Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau Duo dazzle at Barbican

Apparently at the end of their latest tour yet evidently pleased to be back at the Barbican, they seemed determined to go out on a high and that was just what they delivered.

Enter stage left, Brad Mehldau, the quieter one, Joshua Redman, striding on purposefully. No preliminaries for this bare-bones ensemble, just straight into a jaunty theme, Mehldau's 'Always August', the pianist playing rhythmic games, two hands as one, before Redman's soprano took it on over Mehldau's ragtime strut. So far so good. Then came Redman's more solemn 'Mehlsancholy Mode', with tenor impassioned, every sinew strained, the theme examined from near and far, Mehldau's harmonic variations and seemingly endless capacity for invention dazzling but in an unflashy way. No empty rhetoric here.

Then a highlight, the duo's exploration of Sonny Rollins' 'Sonnymoon for Two', each man hinting at the melody, fragments emerging, as Redman played first as a classic tenor-man before finding another gear, all burps and sudden high-end thrusts, Mehldau like a bluesy old-timer but in a new way. 'I Should Care' was sublime, the two men peering at its potential like old friends, each nudging the other and finding beauty at every turn.

More original material followed, the pianist's sheer creative amplitude like an upfront wonder, each man listening to the other, motifs batted to and fro. The audience, rightly, gave them an end-of-concert ovation and these two then returned the compliment with a 15-minute encore, Charlie Parker's 'Ornithology, taken at breakneck speed and bubbling over with magical adventures.

Earlier Redman had spoken of it "being a surreal time to be an American" as they contemplated returning home to Trump's new world. Happily for us, the realities they offered in this uninterrupted 105-minute performance transcended any suggestions of the surreal. Just the purity of the here and now. Utterly magnificent.

– Peter Vacher
– Photo by Roger Thomas