Pianist Brad Mehldau and saxophonist Joshua Redman, longtime friends and frequent collaborators, head out for a three-week duo tour of Europe, starting at Kongsberg Church in Norway tonight. Concerts follow through the rest of July in Denmark, Netherlands, Italy, and France, with the final show at the Marciac Jazz Festival, where Mehldau's latest solo album, Live in Marciac, was recorded. Following a solo tour for Mehldau and performances with James Farm for Redman in August, the two reunite for additional duo dates in the United States and Europe this fall. See below for all of the currently scheduled duo dates; for additional information on these and upcoming solo dates, go to nonesuch.com/on-tour.

"It's like one of those friendships where you don't see someone for a long stretch and then you fall right back where you left off, yet you don't harp on the past,"  Mehldau told the Ottawa Citizen when he and Redman were in Canada last month to perform together at the Ottawa and Montreal jazz festivals. "With some people, you can pick up like that and it's not strange, with some people you can't. With Josh and I, it's been easy over the years."

The difference with this friendship, quips the Ottawa Citizen's Peter Hum, is that these two friends "among the most potent and influential jazz instrumentalists of their generation, and what Mehldau calls 'picking up' is in fact world-class improvising before rapt audiences." Read more at ottawacitizen.com.

Hum's colleague at the Ottawa Citizen, Doug Fischer, reviewing the duo's set, calls it "music of uncommon depth and simpatico," an evening of "jazz to remember." Read that review as well at ottawacitizen.com.

Also reviewing the Ottawa set was All About Jazz managing editor John Kelman. From the start, "the simpatico the two have shared for nearly two decades was immediately evident," Kelman writes. "It was the kind of performance that affirms the duo as, perhaps, the most intimate, vulnerable, exploratory context for improvising musicians. With a clear, uninterrupted line of communication that was explored without reservation throughout their 75-minute set, Redman and Mehldau delivered a performance that will be remembered by those lucky enough to be there, for a long time to come." Read the review at allaboutjazz.com.

To pick up a copy of any album in Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau's respective Nonesuch catalogs, head to the Nonesuch Store, where orders include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the album at checkout.

JOSHUA REDMAN / BRAD MEHLDAU 2011 DUO TOUR