Nearness

by Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau

Overview

Nearness finds acclaimed jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Brad Mehldau teaming up for a set of loose yet heartfelt duo performances. Collaborators since they first began playing together in Redman's quartet in the early '90s, Mehldau and Redman have forged their own distinct solo careers. While they have continued to work together in various settings, the duo put a spotlight on their creative friendship with their 2011 tour. Nearness features live performances captured during the European leg of that tour, including tapings in Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Norway. These are dazzlingly collaborative performances that reveal Redman and Mehldau to be a highly intuitive and harmonically adroit team. While there are a handful of original compositions here, the pair also tackle several jazz standards, including a brisk, kinetic reading of Charlie Parker's "Ornithology" and a laid-back if no less invigorating take on Thelonious Monk's "In Walked Bud." Elsewhere, they take a similarly inventive approach on several originals, including Redman's warmly burnished "Mehlsancholy Mode" and Mehldau's skipping, bluesy "Old West." What makes these recordings so engaging is the way Mehldau and Redman play off each other, dancing around the melody, weaving in and out of the harmony like rambunctious birds sparring over scattered seed. It's a conversational style that comes off as both a game of hot potato and let's finish each other's sentences. Sometimes, as on "Ornithology," it almost sounds as if Redman starts a song one way and then Mehldau switches up the conversation, taking them down a wholly alternate route. Other times, as in Mehldau's poignantly rendered "Always August," they build a detailed musical architecture, their nuanced improvisational lines forming ascending and descending stairways, grandly domed halls, and hidden dulcet nooks. ~ Matt Collar

Product Details

Release Date:	09/09/2016
Label:	Nonesuch / Warner Bros.
UPC:	0075597945607

Tracks

1. Ornithology
2. Always August
3. In Walked Bud
4. Mehlsancholy Mode
5. The Nearness of You
6. Old West

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Joshua Redman   Primary Artist,Sax (Tenor),Sax (Soprano)
Brad Mehldau   Primary Artist,Piano

Technical Credits

Bennie Harris   Composer
Greg Calbi   Mastering
Charlie Parker   Composer
Joshua Redman   Composer,Producer
Ned Washington   Composer
Thelonious Monk   Composer
Brian Montgomery   Editing
Hoagy Carmichael   Composer
Benny Harris   Composer
Robert Hurwitz   Executive Producer
Paul Boothe   Mixing,Engineer
Brad Mehldau   Composer,Producer
John Gall   Design
Michael Wilson   Photography