Saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Brad Mehldau have been fellow travellers in jazz for the past 25 years, while the tracks assembled here are drawn from recordings made during the summer and autumn of 2011.
That European tour saw the much-celebrated, near-iconic American pair play concert halls, theatres, and on one occasion, a church in Norway. Night after night, two deeply committed musicians in close intimacy, playing with each other - and very possibly against too – in the best sense of the concept. It cannot be intellectually or spiritually easy, as such perfectionists would want on every occasion to give their best.
Mehldau is interesting on the business of playing in duo format with his long-time associate. He refers (in accompanying publicity) to "a commitment to deep listening to the other player at all times – there is not really a possibility to rest and sit back and let another party interact with your foil, because that other party doesn’t exist.” Now, that is very existential for jazz and food for thought for any duopolies in music to ponder.
Charlie Parker & Bennie Harris's Ornithology gets an energetic reading, and a personal highlight among the pulsing and driving up-tempo work is the title track, a particularly tender take on the Carmichael/Washington 1938 standard, The Nearness of You. Both players tap into the world-weariness of the piece with a kind of tempered yearning and it is rather impressive.
The title track runs to almost 17 minutes and is followed by the concluding track, Old West, which runs to about a minute less. They take their time in these explorations, these boys, and we are all the better that get down in the groove and leave one at times mesmerised by these long, gently furrowed acres of sound.
Paddy Kehoe
Stand So Close: Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau's Nearness
