Brad Mehldau
Piano Solo on
You Stepped out of a Dream

About

Brad Mehldau's three-chorus piano solo is the second of four solos on this live performance of the Brown standard. Following Konitz's extended opening, Mehldau takes the 32-bar ABAC form at 177 BPM in C, his playing distinguished by long-range harmonic thinking and rhythmic subtlety. Three choruses give Mehldau room to develop the kind of extended improvisational statement that would become his trademark, his lines weaving through the harmonically rich changes with a logic that is at once intellectual and deeply musical.

Brad Mehldau was 25 to 26 years old at the time.