We recommend you a piano recital in the true sense of the word - with a strong lyrical touch and a very wide range of notes. It includes works by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Nick Drake, Thelonius Monk and Radiohead. Obviously, we are not referring to a classical musician, but to one whose discourse has eclectic accents, a jazz musician with such a wide horizon, that his discourse encompasses every musical breath. Most of all, he is a great improviser, who expresses his ideas with amazing spontaneity... and at the same time very careful with the musical structure and the idea that sustains one musical structure or another.

He prefers the trio formula, but also performs solo, inspired a great deal by Fred Hersch. He is actually considered the Keith Jarrett of his generation for his piano solos. Passionate about literature and German Romanticism, he is also appreciated for the way he comprises the pop discourse into the jazz without making any compromises on quality - for this he has become a role model in the music world.

He often performs two different themes simultaneously (with each hand), which can lead us into thinking of a contrapuntal mode of playing, even though he is especially concerned with harmony. He declares himself influenced by the music he listens to. "If I am studying an Intermezzo by Brahms, it will make its way into my music. If it's a McCoy Tyner, then its characteristics will be found in my music".

He is an artist who writes essays and is concerned with wisdom, as the latter can be intuited on a musical level. He is mostly attracted to the myth of Orpheus - that episode when he is allowed to rescue his wife from inferno on condition that he does not look at her until they have crossed the river Styx. Music somehow joins together the feeling of acquiring and that of loss".

Brad Mehldau - we identify him with The Art of the Trio, Elegiac Cycle, Places, Metheny-Mehldau or from a different point of view, which involves an orchestra, with Highway Rider. He was nominated at the Grammy awards for his latest album, Mehliana: Taming the Dragon and lost to no other than Chick Corea.

We also identify him by the solo album released in 2004, Live in Tokyo, his first "Nonesuch" title, a luxuriant piano odyssey, which you will be able to listen to at large on 22^nd February, at 12:30, during the Jazz à la carte programme.