Brad Mehldau’s 2CD/DVD solo album Live in Marciac is out in just one week, on February 22. The Times of London says: "If you haven’t bought a jazz album since The Köln Concert, this would make a good follow-up." Jazzwise gives it four stars and features Mehldau in this month’s issue. He also spoke with The Huffington Post. "His breathtaking command of his instrument is undeniable," says the site. "But what he is able to say musically as a soloist within the context of each song combined with his improvisations is simply masterful."
Brad Mehldau’s Live in Marciac, a two CD, one DVD live album of a solo performance, is out on Nonesuch in just one week, on February 22. The recording was made at the Jazz in Marciac festival in France in 2006 and includes original tunes by Mehldau as well as interpretations of songs by Kurt Cobain, Lennon/McCartney, Cole Porter, Radiohead, and others. The Times of London says: "If you haven’t bought a jazz album since The Köln Concert, this would make a good follow-up."
Jazzwise gives Live in Marciac four stars and spoke with Mehldau about the album for a feature article in this month’s issue of the magazine. In addition to the print edition, the Jazzwise website offers some additional topics from the interview, like how his interpretations of some songs featured on both his 1999 solo album Elegiac Cycle and Live in Marciac have evolved.
"I would say that the newer performances reflect the expressive growth I made in those years," Mehldau says. "Here, I am more expansive and the ideas develop more than they did on the original studio release. That expansive quality is usually more found on live records; here is no exception.”
Read more at jazzwisemagazine.com and in the current issue of the magazine.
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Brad Mehldau also discusses his solo piano work, and his now famously eclectic repertoire for it, at length with The Huffington Post's Joseph Vella.
"Mehldau is a dazzling and brilliant player who maintains one of the finest trios in all of jazz," writes Vella in his introduction. "But for me, it is in Brad's solo works and performances where you really get a chance to experience the breadth of what this talented artist is all about ... His breathtaking command of his instrument is undeniable. But what he is able to say musically as a soloist within the context of each song combined with his improvisations is simply masterful."
In the interview, Mehldau describes each of his solo recordings as turning points in his career. As for his latest, Mehldau explains, "Live in Marciac is the beginning of a freer approach, I would say, and maybe more ease and fluidity in a musical texture with several simultaneous voices. It is the most related to where I am now as a solo player."
To read the interview and watch excerpts from the DVD portion of Live in Marciac, visit huffingtonpost.com.
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Brad Mehldau will give one such solo performance at the Garde Arts Centre in New London, Connecticut, on Sunday. The concert comes amidst several duo performances he is giving with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter of the expanded version of his Love Songs in Princeton, New York, Montreal, and Toronto. The tour includes the New York premiere of the expanded Love Songs in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall this Saturday. (Mehldau is the holder of Carnegie's Debs Composer's Chair this season.) You can watch a video of Otter discussing the piece at carnegiehall.org. For more on Mehldau's upcoming performances, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
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To pre-order the Live in Marciac 2CD/DVD and receive high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the audio portion starting release day, head to the Nonesuch Store now.
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