What are the ties that bind the two (last together for a 2007 documentary on Haden)? For starters, theres a poignant, searching quality to their phrase making. Then theres the not-small matter of a willingness to directly respond to each others playing, rather than playing AT each other, as is too often the case when star musicians collaborate. The low-pressure setting--Jarretts home studio in New Jersey doubtless abetted that high-level connectedness.
Some listeners may find fault with the extremely laidback pacing of the set, but others will discover that the harmonic richness of the affair more than compensates for a certain sameness in the tempos. A highlight is the standard “Body and Soul," which opens in a somber mood, expands with Jarretts brilliant solo turn, lifts with a sweet double-time feel, and then settles back down with a typically graceful, stair-stepping improvisation by Haden, during which the pianist drops out for several bars at time.
“No Moon at All," with its descending chord patterns, swings harder than the other pieces. “One Day Ill Fly Away," a Joe Sample/Will Jennings ballad recorded by Randy Crawford, is stately but subversively soulful. Bassists, and those with ears to hear, will marvel over the grace and imagination Haden demonstrates with his solo on “Where Can I Go Without You." The closer, the Jerome Kern chestnut “Dont Ever Leave Me," at 3:11 the discs shortest track, is all elegance, heart, and musical smarts, qualities that inform nearly every piece on this remarkable pairing.
