Live in Tokyo [3LP]

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The triple-LP vinyl edition of Brad Mehldau's Nonesuch Records debut album, Live in Tokyo, first released on the album's 15th anniversary in 2019, was made in partnership with Run Out Groove, pressed on 180-gram vinyl, and comprises the original album's eight tracks plus an additional seven tracks previously available only on the Japanese edition. "Few pianists can match Brad Mehldau when it comes to cross-fertilizing jazz, classical, and rock," said JazzTimes. "The same applies for technique, taste and intellectual curiosity. All of those qualities are on display [here]."

Description

Brad Mehldau's Nonesuch Records debut album, Live in Tokyo, first released on September 14, 2004, made its vinyl debut almost exactly fifteen years later, on September 13, 2019. The vinyl edition, made in partnership with Run Out Groove, comprises the original album's eight tracks plus an additional seven tracks previously available only on the Japanese edition and sequenced in the order of that release. (See below for complete track list.) This triple-LP set was mastered by Alex DeTurk and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Record Industry in the Netherlands. Limited to 3,000 copies worldwide.

On Live in Tokyo, Mehldau, hailed by the Washington Post as "one of his generation’s most gifted and thoughtful pianists," performs his own tunes and interprets material from artists as varied as George Gershwin, Thelonius Monk, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Nick Drake, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Burt Bacharach, and Radiohead on an album recorded live in concert at Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo in February of 2003.

"Few pianists can match Brad Mehldau when it comes to cross-fertilizing jazz, classical, and rock," said JazzTimes. "The same applies for technique, taste and intellectual curiosity. All of those qualities are on display [on Live in Tokyo]."

"Mehldau plays beautifully on his own, his work is florid with detail, yet never just flowery," said All About Jazz. "There is a deeply felt passion in all he plays, and that's exactly why he is so engrossing to hear: in a solo setting Mehldau demonstrates how he selects his ideas altogether discriminatingly from what must be a veritable flood of variations that occur to him as he plays. It's not long into listening to Live in Tokyo that you are reminded how skillfully he runs the gamut of emotion in his playing."

Brad Mehldau's latest album, Finding Gabriel, released earlier this month on Nonesuch Records, features performances by him on piano, synthesizers, percussion, Fender Rhodes, and vocals, with guest musicians including Ambrose Akinmusire, Sara Caswell, Kurt Elling, Joel Frahm, Mark Guiliana, Gabriel Kahane, and Becca Stevens, among others. The Times of London says “the dominant mood is of a master musician having fun” on this latest album from "the American jazz pianist, one of the best alive." The AP calls it "a soundtrack for our times."

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Original credits:
Produced by Brad Mehldau
Recorded live in concert February 15, 2003, Sumida Triphony Hall, Tokyo
Engineer: Yoshihito Saegusa
Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, New York City

Design by Barbara deWilde
Photographs of Brad Mehldau by Michael Wilson
Back cover (Cherry Blossom) and panel photograph (Pole) by Ye Rin Mok

Vinyl credits:
Vinyl coordinated for release by Matt Block
Mastered for vinyl by Alex DeTurk
Design adapted for vinyl by Edward ODowd

Nonesuch Selection Number

ROGV-085

ns_album_releasedate
Album Status
Artist Name
Brad Mehldau
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Brad Mehldau, piano

reissues?
reissues
Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
3LP
UPC
075597924664
  • ROGV-085

News & Reviews

  • Brad Mehldau's recent concert at Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band conducted and with arrangements by its composer-in-residence Darcy James Argue, can now be seen on ARTE. "Brad Mehldau ranks among the most significant jazz pianists of our time," says ARTE. "One of the most influential pianists of recent decades, Mehldau has garnered a following extending far beyond the jazz world." Argue, whom ARTE says "possesses the ability to propel big-band music into uncharted territory," has has been nominated for the JJA Jazz Award for Arranger of the Year; his arrangements can be heard on Cécile McLorin Salvant's forthcoming orchestral album, With Every Breath I Take.

  • Brad Mehldau has announced four live performances of music from Ride into the Sun, his 2025 songbook record of music by Elliott Smith, this summer: three in California in late August, in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Oakland, followed by the Groton Hill Music Center in Massachusetts on September 2. All four performances include singer/mandolinist Chris Thile, bassist John Davis, and drummer Matt Chamberlain, who perform on the album, plus singer/guitarist Blake Mills and a chamber orchestra led by Dan Coleman, reprising his album role, here with USC Thornton Chamber Virtuosi in California and A Far Cry chamber orchestra in Groton.

  • About This Album

    Brad Mehldau's Nonesuch Records debut album, Live in Tokyo, first released on September 14, 2004, made its vinyl debut almost exactly fifteen years later, on September 13, 2019. The vinyl edition, made in partnership with Run Out Groove, comprises the original album's eight tracks plus an additional seven tracks previously available only on the Japanese edition and sequenced in the order of that release. (See below for complete track list.) This triple-LP set was mastered by Alex DeTurk and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Record Industry in the Netherlands. Limited to 3,000 copies worldwide.

    On Live in Tokyo, Mehldau, hailed by the Washington Post as "one of his generation’s most gifted and thoughtful pianists," performs his own tunes and interprets material from artists as varied as George Gershwin, Thelonius Monk, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Nick Drake, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Burt Bacharach, and Radiohead on an album recorded live in concert at Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo in February of 2003.

    "Few pianists can match Brad Mehldau when it comes to cross-fertilizing jazz, classical, and rock," said JazzTimes. "The same applies for technique, taste and intellectual curiosity. All of those qualities are on display [on Live in Tokyo]."

    "Mehldau plays beautifully on his own, his work is florid with detail, yet never just flowery," said All About Jazz. "There is a deeply felt passion in all he plays, and that's exactly why he is so engrossing to hear: in a solo setting Mehldau demonstrates how he selects his ideas altogether discriminatingly from what must be a veritable flood of variations that occur to him as he plays. It's not long into listening to Live in Tokyo that you are reminded how skillfully he runs the gamut of emotion in his playing."

    Brad Mehldau's latest album, Finding Gabriel, released earlier this month on Nonesuch Records, features performances by him on piano, synthesizers, percussion, Fender Rhodes, and vocals, with guest musicians including Ambrose Akinmusire, Sara Caswell, Kurt Elling, Joel Frahm, Mark Guiliana, Gabriel Kahane, and Becca Stevens, among others. The Times of London says “the dominant mood is of a master musician having fun” on this latest album from "the American jazz pianist, one of the best alive." The AP calls it "a soundtrack for our times."

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Brad Mehldau, piano

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Original credits:
    Produced by Brad Mehldau
    Recorded live in concert February 15, 2003, Sumida Triphony Hall, Tokyo
    Engineer: Yoshihito Saegusa
    Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, New York City

    Design by Barbara deWilde
    Photographs of Brad Mehldau by Michael Wilson
    Back cover (Cherry Blossom) and panel photograph (Pole) by Ye Rin Mok

    Vinyl credits:
    Vinyl coordinated for release by Matt Block
    Mastered for vinyl by Alex DeTurk
    Design adapted for vinyl by Edward ODowd

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