Live In Marciac (2CD/1DVD)

Live In Marciac, a two-CD/one DVD set, is pianist and composer Brad Mehldau’s second collection of live solo recordings, joining Live In Toyko in his Nonesuch catalogue. This engrossing set, from a summer festival in Marciac, France, features both Mehldau originals and his ruminative explorations of material from such artists and writers as Nick Drake, Radiohead, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and Kurt Cobain, along with American Songbook classics from Cole Porter (“It’s All Right With Me”) and Rogers and Hammerstein (“My Favorite Thing”).

The accompanying film offers a beautifully rendered, piano’s-eye view of Mehldau from this French performance, an extraordinarily up-close opportunity to observes his hands—and mind—at work. As London’s Telegraph has noted, “He’s a pianist who has it all, technically speaking, and he also has a fabulously well-stocked brain that can mingle different musical traditions. He can turn a standard with consummate musicianship and real swing, he can mine the depths of a blues chord sequence, he can summon a rock-anthem ecstasy. And lurking in the background is a fascination with classical music, revealed in the way inner parts surge and pluck at the main melody.”

The release of this live set caps a remarkable year for the pianist, who just celebrated his 40th birthday in August. Mehldau was awarded the prestigious Richard and Barbara Debs Composers Chair at Carnegie Hall for the current season, in recognition of his “sensuous, cerebral, and incandescent” work. Through spring 2011, he is serving as an artist in residence at Carnegie Hall, programming concerts—including the recent live premiere of his latest original work, Highway Rider—and conducting master classes, as well as collaborating with other artists, such as mezzo soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, with whom he will perform an expanded version of his Love Songs. This honor marks the first time the chair has been given to a jazz artist and, as New York magazine put it, not just any cat—a pianist with broad influences and a cerebral style.”

Highway Rider, released on Nonesuch in March, has been universally acclaimed. Naming it one of the best jazz releases of 2010, NPR declared, “With producer Jon Brion lending a hand, Mehldau has put forth a double album of entirely original music that shows how much he's grown as a composer, and not just a renowned pianist. “ The Los Angeles Times concurs: “Full of unexpected twists and lush, evocative detours, Highway Rider is most definitely a trip, and one well worth taking.”