Nearness

現代のジャズ界を牽引するサックス奏者とピアニストによる至高のデュオ作、完成!ジョシュア・レッドマン&ブラッド・メルドー、初のコラボ・アルバム『NEARNESS』発売。

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. Along with several original compositions, Redman and Mehldau deliver inventive readings of standards like "Ornithology" and "In Walked Bud." ~ Matt Collar|

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

「僕らはジャズの近くにいるよ」、そんな呟きに聴こえる冒頭のパーカーの名演曲、キース・ジャレットの正当な継承者であることを高らかに宣言する、欧州的な響きの中にフォーキーなピアノとソプラノの音が交錯する(2)。この2曲で二人が何をしたかったかが伝わる。日本が忘れがたい災害に襲われた2011年秋、二人は欧州にいた。長年の共演で培った魂の交感が随所に光る演奏は全てが最上の出来だ。打ち鳴らされるメルドーの左手、立ち止まり抒情をこめて吐き出されるジョシュアのテナー。アルバムタイトル曲での二人は完全に一つになる。全ての傷ついた人への優しさが「近くに居るよ」と響いてくる。
intoxicate (C)瀧口秀之