Thile/Mehldau - Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau

The Guardian 80

(Nonesuch)

Two very different musicians hit a remarkable rapport on this double album: bluegrass mandolin virtuoso and vocalist Chris Thile, and jazz piano star Brad Mehldau. But they’re bonded (and have been, since their first partnership in 2011) by affection for Bach, the Beatles, blues and bluegrass alike. Thile sings a lot, invoking an ethereal falsetto, the imploring call of a ’50s teenage crooner, a nasal Dylanesque snarl, or a rural bluesman’s grouchy defiance. Mehldau’s catchy country-rock vamps regularly appear, driving his partner toward a mandolin version of Django Reinhardt’s speed and swing on his own Tallahassee Junction. Thile’s voice and Mehldau’s explosive double-time improv develop Gillian Welch’s foreboding Scarlet Town (not the Dylan song of the same name), Thile is more sassily talkative than Dylan on a version of Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right, and the pair’s account of the constantly key-shifting, melodically roaming Daughter of Eve emphasise how much they prefer interesting challenges to the note-spraying country-funky party pieces their gifts could have made so easy for them.