Pianist and composer Brad Mehldau’s Ride into the Sun—a songbook record of music by the late singer, songwriter, and guitarist Elliott Smith—is out now on Nonesuch Records; you can get it on vinyl and CD and hear it here. Featured musicians include singer/guitarist Daniel Rossen (Grizzly Bear); singer/mandolinist Chris Thile (Punch Brothers, Nickel Creek); bassists Felix Moseholm (Brad Mehldau Trio, Samara Joy) and John Davis (who also engineered and mixed the album); drummer Matt Chamberlain (Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Randy Newman); and a chamber orchestra led by Dan Coleman, who also conducted on Mehldau’s 2010 album Highway Rider.

Ride into the Sun’s ten Elliott Smith songs are complemented by four Mehldau compositions that he says are “inspired by, and reflect, Smith’s oeuvre.” Also included are interpretations of Big Star’s “Thirteen,” which Smith also covered, and “Sunday” by Nick Drake, who Mehldau says, “I look at in some ways as sort of Smith’s visionary grandfather.”

“Widely considered one of the greatest living jazz pianists," Uncut says of Mehldau in its four-star review of Ride into the Sun, "a stunning collection of songs written or inspired by Elliott Smith. Much of the album feels like it’s throwing open the windows on his music, bringing fresh light to a songwriter too often painted as a tragic figure.” “The restlessly inventive pianist takes on Elliott Smith," says Mojo in its four-star review. "The two souls both lean towards bittersweet Americana and make a good fit. A deeply satisfying tribute to a great lost talent.” “A magnificent new record, which beautifully reimagines songs by Elliott Smith," says Record Collector in another four-star review. "A potent example of Mehldau’s ability to transport the listener to another world.”

Recalling how he first got to know Smith and his music, which has been a regular part of his repertoire for years, Mehldau said that after years living in New York, he moved to Los Angeles “and there was this wonderful scene of singer-songwriters that was congregating at a club called Largo. That included Elliott but it also included artists like Rufus Wainwright, Fiona Apple. And then other musicians who had been around for a while would come down every Friday night to sit in on a gig that was led by Jon Brion. I played behind Elliott on his own tunes with Jon. It felt to me like a kind of renaissance in songwriting that flourished for a number of years.”

“Elliott Smith masterfully rendered the dark/light admix not in the least through his distinct harmony,” Mehldau continues. “Specifically, he had a way of combining major and minor modes that was all his own. You hear that on the unique, captivating chord progression that he introduced on ‘Tomorrow Tomorrow’ for just a moment before the last verse of the song. I use it, extending it for my piano solo here. This kind of minor-major gambit has a long pedigree, and my own associations as a listener include the music of Schubert and Brahms, among others.

“One of Brahms’ biographers described the feeling of one of his pieces as ‘smiling through tears,’ and it would be a good description for the opening tune of Elliott’s on this set, ‘Better Be Quiet Now.’ Here is a break-up song as tender as it is rueful; the protagonist is smiling sadly as he says goodbye.”

“’Ride into the sun’ is a beautiful point in the lyric of one of the songs that we play, ‘Colorbars,’” Mehldau says. “Elliott Smith says in the original song, ‘Everyone wants me to ride into the sun.’ When I listen to music, I have a feeling that I can be in communion with somebody who is no longer in this earthly realm, like he is here. And as far as ‘riding into the sun,’ it’s maybe more of a perpetual riding into the sun with him. I don’t know ... There’s something mystical there.”

“Brad Mehldau is one of the most influential and acclaimed jazz pianists alive today," exclaims NPR's Fresh Air. "His many recordings feature a wide range of jazz and American popular song standards, but he is also known to interpret music that lies outside the typical jazz catalogue.” Mojo says: “Mehldau has forged a singular style that has not only enhanced jazz’s musical vocabulary but modernised it too.” The New Yorker asserts: “Brad Mehldau is arguably the greatest working jazz pianist. Top five, for sure.”

Brad Mehldau’s Nonesuch debut was the 2004 solo disc Live in Tokyo. His subsequent twenty-one releases on the label include six records with his trio as well as collaborative and solo albums. His most recent releases were After Bach II and Après Fauré, both released in May 2024. The albums both feature compositions by their namesake composers as well as music Mehldau wrote that was inspired by them.

Other recent recordings for the label include a solo album Mehldau recorded during COVID-19 lockdown, Suite: April 2020; Jacob’s Ladder (2022), which featured music that reflects on scripture and the search for God through music and was inspired by the prog rock Mehldau loved as a young adolescent; and Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays The Beatles (2023), a live solo album featuring the his interpretations of nine songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and one by George Harrison. 

Mehldau’s memoir, Formation: Building a Personal Canon, Part I, was published in 2023, offering a rare look inside the mind of an artist at the top of his field, in his own words.