The influential contemporary pianist and saxophonist's musical relationship goes back to the early 1990s. It was then that a fledgling Brad Mehldau, who was fresh out of New York's New School, got his first break touring and recording with a trend-setting Redman band that featured Christian McBride and Brian Blade. They've recorded infrequently since; Redman was a notable contributor to Mehldau's 2010 Highway Rider and Mehldau on Redman's sax-and-strings album Walking Shadows in 2013. But they did get to perform in a more intimate duo setting as well, first in 2008 and then for a run of concerts in Europe in 2011, a selection of which make up the tracklist on this outstanding new release Nearness, their first as a duo. The opening Charlie Parker/Benny Harris’ ‘Ornithology’ thunders along at rocket pace but unlike other contemporary jazz interpretations of bebop standards, the tune is reinvigorated rather than violated. The pair's contrapuntal to and fro-ing is breath-taking in its heated exuberance and sharp tiki-taka exchanges, brilliantly and unpredictably resolving what seems to be musical dead-ends. On another bebop classic, Thelonious Monk's ‘In Walked Bud’, Mehldau's playful one-handed motifs and inventive re-harmonising underscores Redman's shapely swinging bop narrative. The pianist's Beatlesish ‘Always August’ has a deeper bluesy intimacy in this setting compared to the version on Highway Rider. The less buoyant ‘Mehlsancoly Mood’ is Redman's punning homage to his partner who's in accompanying mode, the descending bass movement reminiscent of a song by Nick Drake, a Mehldau favourite. Redman's luxurious, smoky tones on the title track, ‘Nearness of You’, echoes the old swing sax masters while a 15-minute near symphonic version of Mehldau's ‘Old West’ demonstrates the pianist's attachments to the ‘romantic’ classical era. There's none of the boring self-indulgent battle of wits or in-jokes that can occur when jazz superstars decide to have a matey get together; it's all about serving the song and playing in the moment.