Highway Rider (2CDs) Nonesuch * * *

If it offers much to admire, this rare trip by Mehldau outside his trio or solo piano formats seems likely to divide fans. Using a chamber orchestra on seven of the 15 pieces he composed, arranged and orchestrated as a sort of suite, it straddles the classical/jazz line. The orchestral writing is assured, with the jazz elements, which include Mehldau’s working trio and Joshua Redman (soprano/ tenor) and percussionist Matt Chamberlain, well integrated into what is perhaps his most homogenous such venture yet. Equally assured is the playing; with or without the orchestra, Mehldau and Redman, in particular, are dazzlingly virtuosic at times. Admirably crafted though it is, however, there’s a sombre, portentous air to the orchestral music. A hunger for the Big Statement never seems too far away, and it lacks the imaginative edge to engage the emotions as fully as it might. See nonesuch.com