Pat Metheny + Brad Mehldau = A little less than I'd hoped

When I heard that two of my favorite modern jazz guys were recording and performing together, I was quite excited, but slightly apprehensive. How would Metheny's liquid guitar solos fit with Mehldau's angular, percussive piano?

Uneasily, it seems, is the answer.

With a duets record and a full quartet record now out from the two, and fresh from their show at Boston's Opera House, I have to say that while it's all thoroughly enjoyable, it's also slightly disappointing. They both listen to each other, making adjustments, picking up on each other, but they never seem to find a third place to go that's hipper than either of their home bases.

Maybe that was predictable. Mehldau plays lots of discordant blue notes, Metheny, to my ears, is much more modal. Mehldau is very precise and percussive, Metheny long and legato. Mehldau likes to tweak popular tunes, Metheny writes most of his own.

Still, Metheny has an honorable history as a sideman for plenty of people, which is what this was sort of billed as: Pat plays with Brad's trio. Only Larry Grenadier, the bassist, is just as much a Methenyite as a Bradist, having put in years with Pat.

Throuh their nearly 2.5 hour set, I kept hoping Mehldau would launch into his outstanding version of Paranoid Android. Radiohead's tune would force Metheny out of his comfort zone. Out of their zone, great jazz players often do interesting things (see: Coltrane and Johnny Hartman or Duke Ellington, Miles and all those young cats from the late '70s on). Sadly, we'll never know.

It was more Mehldau who got pressed into service as a comper for Metheny, which he did admirably, if at the expense of his own solos and approach. After the show, I bought the album (Quartet) and Mehldau gets more airtime on it. Still, the chemistry never quite jells, despite lots of great playing all around.

Mehldau is in his mid-30s and has plenty of time to keep growing, which he seems intent on. Maybe playing with Metheny was his idea of connecting with the fusion tradtion, something he's really not done before. But he's shown a lot of ability to experiment and absorb already.

Metheny, who's 52 -- where's he headed? He seems to have fallen into a pattern of trying new instruments, and then finding new music based on that. He's experimented with baritone guitar, the 42-string Pikasso, and of course, his old Ibanez and synth guitars (still no treble on any of them). But musically, you have to wonder.

Don't get me wrong. It was a lot of gorgeous music, and my wife, who hates guitar hero music, liked the show. But I came away feeling it was a missed opportunity for both of them, and more so for Metheny.