau.com/