A Secrest Artists Series Event

BRAD M

Friday January 23, 2004 8PM Brendle Recital Hall Wake Forest University Winston-St,lem, North Carolina

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Brad Mehldau Career Highlights 1999 Grammy Nominee - Best Jazz Instrumental Art of the Trio 4, Back at the Vanguard Top 10 Album of 1999 Time Magazine - Elegiac Cycle Jazz Pianist of the Year - I 999, 2000 and 2002, Down Beat Readers Poll Best Jazz Artist of 1999 - Musica Jazz Critics Poll (Italy) # 1 Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition Acoustic Jazz Piano - 1997, 1998 & 1999 Down Beat Critics Poll # l Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition Acoustic Jazz Group - 1998 & 1999 Down Beat Critics Poll "Choe" Award 1999 - Le Monde de la Musique - Elegiac Cycle New Star of J 998 - Swing Journal Disc Award (Japan) Best Jazz Album of the Year 1998 - Songs - Jazzman magazine (France) Best Foreign Musician of the Year - D'Jango d'Or 1998 (France) The Best CD of 1997 -Acadamie du Jazz (France) 1997 Grammy Nominee - Best Jazz Instrumental Solo 1997 UPI Top 10 -Art Of The Trio, Vol. 1 - Jazz Album of the Year Best New Artist of 1997 - Jazz Times Readers Poll Best New Talent of 1997 - Musica Jazz Critics Poll (Italy) Debut Artist of the Year 1997 - New York Jazz Awards

Discography As Leader Largo (Warner Bros. Records) Progression - Art of the Trio, Volume 5 - (Warner Bros. Retards 48005) Places-(Warner Bros. Records 47693) Art of the Trio 4-Back at the Vanguard (Warner Bros. Records 47463) Elegiac Cycle - (Warner Bros. Records 4 7357) Art of the Trio Volume 3 - Songs (Warner Bros. Records 47051) Art of the Trio Volume 2 - Live at the Village Vanguard (Warner Bros. Records 46848) Art of the Trio Volume 1 - {Warner Bros. Records 46260) Introducing Brad Mehldau - (Warner Bros. Records 45997)

As Co-Leader Close Enough for Love- Fleurine (EmArcy/Verve) 2000 NY Barcelona Crossing - (Fresh Sound FSNT-031) NY Barcelona Crossing#2- (Fresh Sound FSNT-037) When I Fall Ill Love - Mehldau & Rossy Trio (Fresh Sound FSNT-007)

BRAD MEHLDAU JAZZ TRIO Brad Mehldau

Jorge Rossy Piano

Drums

Larry Grenadier Bass

Mr. Mehldau will announce the program selections from the stage.

The program wiJI continue without intermi ssion.

Management by International Music Network

278 Main Street, Gloucester, MA 01930

978-283-2883

,__, BIOGRAPHIES ,__, BRAD MEHLDAU JAZZ TRIO Brad Mehldau, Piano Jorge Rossy, Drums Larry Grenadier, Bass Brad Mehldau, like many of his contemporaries, began his career with heavy classical training, long before he was exposed to jazz. He started experimenting with the piano when he was just four and began taking lessons when he was six, continuing until he was fourteen. As a youngster be listened more to rock than jazz . Brad moved to New York city in 1988 where he worked with a variety of musicians over the next severa.l years and made several recordings as a sideman . During that period he began to develop his own style which he attributes to the influence of his musical peers, specifically bandleaders Peter Bernstein, Jessie Davis and David Sanchez as well as other musicians he worked with often - Mark Turner, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Perico Sambeat, Leon Parker, Avishai Cohen and Chris Potter, to name a few. In addition he met and played with his future trio mates, Larry Grenadier and Jorge Rossy in several projects. Brad's first major international exposure came as a member of the Joshua Redman Quartet, with which he recorded MoodSwing and toured the US and Europe for a year and a half. In 1995 Brad released his debut album as a leader for Warner Bros. Records, appropriately titled, Introducing Brad Mehldau. Of that recording the Chicago Tribune observed that it was" ... a recording that achieves its most vivid moments when Mehldau is playing original compositions. The elliptical lines, volatile rhythmic figures and unexpected bursts of color and dissonance ... prove that Mehldau writes as cleverly as he plays. The originality of these compositions is startling to behold." Brad's second Warner album, The Art Of The Trio, Volume One, was released in February 1997 to almost instant critical acclaim. At his Village Vanguard debut, coinciding with the release of the album, The New York Times commented, "Mr. Mehldau, who spent most of the hour with eyes closed and head crooked into his chest like a sleeping bird, reached into the subconscious and took the songs at a run, rearranging all the accents of the melodies; his song-like improvisations took off from those jumbled rhythms." Brad 's classical training informs more than just his astonishing technique. Speaking of Young Werther, a composition on Introducing, he observed: "That came about as a result of studying a lot of the contrapuntal aspects of classical music . I tried to get away from just a one-note melody and a chord under it, and tried to explore the relationships between several notes moving independently. The whole tune is based on four notes in different configurations. The idea of generating a whole composition from a small amount of thematic material is very alluring to me, and resulted from studying the compositions of great classical composers like Beethoven and Brahms . After completing the composition, I realized that J had unconsciously taken the four-note motif from a Brahms Piano Capriccio." With the release in early 1998 of his third Warner Bros. album (as a leader), Live At The Village Vanguard: The Art Of The Trio, Volume Two," Brad Mehldau spent most of the year touring extensively throughout the US and Europe with his trio of Larry Grenadier and Jorge Rossy, while finding time to record with Willie Nelson and record and tour briefly once again with Joshua Redman. His next trio installment, released in September of '98 to great critical acclaim, was Songs: The Art Of The Trio, Volume Three. As the New Statesman of London cogently observed, "From moment to moment his playing suggests nearly every part of the jazz tradhion, as well as unsettling corners of twentieth century compositions,

even rock-his new record, Songs: the Art of the Trio, Volume Three, includes surprisingly genuine covers of Nick Drake's 'River Man' and Radiohead's 'Exit Music (for a Film),' which comes out sounding like Beethoven." Stereophile said of this recording, "Brad Mehldau doesn't mercly conceptualize-he emotes with yearning melancholy and rapturous ecstasy. When he plays, embers glow, then burst into flame." Elegiac Cycle. Brad's exploration of solo piano released in the spring of '99 inspired Time Magazine to write, "Mehldau achieves an almost spiritual resonance, chords echoing like amens." The atmospheric and classically-infused jazz of Elgiac Cyde comprises nine beautifull.y mysterious and emotionally complex Mehldau-composed elegies. In Art Of The Trio 4: Back At The Vanguard, Brad revisits the trio configuration with his cohorts Larry Grenadier and Jorge Rossy. The album includes three Mehldau originals, "Nice Pass," "London Blues'' and a live version of "Sefmsucht" previously recorded in-studio on Songs: The Art Of The Trio, Volume Three. Another reprise from Songs, the both brooding and lively, "Exit Music (For A Film)" by Radiohead, is even more intensely enjoyable than it was the first time armind. Three delightfully disquieting classics complete the albums seven compositions: "All The Things You Are" (Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II), "I'll Be Seeing You" (Irving Kahal/Sammy Fain), and Miles Davis' "Solar." Places (Warner Bros. Records) is comprised of all original compositions by Brad, performed either solo or with his regular trio (Larry Grenadier and Jorge Rossy). The songs are all named for the cities in which they were written. Progression -Art of the Trio, Volume 5 continues the series of live recordings the trio has done at the Village Vanguard in New York. This is a double cd set with several Mehldau originals and more standards, including such seldom heard songs as "Cry Me A River," "Secret Love," and "The Folks Who Live on the Hill." Largo, Brad's most recent release, represents a major departure from his previous albums. Produced by Jon Brion the album features Brad in a variety of settings besides his usual trio, including with brass, two basses and two drums, one drum, and often playing prepared pianos with the strings dampened with putty or otherwise altered in some way. Brad has had extensive exposure in films including his performance of the lead track from Art Of The Trio, Vol. J, "Blame It On My Youth" (Oscar Levant/Edward Heyman), featured in the film Eyes Wide Shut and its companion soundtrack on Warner, "Sunset", "Dream" in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and "Old Man" and "Still Crazy After All These Years," in Space Cowboys. 2001 saw the release of two French films he composed and performed the music to, Ma Femme et une Actrice and Un Ange en Danger, and is the subject of a French documentary entitled Jazz Collectio11: Brad Mehldau. Most recently his rendition of "Exit Music for a Film" can be heard in Unfaithful. Brad and Larry Grenadier appear in and can be heard in the soundtrack of the forthcoming Julia Roberts film, Mona Lisa Smile. Larry Grenadier, Bass Attended Stanford University where he received a BA Degree in English Literature. After moving to the East Coast he played Gary Burton Band, touring US and Europe. He moved to New York City and played with Joe Henderson, Betty Carter, Pat Metheny and the John Scofield Group. For the past year when not touring and recording with Brad Mehldau Trio he tours and records with the Pat Metheny Trio. Jorge Rossy, Drnms Born in Barcelona, Spain, where he continues to live. He began his musical studies in Spain, but eventually attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston where he played in bands with Joshua Redman and Danilo Perez. In the early Nineties he toured US, Central America and Japan with Paquito D'Rivera. Won Second Place in the Thelonious Monk International Competition for drums. Along with Larry Grenadier he has been a member of the Brad Mehldau trio since 1996. He has released several albums of his own.

Remaining Events in the 2003-2004 Secrest Artists Season

Wake Forest University expresses its deep appreciation to Mrs. Mario11 Secrest and her

husband, the late Dr. Willis Secrest, for generously endowi11g

the Secrest Artists Series. Ushers for tonight's performance

are members of Alpha Phi Omega Service

Fraternity

The Secrest Artists Series expresses its thanks to

Patrick Tucker -Jazz Specialist,Adjunct Faculty,

and Director of the WFU Jazz Ensemble--for bis pre-concert talk.

Tickets for all Secrest events are available without charge to all

Wake Forest students, faculty, and staff. They are sold, individually and by season subscription, to the general public. To purchase tickets,

call the Theatte Box Office at 336. 758.5295 or the Sec.i-est Series

at 336.758.5 1 O I. MC and Visa accepted.

Visit lhe Secrest web site at www.wfu.edu/secrestartists

for more information. Your courtesy in turning off all

electronic devices is appreciated. The use of tape recorders and

video equipment is not allowed.

National Symphony Orchestra w/ Leonard Slatkin, Music Director -Thursday, February 19th As the orchestra of the U.S. capital, the National Symphony Orchestra regularly participates in events of national and international importance, including performances for state occasions, presidential inaugurations, and official holiday celebrations. The National Symphony also fills an important international role with_ its tours that have spanned four continents. Now in its 72nd season, the NSO is generally recogmzed as one of today's finest orchestras. In his seventh season as Music Director of the NSO, Leonard Slatkin is internationally acclaimed as one of today's leading conductors. Mr. Slatkin's insightful comments about Mahler's re-touchings of the Beethoven "Eroica" will be an unusual and tasty musical treat. Also included in the program will be the Carnival Overture of Dvorak and Three Places In New England of Charles Ives. Dr. David Levy, Chairman of the Department of Music and noted Beethoven scholar, wilJ give the pre-concert talk. Visit http://www.kennedy-center.org/nso for more information.

Masters of Mexican Music- Friday, March 26th These master musicians from four distinct regional traditions explore the musical histories of Mexico: the mariachi of Jalisco, the Veracruz harp, the accordion-based conjunto tejano of the Texas-Mexican border area, and the marimba of southern Mexico. The featured player in the tejano tradition is two-time Grammy nominee, Domingo Saldivar, T/ie Dancing Cowboy, recently awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. This event is presented in partnership with Artslgnite and the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. Major support for this national tour is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the MidAtlantic Arts Foundation and the NEA Regional Touring Program. Visit http://www.ncta.net for more information.

WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY