Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider

Related Content

• Radiohead at Sprint Center in Kansas City, 3/11/12
  March 13, 2012
• Best of Coachella 2012: Saturday, April 14
  April 16, 2012
• Other Lives
  February 8, 2012
• 5ingles
  January 11, 2012
• Radiohead skip the Twin Cities again: What will it take for them to play here?
  November 7, 2011

More About

• Joshua Redman
• Brad Mehldau
• Jon Brion
• Hip-Hop and Rap
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Probably today's most prominent under-50 jazz pianist, Brad Mehldau has worked most frequently in the trio format, mixing his sophisticated originals with a broad repertoire that includes Monk and Gershwin along with dorm-room favorites by Nick Drake and Radiohead. His most popular album to date, though, is 2002's Largo, an excellent neo-fusion collaboration with movie composer and pop producer Jon Brion. Mehldau reunited with Brion for last year's Highway Rider, a double album of complex, linked originals written for orchestra and a jazz band featuring tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman. Though he has one foot in the classical world, Mehldau has a pop sensibility too, and here his tunes often stick in one's head—sometimes, alas, by way of syrup, though not distressingly often, and the album as a whole successfully evokes a moody automotive picaresque. Redman and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra will be on hand at Walker, making this a rare chance to hear the music given the full treatment in concert. All ages. (Photo by Augusta Quirk)
Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m. Starts: Nov. 5. Continues through Nov. 6, 2010