JOSHUA REDMANS & BRAD MEHLDAU - Nearness
Nonesuch Records – 7559-79456-0
Joshua Redman (tenor & soprano saxophones) Brad Mehldau (piano)
Recorded live July & November at various European locations.
Both these artists have previous in collaborative terms dating back to the mid -nineties when Mehldau served as a sideman in Redman’s quartet. They’ve returned favours on several notable occasions since but this is the first time they’ve performed on record in a duo setting if you discount their rendition of the nostalgic tune `Old West` which appeared in Mehldau’s suite `Highway Rider` and is reprised here at greater length and depth.
Duo recordings can often be overly chatty, congested affairs with the participants hardly pausing for breath or rest but both these musicians are used to working in spare settings – Redman with his piano-less trios; Mehldau in his pairings with saxist Joel Frahm and soprano Rene Fleming – and are sensible to the need to give each other space to articulate their side of the conversation and emerge as individual musical personalities.
There is, of course, plenty of interchange and Mehldau supports Redman’s probing bop articulations with spiky contrapuntal harmonics and pungent, rolling rhythms providing exciting momentum when it is called for and sombre cadences when refection and restraint is the appropriate mode. In his own solos he often takes the music to places it was never intended to go – as in the two bop standards, ` Ornithology and `In Walked Bud`- but it`s a fascinating excursion through precipitous changes in tempo and post-jazz chromatic improvisation that veers close to the edge without ever being wilfully avant-garde.
Redman, unlike his late father, has never been avant-garde but has re-invested the bop and balladry tradition with stunning vitality, virtuosity and blues inflected romanticism which creates a stimulating contrast when set against Mehldau`s more classically inspired conceits. Apart from the ballad standard `The Nearness of You` and the aforementioned `Old West` they are never wholly locked into a cosy mutual appreciation relationship but any sparring that takes place is carried out in the spirit of giving free reign to their distinctive talents and commitment to music making of arresting incident and integrity.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Nonesuch Records – 7559-79456-0
Joshua Redman (tenor & soprano saxophones) Brad Mehldau (piano)
Recorded live July & November at various European locations.
Both these artists have previous in collaborative terms dating back to the mid -nineties when Mehldau served as a sideman in Redman’s quartet. They’ve returned favours on several notable occasions since but this is the first time they’ve performed on record in a duo setting if you discount their rendition of the nostalgic tune `Old West` which appeared in Mehldau’s suite `Highway Rider` and is reprised here at greater length and depth.
Duo recordings can often be overly chatty, congested affairs with the participants hardly pausing for breath or rest but both these musicians are used to working in spare settings – Redman with his piano-less trios; Mehldau in his pairings with saxist Joel Frahm and soprano Rene Fleming – and are sensible to the need to give each other space to articulate their side of the conversation and emerge as individual musical personalities.
There is, of course, plenty of interchange and Mehldau supports Redman’s probing bop articulations with spiky contrapuntal harmonics and pungent, rolling rhythms providing exciting momentum when it is called for and sombre cadences when refection and restraint is the appropriate mode. In his own solos he often takes the music to places it was never intended to go – as in the two bop standards, ` Ornithology and `In Walked Bud`- but it`s a fascinating excursion through precipitous changes in tempo and post-jazz chromatic improvisation that veers close to the edge without ever being wilfully avant-garde.
Redman, unlike his late father, has never been avant-garde but has re-invested the bop and balladry tradition with stunning vitality, virtuosity and blues inflected romanticism which creates a stimulating contrast when set against Mehldau`s more classically inspired conceits. Apart from the ballad standard `The Nearness of You` and the aforementioned `Old West` they are never wholly locked into a cosy mutual appreciation relationship but any sparring that takes place is carried out in the spirit of giving free reign to their distinctive talents and commitment to music making of arresting incident and integrity.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
