As a man who’s wrestled with his own demons, pianist Brad Mehldau believes that an artist’s work should be evaluated on its own terms, separate from its creator.
But he acknowledges that it’s difficult to maintain a pure perspective with the music of Elliott Smith, the troubled, harmonically sophisticated singer/songwriter who died in 2004 at the age of 34 under undetermined circumstances. The fact Mehldau performed with Smith several times makes his relationship to his music that much more complicated, lending another layer of psychological depth to the pianist’s gorgeous Smith-centric 2025 album “Ride Into the Sun.”
“It’s such a cliché to conflate the artist with his art, and it’s something I’ve always tried to resist, having struggled myself with substance abuse around the time when I met Elliott Smith,” said Mehldau, 55, on a recent phone call. “But I knew going in that you can’t just unravel those two things. It’s both/and.”
Mehldau presents the ambitiously cinematic “Ride Into the Sun” song cycle for the first time on a three-city California tour that concludes Aug. 29 at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre. Presented by SFJAZZ, the concert features several of the album’s key collaborators, including the Punch Brothers’ Chris Thile on mandolin and vocals, Blake Mills on guitar and vocals, bassist John Davis and drummer Mike Chamberlain. They’re joined by the USC Thornton Chamber Virtuosi conducted by Dan Coleman.
One of the most respected and influential jazz pianists of his generation, Mehldau is best known for leading a celebrated trio. But he’s explored far and wide, composing art songs, piano reveries, a concerto, and uncategorizable chamber works while interpreting Bach, Fauré, and the Beatles.
He’d honed solo versions of several Smith tunes over the years, and when touring as a duo with Thile the two musicians had talked about making an Elliott Smith songbook record together. But it was a glimpse into the abyss during the first year of the pandemic that provided new impetus to tackle the project.
“Not to get too personal, I went through a big depressive episode a few years ago, and I emerged from that with more insight into his music,” Mehldau said. “It felt like it was the right time to honor him. I’ve always loved Smith’s mixture of darkness and light. Even though he’s a sad story, the music has this redemptive quality.”
Many of Mehldau’s recent releases have been solo piano albums, and he initially thought he would keep the Smith project simple. But as he culled the material he came to feel that “some tracks called for a more orchestral approach,” he said.
“I was just going to have to have different orchestration on each track, some more in the atmosphere of jazz, others with a roots-rock spirit. He has such a harmonic gift, I wanted to flesh out some of his tunes that were just on guitar and piano.”
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Raised mostly in Texas, Smith moved to Oregon for high school and first gained a devoted following on the Portland music scene. He released five albums stuffed with gorgeous, emotionally raw songs between 1994 and 2000. Two more came out after his death in Los Angeles from two stab wounds to the chest, injuries that seemed self-inflicted though the coroner’s report was inconclusive.
Mehldau’s path crossed with Smith’s when they were both living in L.A. Smith had recently released his third album, “Either/Or,” a project that catapulted him into widespread prominence when Gus Van Sant included three songs from the album on the “Good Will Hunting” soundtrack (along with a new tune, “Miss Misery,” which Smith performed at the Academy Awards in 1998).
Mehldau accompanied Smith on several gigs, and recalls him as “kind of laconic.” After running through a piece, “the only musical comment he made was ‘No, if you could just keep it simple.’ He didn’t want me to jazz it up, and I remember I didn’t even think I was jazzing it up.”
Mehldau takes special care to retain Smith’s idiosyncratic chord structures, accentuating his sublime harmonic feel. The album is also something of a conversation with Smith, interpolating a song each by Nick Drake (“Sunday”) and Big Star (“Thirteen”), as well as several original pieces.
The album’s emotional centerpiece is a devastating version of Smith’s deeply sardonic “Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands,” which Mehldau answers with a beatific orchestral hug, “Somebody Cares, Somebody Understands.”
“I just love that song’s ending refrain,” Mehldau said. “It’s his ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps.’ My orchestral interlude is trying to say that it’s not all doom and gloom, to take you on a journey.”
Whether you know Elliott Smith’s music or not, it’s sojourn into the light that only Mehldau could lead.
Contact Andrew Gilbert at [email protected].
BRAD MEHLDAU: RIDE INTO THE SUN
When: 8 p.m. Aug. 29
Where: Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, Oakland
Tickets: $75-$160; www.sfjazz.org
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