Pianist Brad Mehldau, performing solo at the Rudolfinum Sunday, is being touted as jazz's latest savior — a surprise, given that his music lacks the groove, funk and DJ or electronica variations most appealing to younger crowds.

Saving jazz these days has nothing to do with reviving the past masters of jazz piano, such as Duke Ellington or Thelonius Monk or Bill Evans. In fact, there is little in Mehldau's sound that is reminiscent of the "good old days" of jazz, which sets him apart from the more popular "jazz renaissance" players like Wynton Marsalis.

Whether Mehldau plays solo or with his steady trio, performing his own compositions or interpretations of songs by nonjazz musicians like Nick Drake, The Beatles or Radiohead, he always reveals a progressive and inquiring mind at work, constantly creating a jazz sound that is both traditional in its refinement yet new in potential and discovery.

Mehldau looks like an intense young punk or indie rocker, with large tattoos on his arms. However, once he is sitting at the Steinway, there is no mistaking his forte (or his calling) for expanding melodic and harmonic relationships, either within themes in his own songs or in improvisation. Even his pop-oriented 2001 recording Largo is, more than anything else, a spotlight on Mehldau's distinctively solitary piano compositions, with a lush background of musical exploration by top studio pop and rock musicians.

While living in New York, Mehldau began performing extensively in 1991 with the Joshua Redman Quartet, which included bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade. He asked those two to form the rhythm section for his first recording, Introducing Brad Mehldau. After Redman's group, Mehldau went on to join another saxophonist's group, this time with David Sanchez. He met bassist Larry Grenadier with this group in 1995, and together with drummer Jorge Rossy from Barcelona established his trio the next year.

With this group, Mehldau brought back a hip elegance to jazz clubs captured best in a five-CD series recorded at the Village Vanguard in New York, The Art of the Trio.

Mehldau's 1999 solo piano recording Elegiac Cycle is a solemn effort, just as haunting though not as stark as his unforgettable compositions for the Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut. His 2000 recording Places combines intricate solo work with the trio, with songs like "29 Palms" and "Perugia" titled for where they were written, not for any particular source of inspiration.

Because Mehldau strives so hard to communicate with his listeners on various levels, it shouldn't be surprising that his music has none of the experimentation nor abrasiveness of atonal free jazz piano, a la Cecil Taylor — which is a good thing, because his approach opens up jazz to people who otherwise have shrugged off the genre.