Longtime friends and collaborators Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau's first duo album, Nearness, recorded live during their recent European tour, is out now. "Magic always seems to happen when saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Brad Mehldau play together," exclaims Mojo. "They create a special telepathic musical synergy in each other’s company." BBC Music magazine gives the album a perfect five stars, saying: "The pair are so well matched. Both are extraordinary, scintillating improvisers bursting with energy, yet they have great ears for one another." Redman and Mehldau perform in select US cities in September and October, then head to Asia, Australia, and Europe.

Nonesuch releases saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Brad Mehldau's Nearness, the longtime friends' and collaborators' first duo album, on September 9, 2016. Nearness, a selection of duets recorded live during their recent European tour, is available to pre-order now with an instant download of the album track “Ornithology." Redman and Mehldau are "among the most potent and influential jazz instrumentalists of their generation," says the Ottawa Citizen, creating "world-class improvising before rapt audiences."

The SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco has announced its 2016–17 concert season and featured among the performers taking the Miner Auditorium stage in the venue's fifth anniversary season are Pat Metheny with his new quartet; Brad Mehldau, revisiting his acclaimed 2010 album Highway Rider with his Trio, Joshua Redman, Mark Guiliana, and a chamber orchestra; and Emmylou Harris, who joins Rosanne Cash and Lucinda Williams in concert. Tickets go on sale to members on Saturday, June 25, and to the general public on Wednesday, July 13.

Today marks the release of Brad Mehldau Trio’s new album, Blues and Ballads, which comprises interpretations of songs by other composers, this time with the focus on blues and ballads implied by the album’s title. "Stellar jazz pianist Mehldau again proves that three is the magic number," says MOJO in a four-star review, "resurrecting the trio that has consistently advanced the jazz lexicon in the course of the past 20 years. A spellbinding set whose salient features are subtlety and understatement. Sublime stuff." The Times of London, in its five-star review, says: "Yet another rhapsodic rollercoaster from this master of romantic complexity."

Brad Mehldau, following a tour with the Brad Mehldau Trio for the new album Blues and Ballads, out this Friday, embarks on a trio tour of a different sort: he reunites with drummer Mark Guiliana, with whom he paired up for the album Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, and guitarist John Scofield for a six-night residency at the Blue Note in NYC starting tonight. "The omnivorously eclectic trouble these three get into will be worth the price of admission," exclaims the New Yorker. The trio will tour the UK and Europe in July, including sets at the Love Supreme, Montreux, Vienna, Gent, and North Sea jazz festivals, and stops in France, Italy, Spain, Israel, Turkey, and Germany, and reunite in the US for the Detroit Free Jazz Festival in September.

Kronos Quartet and Brad Mehldau's performances at Koerner Hall in Toronto this week, part of The Royal Conservatory's 21C Music Festival, will stream live at rcmusic.ca/livestream, this Wednesday, May 25, and Thursday, respectively, both at 8 PM ET. Kronos is joined by special guest Tanya Tagaq for the world premiere her new piece written for Kronos' Fifty for the Future project. Mehldau performs his Three Pieces After Bach, of the Guardian exclaimed: "A dense and dazzling recital of Bach’s classics and the compositions and improvisations inspired by them makes this a powerful, thought-provoking gig."

Congratulations to Brad Mehldau, James Farm, and Tigran Hamasyan, who are all winners of ECHO Jazz 2016 Awards. James Farm was named International Ensemble of the Year for City Folk; Tigran Hamasyan was named International Instrumentalist of the Year, Piano, for Mockroot; and Brad Mehldau will be given a Sonderpreis ("special prize") for his box set 10 Years Solo Live. The ECHO Jazz 2016 Awards ceremony will take place in Hamburg on May 26 and will be televised by NDR.

The Brad Mehldau Trio—Mehldau on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Jeff Ballard on drums—launches a tour of the United States and Europe ahead of the forthcoming album Blues and Ballads, due June 3. The tour begins with a concert at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston this Friday, followed by stops in Albany, Philadelphia, DC, Oberlin, and Chicago. The group then heads to Europe for shows in Italy, Belgium, Denmark, France, and Switzerland.

Nonesuch Records releases the Brad Mehldau Trio’s Blues and Ballads, the trio’s first new release since 2012’s Where Do You Start, on June 3, 2016. Blues and Ballads comprises interpretations of songs by other composers, this time with the focus on blues and ballads implied by the album’s title, including works by Cole Porter, Charlie Parker, Lennon & McCartney, and Jon Brion. Blues and Ballads is available to pre-order with an instant download of the album track "Little Person," which you can preview here.

Brad Mehldau received the Wigmore Medal on Friday, becoming the first jazz musician to do so. Wigmore Hall Director John Gilhooly, presenting the medal at Mehldau's concert at the London hall, said: "Brad Mehldau has forged a unique path which embodies the essence of jazz exploration." His Wigmore concert program last week earned five stars from the Financial Times ("remarkable"), and four stars in the Guardian ("a powerful and thought-provoking gig") and The Arts Desk ("a beguilingly beautiful set").

Brad Mehldau's 10 Years Solo Live, released to critical acclaim earlier this fall, continues to earn praise from around the world, including Chicago Reader ("rhapsodic"), Buffalo News ("stupendous"), Mojo ("some of the most beautiful piano playing you’ll ever hear"), Scotsman ("revelatory"), Financial Times ("rich and rewarding"), Paris Match ("stunning grace"), Jazz News ("essential"), L’Humanité ("magic"), Tastenwelt ("candidate for CD of the year"), Jazzthethik ("a tremendous showcase"), Generel Anzeiger ("a phenomenon"), NRC (five stars), De Standard ("virtuosity with lyrical inspiration"), Dag Og Tid ("monumental ... a masterpiece"), and more.

Brad Mehldau's new box set, 10 Years Solo Live, was featured on NPR's All Things Considered. The show takes "a peek into the creative process of one of modern music’s most innovative thinkers," says host Ari Shapiro. "The set includes Mehldau's vivid reimaginings of works by the Beatles, Radiohead, Brahms, and Thelonius Monk," says reviewer Tom Moon. "That's a wide range of music, yet he never sounds out of his element ... [S]ome things come through right away: his fluid technique, his instinct for reframing melodies, his gift for spinning epic narratives out of shards and fragments. Here's what's most mind-blowing: he's doing this live, in the moment, unscripted, in front of an audience." Listen to the review here.