Brad Mehldau‘s acclaimed 2002 Jon Brion–produced album Largo receives its first-ever vinyl release. Mehldau experiments with electronic instrumentation on this set of original and borrowed tunes, including Radiohead’s ‘Paranoid Android’ and The Beatles’ ‘Dear Prudence’.
On Largo, Mehldau, playing pianos, synths, and vibes, is joined by Larry Grenadier, Darek “Oles” Oleszkiewicz, and Justin Meldal-Johnson on bass; Matt Chamberlain, Jorge Rossy, and Jim Keltner on drums; Victor Indrizzo on drums and percussion; and producer Brion on guitar, guitar synth, and piano percussion.
Brad Mehldau’s Nonesuch debut was the 2004 solo disc Live in Tokyo. His subsequent eighteen releases on the label include six records with his trio as well as collaborative and solo albums. His most recent releases are a pair of recordings with the original 1990s Joshua Redman Quartet, RoundAgain (2020) and LongGone (2022); Variations on a Melancholy Theme (2021), commissioned by and recorded with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; a solo album he recorded during COVID-19 lockdown, Suite: April 2020; Jacob’s Ladder (2022), which featured music that reflects on scripture and the search for God through music and was inspired by the prog rock Mehldau loved as a young adolescent; and this year’s Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays The Beatles, a live solo album featuring his interpretations of nine songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and one by George Harrison. In March, Equinox Publishing published Mehldau’s memoir, Formation: Building a Personal Canon, Part I, a rare look inside the mind of an artist at the top of his field, in his own words.