Grammy-Nominated Mehldau Brings Elliott Smith Tribute to Oakland's Paramount

Grammy-winning pianist Brad Mehldau will bring his all-star tribute to the late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith to Oakland's Paramount Theatre on Saturday, pairing a chamber orchestra with a lineup that includes Punch Brothers mandolinist-vocalist Chris Thile, singer-guitarist Blake Mills, veteran drummer Matt Chamberlain, and Folk Implosion vocalist-guitarist John Davis. The 8 PM show at the Broadway venue is billed as a one-night-only performance of music from Mehldau's album Ride Into the Sun, and tickets range from $85 to $160.

As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland date is presented by SFJAZZ and is one stop on a limited four-show tour built around the record, which blends Smith's songbook with Mehldau's original compositions and a handful of covers. Smith, an indie folk-rock singer-songwriter who died in 2003, remains the emotional center of the project, and the show will also feature the USC Thornton Chamber Virtuosi, an orchestra led by Dan Coleman, who produced the Ride Into the Sun album.

A Decades-Old Connection to Elliott Smith

Mehldau's fascination with Smith's music goes back to the late 1990s, when the pianist was living in Los Angeles and attending weekly shows at the club Largo, where he occasionally played piano alongside Smith during guitarist Jon Brion's residency sets, according to JazzTimes. Largo served as a creative incubator for Los Angeles singer-songwriters and jazz musicians alike during that era, and the venue's influence shows up throughout Mehldau's later work.

Mehldau had already paid tribute to Smith once before the new album arrived. Following Smith's 2003 death, Mehldau wrote an original memorial composition, Sky Turning Grey (For Elliott Smith), which appeared on his 2010 double album Highway Rider — a record produced by Jon Brion, who had also worked as a frequent collaborator of Smith's, per reporting from The Gig by Nate Chinen.

Inside the Ride Into the Sun Album

Nonesuch Records released the 16-track Ride Into the Sun on Aug. 29, 2025, featuring 10 Elliott Smith covers, four original Mehldau compositions inspired by Smith, and covers of Big Star's Thirteen and Nick Drake's Sunday, according to Wikipedia. The album's title comes from a line in Smith's song Colorbars, which originally appeared on his 2000 album Figure 8 — Smith's final completed studio album released during his lifetime.

The record was recorded in January 2025 at The Bunker Studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, engineered and co-produced by bassist John Davis, who doubles as a member of the touring ensemble, JazzTimes reports. In November, Ride Into the Sun earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Alternative Jazz Album at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, a category that honors genre-blending, hybrid projects.

Smith's Own Brush With the National Spotlight

Smith achieved mainstream national recognition in March 1998 after performing his Oscar-nominated song Miss Misery, from the Good Will Hunting soundtrack, live at the 70th Academy Awards ceremony, according to Coda Music. That nomination led directly to his major-label deal with DreamWorks, marking a sudden transition from lo-fi indie singer-songwriter to national cultural visibility.

Mehldau's interest in reworking rock and pop songwriting for jazz settings predates the Smith project by decades. He first drew attention for the approach in 1998 with a trio recording of Radiohead's Exit Music (For a Film) on Songs: The Art of the Trio Volume 3, a move that Horizon Records notes was considered a landmark moment in contemporary jazz at the time.

A Historic Stage for a Limited Run

The Oakland performance takes place at the Paramount Theatre, an Art Deco movie palace at 2025 Broadway that opened in December 1931 and was designed by architect Timothy Pflueger. Restored in 1973, the theater now operates as a National Historic Landmark with a 3,040-seat capacity and serves as the home venue for the Oakland Symphony and Oakland Ballet.

The Aug. 29 date is the final West Coast stop on a four-city run that also includes San Diego's Balboa Theatre on Thursday, Los Angeles's Orpheum Theatre on Friday, and Groton Hill Music Center in Massachusetts on Sept. 2, according to Nonesuch Records. Only three California venues were selected for the live series, underscoring how limited the Bay Area's chance is to catch the full ensemble in person. Hoodline previously covered the project's West Coast footprint when it noted the tour's crossover appearance at La Jolla's 40th SummerFest in March.