The ECHO Jazz 2018 Award nominations have been announced by the German Recording Academy, including for Chris Thile, Brad Mehldau, and Tigran Hamasyan. Thile and Mehldau are nominated for their duo debut together, Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau—Thile in the Special Instruments category, Mehldau in Piano International—and Hamasyan is up for Piano International for his album An Ancient Observer.

Brad Mehldau's After Bach is due March 9, 2018, on Nonesuch. The album comprises the pianist/composer's recordings of selections from J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, each followed by a piece written by Mehldau and inspired by its WTC mate. "There have always been elements of Mehldau's style that recall Bach," writes Timo Andres in the liner note. "After Bach surveys their shared ground as keyboardists, improvisers, and composers, making implicit parallels explicit.” Pre-order After Bach for an instant download of the track "After Bach: Rondo," which can be heard here.

Mandolinist/singer Chris Thile and pianist Brad Mehldau begin a five-city US tour, performing songs from their 2017 debut duo album, Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau, at The Town Hall in New York City tonight. The duo is at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center in Brookfield, Wisconsin, on Thursday, then heads to California this weekend for concerts at The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles and Miner Auditorium at SFJAZZ, and a closing-night set at the Monterey Jazz Festival on Sunday.

Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau will perform songs from their 2017 debut duo album, Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau, in select cities in the US, Europe, and the UK this autumn. The US shows begin with a concert at The Town Hall in NYC September 13, followed by shows in Wisconsin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Monterey. The European tour begins in Milan on November 8 and includes a set at the Barbican for the London Jazz Festival and stops in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. 

The Brad Mehldau Trio return to Europe and the UK for a mostly sold-out two week tour, beginning at the beautiful, new Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg tonight. The tour continues with shows in Sweden and Norway, then heads to the UK for dates in Leeds, Manchester, Norwich, London, and Bath, and culminates back in Germany with a set at JazzFest Bonn on May 22.

Chris Thile, the host of A Prairie Home Companion, welcomed label mate Brad Mehldau to the show as a special guest this past weekend. They performed two songs from their debut duo album: Mehldau's tune "The Watcher" and the David Rawlings / Gillian Welch song "Scarlet Town." You can watch their performance of the latter here. Mehldau also contributes a solo improvisation to the episode, which you can hear at prairiehome.org. 

The ECHO Jazz 2017 Award nominations have been announced by the German Recording Academy, and among the nominees are Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau their debut duo album, Nearness; drummer Jeff Ballard for the Brad Mehldau Trio's latest album, Blues and Ballads; drummer Antonio Sánchez for the Pat Metheny Unity Group album The Unity Sessions; and trumpeter Cuong Vu for the album Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny. 

Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau were the guests on NPR's World Cafe. They spoke with host David Dye and performed three songs from their just-released debut duo album together: Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," David Rawling and Gillian Welch's "Scarlet Town," and Elliott Smith's "Independence Day." "It is extraordinary," says host Dye of the new album. "Two players from different genres, bluegrass and jazz, further the thinking that genres are just not that important to improvisers." Find out what they had to say and hear the performances here.

Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau, the debut duo album from the Nonesuch labelmates, is out now. At the end of 2015, the longtime admirers of each other's work played a two-night stand at NYC's Bowery Ballroom (videos from which you can watch here) before going into the studio to record the double album. "This meeting of two masters of their respective realms is a spine-tingling triumph," raves a five-star Irish Times review. The Guardian gives the album four stars, saying: "Two very different musicians hit a remarkable rapport on this double album." The four-star BBC Music Magazine review says "the vivid dynamic really puts a bright face on this mix of original and old song covers from across the jazz, folk and country spectrum." 

Mandolinist/singer Chris Thile and pianist Brad Mehldau make their duo debut together with Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau, a mix of covers and original songs, out this Friday, January 27, 2017. Here, the label mates and longtime admirers of each other's work speak with writer Michael Hill about the project and how it came to be.

Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau will release their self-titled debut duo album on January 27. At the end of 2015, they played a two-night stand at Bowery Ballroom in NYC before going into the studio to record the album, a mix of original songs and covers, like Elliott Smith's "Independence Day." You can now watch a video of their Bowery Ballroom performance of the song here. The album track may be downloaded now with pre-orders of Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau, along with their take on "Scarlet Town," written by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch.

Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau were guests on CBS This Morning Saturday. They stopped gave a Saturday Sessions performance of three songs from their forthcoming debut duo album, Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau: Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice It's Alright," Elliott Smith's "Independence Day," and Thile and Mehldau's own "The Old Shade Tree." The selection reflects the mix of covers and original songs on the new double album, which is due January 27. You can watch the performances here.