The Brad Mehldau Trio—Mehldau on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Jeff Ballard on drums—launches a tour of the United States and Europe ahead of the forthcoming album Blues and Ballads, due June 3. The tour begins with a concert at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston this Friday, followed by stops in Albany, Philadelphia, DC, Oberlin, and Chicago. The group then heads to Europe for shows in Italy, Belgium, Denmark, France, and Switzerland.

Nonesuch Records releases the Brad Mehldau Trio’s Blues and Ballads, the trio’s first new release since 2012’s Where Do You Start, on June 3, 2016. Blues and Ballads comprises interpretations of songs by other composers, this time with the focus on blues and ballads implied by the album’s title, including works by Cole Porter, Charlie Parker, Lennon & McCartney, and Jon Brion. Blues and Ballads is available to pre-order with an instant download of the album track "Little Person," which you can preview here.

Brad Mehldau received the Wigmore Medal on Friday, becoming the first jazz musician to do so. Wigmore Hall Director John Gilhooly, presenting the medal at Mehldau's concert at the London hall, said: "Brad Mehldau has forged a unique path which embodies the essence of jazz exploration." His Wigmore concert program last week earned five stars from the Financial Times ("remarkable"), and four stars in the Guardian ("a powerful and thought-provoking gig") and The Arts Desk ("a beguilingly beautiful set").

Brad Mehldau's 10 Years Solo Live, released to critical acclaim earlier this fall, continues to earn praise from around the world, including Chicago Reader ("rhapsodic"), Buffalo News ("stupendous"), Mojo ("some of the most beautiful piano playing you’ll ever hear"), Scotsman ("revelatory"), Financial Times ("rich and rewarding"), Paris Match ("stunning grace"), Jazz News ("essential"), L’Humanité ("magic"), Tastenwelt ("candidate for CD of the year"), Jazzthethik ("a tremendous showcase"), Generel Anzeiger ("a phenomenon"), NRC (five stars), De Standard ("virtuosity with lyrical inspiration"), Dag Og Tid ("monumental ... a masterpiece"), and more.

Brad Mehldau's new box set, 10 Years Solo Live, was featured on NPR's All Things Considered. The show takes "a peek into the creative process of one of modern music’s most innovative thinkers," says host Ari Shapiro. "The set includes Mehldau's vivid reimaginings of works by the Beatles, Radiohead, Brahms, and Thelonius Monk," says reviewer Tom Moon. "That's a wide range of music, yet he never sounds out of his element ... [S]ome things come through right away: his fluid technique, his instinct for reframing melodies, his gift for spinning epic narratives out of shards and fragments. Here's what's most mind-blowing: he's doing this live, in the moment, unscripted, in front of an audience." Listen to the review here.

Brad Mehldau's new 10 Years Solo Live is now available as a four-CD box set and digitally. The set, which was first released as an eight-LP vinyl box set last month, is culled from 19 live recordings made over a decade of the pianist's European solo concerts and "contains some of the most impressive pianism he has captured on record," says the New York Times. He is "a player with a stunning virtuosity and daring ability to mine far reaches of improvisation," raves All About Jazz. This is "a beautiful release/box from a unique pianist who continually shows what the piano can do." "Brad Mehldau is a magician," exclaims Record Collector. "Hearing the pianist in full flow during a live performance is ... nothing less than an awe-inspiring experience."

The Brad Mehldau Trio kicks off a 10-day tour of North America with a free show at the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center in New Orleans tonight, followed by stops in San Antonio, Mexico City, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland. From there, the Trio heads to Europe for a three-week tour, stopping in several cities in the Netherlands—Groningen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Tilburg, Maastricht, and Utrecht—and in Germany, France, Hungary, Romania, and Italy.

Brad Mehldau's new 8-LP box set 10 Years Solo Live "contains some of the most impressive pianism Mr. Mehldau has captured on record," exclaims the New York Times' Nate Chinen. It "also confirms that his pristine technique and prismatic elaboration are distinctive traits unto themselves," closing with a performance that is "an astonishment even by his lofty standards." Jazzwise, in a five-star review, calls it "a monumental achievement, and one of the most rewarding solo piano collections of the 21st century so far." The BBC Music Magazine five-star review says it's "a powerful picture of a renaissance artist at the height of his powers."

Today marks the release of Brad Mehldau's 10 Years Solo Live eight-LP vinyl box set, culled from 19 live recordings made over a decade of the pianist's European solo concerts. Mehldau has "emerged as a player with a stunning virtuosity and daring ability to mine far reaches of improvisation," raves All About Jazz. This is "a beautiful release/box from a unique pianist who continually shows what the piano can do." The Guardian gives the set four stars, noting Mehldau's "virtuosity and lyrical ingenuity ... There are plenty of gems here." "Let's make no bones about it: Brad Mehldau is a magician," exclaims Record Collector in a five-star review. "Hearing the pianist in full flow during a live performance is ... nothing less than an awe-inspiring experience."

Brad Mehldau's 10 Years Solo Live eight-LP vinyl box set, due October 16, was featured on WNYC's New Sounds look at this month's new releases. The show opens with Massive Attack's "Teardrop" transitioning to Mehldau's own take on the song from the box set. It's a version "that I think is really brilliant," says host John Schaefer. "We begin with a new release that's due in two weeks, and it is so ambitious that we may well still be listening to it when we do next month's new releases program." Hear the show here.

Nonesuch Records releases Brad Mehldau's 10 Years Solo Live eight-LP vinyl box set October 16, 2015. The set is culled from live recordings made over a decade of the pianist's European solo concerts and is divided into four thematic subsets of four sides each: Dark/Light, The Concert, Intermezzo/Rückblick, and E Minor/E Major. It will be released digitally and on CD the following month. "It is not enough to say that the different audiences were important for the creation of this music. They were absolutely necessary; they were pivotal. Without those audiences, this music would not exist in the way it does." Vinyl pre-orders are available now in the Nonesuch Store with an instant download of the album track "Waltz for J. B.," which you can hear here.

Prior to the release of Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, the debut album from Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana's electric duo, they had been performing together for some time, including a show at Largo in LA in October of 2013, several songs from which were filmed live. The videos, directed and recorded by Alex Chaloff, released thus far include live takes on album tracks "Sleeping Giant," "Just Call Me Nige," and "Hungry Ghost." A fourth and final video, of the song "Centinela," which is not on the album, can now be seen here. Mehliana performs at the Music Meeting Festival in Nijmegen, Netherlands, on May 24, the pair's only scheduled date for the rest of the year.