Track Listing

1. Unrequited
2. Ahmid 6
3. Summer Day
4. Ring Of Life
5. Legend
6. Find Me In Your Dreams
7. Say The Brother's Name
8. Bachelors III
9. Annie's Bittersweet Cake
10. Make Peace

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8119 in Music
• Released on: 2006-10-23
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Beautiful and intelligent
I have never heard Mehldau play before I bought the CD. I have a lot of Pat Metheny's music and adore the way he plays. I am amazed by this collection and bowled over by the pairing of these two individuals and the music they have produced. The music sounds so simple and yet it is very intelligently played and superbly melodic. Some of the tracks are more enjoyable than others but it is generally pure pleasure to hear and is quite moving in parts. Just brilliant.

A classic
You can see why Metheny was so excited about playing with Mehldau, it must have been something akin to Miles Davis' excitement about playing with the young Tony Williams. The playing throughout this CD is superb - but the standout track has to be "Make Peace" - the composition reaches the emotional heights of "Are you going with me?" and the piano playing is technically breathtaking.

I agree with the previous reviewer in that this CD belongs on the same pile as the duet with Charlie Haden, but for different reasons. Both are duets were the players are coming from the same place and so the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Contrast this with the Metheny/Scofield album which was frustratingly disjointed as it was made by two very different musicians.

If you already have the Metheny/Mehldau quartet album don't hesitate to buy this as well - they're both essential but I think this one just edges it.

Underwhelmed
As a Metheny fan and a new listener to Mehldau, I was a little disappointed by this album. My only previous experience of Mehldau was Live in Tokyo, which I found a bit sterile and constricted, pure maybe but lacking passion. I was looking to this duet to realign my impression of his playing with that of his many vociferous fans.

With the exception of Make Peace, which is a beautiful and moving piece, I was fairly untouched by this album. I am worried that I seem to be the only music lover who does not heap praise on Mehldau, but the tentative and constricted playing is what I notice most. As a firm Keith Jarrett fan, maybe I am looking for the wrong thing.

Please buy the album and decide for yourself, but for me this goes on the same pile as Metheny's duet with Charlie Haden: a bit slow, a bit pedestrian, a little uninspiring.