Pat Metheny & Brad Meldhau – Quartet (CD, Warner)

The first recorded meeting of guitarist Pat Metheny and pianist Brad Mehldau, Metheny/Mehldau, was an intimate, almost chamber-like affair, albeit one with some heated improvisations. Quartet, their second meeting, finds them sounding like a stripped-down version of the Pat Metheny Group. But this is a leaner, looser band, with freewheeling support from Mehldau’s trio of drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier on all but a couple of tracks. The guitarist and pianist are a good match for Metheny’s dramatic and lyrical inclinations, seducing the more angular and cerebral Mehldau like teasing threads from a knot. Mehldau is a pianist of exploratory dimensions, and he gives himself free reign here. There’s intimate, Jim Hall/Bill Evans-style duos like “Ring of Life” that you might expect, but also out-and-out free-form electric excursions like “Summer Day” that recall Metheny’s 1980s work with Billy Higgins and Charlie Haden on Rejoicing. While maintaining a unified sound, Quartet is nevertheless an album of contrasts, as Metheny drives into his synth guitar on “Legend,” tossing in a heavy-metal bridge, but also goes a bit pastoral and medieval on “Ahmid-6,” strumming what sounds like a harp-guitar, although it could be his guitar-synth. With deeply empathetic playing and a broad stylistic palette, Quartet never wears thin