Today marks the release of Brad Mehldau's 10 Years Solo Live eight-LP vinyl box set on Nonesuch Records. The set is culled from 19 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. To get the vinyl box set, head to your local record shop, Amazon, or the Nonesuch Store, where orders include a download of the complete set at checkout. 10 Years Solo Live will be released digitally and in a four-CD set on November 13. You can hear the album track "Waltz for J. B." below and see Mehldau give a live solo performance in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall next Thursday, October 22.

Brad Mehldau has "emerged as a player with a stunning virtuosity and daring ability to mine far reaches of improvisation," says All About Jazz reviewer Nenad Georgievski. "His musical world is a world where rich confluences of jazz history, classical and popular music mesh together and come out in a very unique and contemporary way." In this collection, "what is evident is that Mehldau is completely immersed in the emotional landscapes that these songs offer. He is an engaging, playful, elegant and erudite improviser ... Every track is a world on to its own and Mehldau expertly shows his prowess throughout." Georgievski goes on to conclude: "It's a beautiful release/box from a unique pianist who continually shows what the piano can do." Read the complete review at allaboutjazz.com.

The Guardian's John Fordam notes "the enchanted forest of [Mehldau's] virtuosity and lyrical ingenuity" in his four star review of 10 Years Solo Live. "There are plenty of gems here," Fordham writes. "It’s a formidable collector’s piece for Mehldau fans."

Record Collector gives 10 Years Solo Live a perfect five stars. "Let's make no bones about it: Brad Mehldau is a magician," exclaims the publication's Charles Waring. "Hearing the pianist in full flow during a live performance is, in the view of this writer, nothing less than an awe-inspiring experience. For true aficionados of the man, listening to the new eight-LP vinyl box set 10 Years Solo Live is like dying and going to jazz heaven."

As Mehldau explains in his liner note for the album, "Although it totals around 300 minutes, the order of songs is not arbitrary, and I have tried to tell a story from beginning to end in the way I've sequenced it." He continues, "There is a theme and character given to each four-side set."

Of the Dark/Light theme, he says, "In concerts, I find that I contrast dark and light emotional energies and highlight the way they depend on each other. Sides 1–4 focus on this dichotomy in pairs, beginning with the dark energy of Jeff Buckley's 'Dream Brother,' which is followed by the grace of Lennon/McCartney's 'Blackbird.'" He further says, "Although the songs on Sides 5–8 (The Concert) come from different concerts, on this set, I arranged them in a sequence similar to that I would perform in a single concert in 2010–11," he continues.

"The third set could be thought of as Intermezzo and Rückblick–like in character. I'm thinking of the penultimate movement of Brahms's Third Piano Sonata with that title. Rückblick means a look backward, perhaps a reappraisal. Brahms's Intermezzo movement was a look back at what had taken place in his Sonata before moving to the final movement. Here, the listener is invited to look back to music that was recorded 10 or more years ago, in 2004 and 2005." Mehldau explains that his approach to the sequence of the fourth set "is to focus on the rub between the keys of E minor and E major. I return to the theme of dark and light from the first set, now allowing the listener to focus on how 'dark' and 'light' might manifest in tonality."

Mehldau has performed around the world at a steady pace for 25 years, with his trio, with other collaborators, and as a solo pianist, building a large and loyal audience. "It is actually strange, this whole business of performance. It is a direct, intense kind of empathy with a group of total strangers that lasts around 90 minutes. And then, it's over, and everyone goes home. I go back to a hotel room and go to bed," the pianist says in his 10 Years Solo Live note. "Something happened, but what was most vital about it can't really be put in words. It is sweet, kind of bittersweet. In any case, 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."