Brad Mehldau's After Bach is due March 9, 2018, on Nonesuch Records. The album comprises the pianist/composer's recordings of four preludes and one fugue from J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, each followed by an After Bach piece written by Mehldau and inspired by its WTC mate. The album begins with Mehldau's own "Before Bach: Benediction" and ends with his "Prayer for Healing.
As Mehldau's label mate Timo Andres says in his After Bach liner note, "As a professional organist, much of Bach's work took the form of improvisation, and during his lifetime it was the virtuosity and complexity of these improvisations for which he was most admired … Some three centuries after the fact, Brad Mehldau takes up this tradition and applies it to a frustratingly unknowable aspect of Bach's art."
Andres continues, "There have always been elements of Mehldau's style that recall Bach, especially his densely-woven voicing but he's not striving to imitate or play dress-up. Rather, After Bach surveys their shared ground as keyboardists, improvisers, and composers, making implicit parallels explicit."
After Bach originated in a work Mehldau first performed in 2015—commissioned by Carnegie Hall, The Royal Conservatory of Music, The National Concert Hall, and Wigmore Hall—called Three Pieces After Bach.
Brad Mehldau's Nonesuch debut was the 2004 solo disc Live in Tokyo and includes six records with his trio: House on Hill, Day Is Done, Brad Mehldau Trio Live, Ode, Where Do You Start, and Blues and Ballads. His collaborative records on the label include Love Sublime, Highway Rider, Metheny Mehldau, Metheny Mehldau Quartet, Modern Music, Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, Nearness with Joshua Redman, and last year's Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau. Mehldau's additional solo albums on Nonesuch include Live in Marciac and the eight-LP/four-CD 10 Years Solo Live, which the New York Times says "contains some of the most impressive pianism he has captured on record."
BRAD MEHLDAU ON TOUR
Brad Mehldau Solo
Jan 30 Bâtiment des Forces, Geneva, SWITZERLAND
Feb 15 Teatro Ristori, Verona, ITALY
Feb 16 Officine Grandi Riparazioni, Turin, ITALY
Feb 17 Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, ITALY
Feb 18 Besední Dum, Brno, CZECH REPUBLIC
Feb 21 Flagey (Sold Out), Elsene, BELGIUM
Feb 22 Salle Moebius, Montrouge, FRANCE
Mar 2 Schloss Elmau, Elmau, GERMANY
Mar 28 Opéra National de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, FRANCE
Mar 30 MC2, Grenoble, FRANCE
Apr 2 Philharmonie de Paris, Paris, FRANCE
Apr 4 Le POC, Alfortville, FRANCE
Brad Mehldau Trio
Apr 11 Manship Theatre, Baton Rouge, LA
Apr 12 Paramount Theatre, Austin, TX
Apr 13 Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center, Houston, TX
Apr 14 Edith O'Donnell Arts and Technology Building, Richardson, TX
Apr 15 Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO
Apr 17 Wassermann Festival Concert Series, Logan, UT
Apr 19–21 Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA
Apr 22 Swyer Theatre, Albany, NY
Apr 24 The Academy of Music Theatre, Northampton, MA
May 7 Konzerthaus Berlin, Berlin, GERMANY
May 8 National Concert Hall, Dublin, IRELAND
May 9–11 Bimhuis, Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
May 12 Sinopoli Hall, Rome, ITALY
May 13 Hybernia Theatre, Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC
May 15 Grande Salle Arsenal, Metz, FRANCE
May 16 Théâtre de Privas, Privas Cedex, FRANCE
May 17 Theatre de Sablons, Neuilly, FRANCE
May 18 Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna, AUSTRIA
May 19 Onassis Cultural Centre Athens, GREECE
Jul 27 Auditorio Kursaal De San Sebastian, San Sebastian, SPAIN