PAT METHENY
Selected Recordings: rarum IX
ECM
Pat Metheny is one of a group of incredibly
versatile guitarists who has expanded and exploded the traditional
definitions of jazz, rock, folk, Americana, and popular
music. He’s worked with musicians as diverse as Ornette
Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Milton Nascimento, Joni Mitchell,
and Jim Hall. He can play straight ahead jazz on acoustic
guitar, rock-oriented electric, or a more folk-oriented
sound on the 42-string Pikassoguitar, which he helped develop.
Over the years the Pat Metheny group has amassed
an incredible body of work, recording in a variety of styles.
One way that Metheny keeps things fresh is by taking significant
time between group projects, allowing band members to work
on individual projects so that everyone returns to the group
refreshed and full of ideas. The group has gone through
a number of different lineups over the years, yet maintains
much of the same spirit of adventure and excitement. Equally
long-lasting has been Metheny’s collaboration with
keyboardist Lyle Mays. Mays’ compositional strength
and wide-screen orchestration has been part of Metheny’s
music since he began the Pat Metheny group. In addition,
the heartland American background the two share (Metheny
is from Kansas City, Mays from Wausaukee, Wisconsin) was
integral to much of their work together.
Though Metheny has recently switched from
ECM to Warner records, his best-known and most admired work
has definitely been that associated with the German label.
So it makes sense that they release a volume in their :rarum
series devoted to his work. While the guitarist could easily
have filled two discs (a la Keith Jarrett), the Pat Metheny
:rarum release is the best collection of his work on the
label available and an excellent resource for those just
discovering his work or for those who are longtime fans.
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We begin with the title track from Metheny’s
debut album Bright Size Life, featuring him in
a trio setting, which has always been a particularly fruitful
setting for his guitar work. Here he plays with bassist
Jaco Pastorious and drummer Bob Moses. It’s amazing
to remember that when this was recorded, in 1975, Metheny
and Pastorious were of youngsters barely into their twenties.
They had been playing together a bit already in trio settings
and continued to have a great musical relationship, touring
together with Joni Mitchell in 1980. Bright Size Life
captured a new spirit among young jazz players, one that
wasn’t content to just churn out yet another version
of standard material, however musical and however much technical
prowess they may possess. Metheny wrote most of the album’s
material, and his dialogue with Pastorious and Moses is
the stuff of classic jazz groups.
The Pat Metheny Group made its debut in 1977,
and it’s first recording, 1978’s Pat Metheny
Group, featured keyboard player Mays, bassist Mark
Egan, and drummer Dan Gottlieb. “Phase Dance”
is somewhat typical of the group’s early output, with
Mays providing orchestral synthesizer effects, gospel-tinged
acoustic piano work, and Metheny offering a lush canopy
of acoustic and electric guitar. The group had spent the
previous couple of years traveling from one end of America
to the other, playing as many as 300 one-nighters in a year,
and constantly honing their sound and style. The Americana
that became so apparent on later recordings by the group
as well as elements of progressive rock are all brought
to bear on this track.
In 1978 Metheny recorded New Chautauqua,
a solo album on which he overdubbed and layered acoustic
and electric guitars as well as overdubbing bass parts himself.
Here he really expanded on the use of open, country-style
chords, resulting in a version of the same style that Bill
Frisell has explored of late. In addition, many other elements
were apparent, such as an ambient texture and a relaxing,
open vibe that probably influenced later practitioners of
less interesting musical genres such as smooth jazz and
New Age. But that’s not Metheny’s fault, and
the key element in his work is his attention to musical
detail, which always renders the music interesting upon
frequent listening, not just a catchy one-time thing. “New
Chautauqua” is one of my favorite Metheny tracks of
all time, and its inclusion here was definitely a necessity.
The next track, “Airstream” comes
from the American Garage album, which was the group’s
first to be recorded in the U.S. and was done in the midst
of a massive tour that spanned more than a year. It has
all the familiar elements of the group’s sound at
this time, including attempts to bring more mainstream musical
elements into the band’s work. Metheny has generally
said that Garage is one of his least favorite of
his albums, but in the liner notes here he says that “This
piece was one that I was particularly fond of at the time
it was written and we still occasionally play it.”
Many who love some elements of Metheny’s
playing are less than thrilled with the Group recordings
overall, and 80/81 seemed designed to address that
issue. Here Metheny plays with a fantastic jazz group that
includes saxophonist Mike Brecker, bassist Charlie Haden,
and drummer Jack DeJohnette. The track featured here, “Everyday
(I Thank You)” is gorgeous and demonstrates that Metheny
could fit well into a more jazz-oriented environment while
still maintaining his unique style and sound.
The rest of the tracks presented here, except
for the final one, are all by various versions of the Pat
Metheny Group, and emphasize the expanding role of Lyle
Mays in the group’s sound, whether it’s his
signature synthesizer work on “It’s For You”
from As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls or
his sweeping synth orchestrations and meditative acoustic
piano work on “The First Circle” from the album
of the same title. Some listeners lament the fact that Metheny’s
guitar is not always as prominent as it was on some of the
group’s earlier work, but many listeners find the
contributions of Mays as well as new group members like
Steve Rodby and Paul Wertico to be natural progressions
of the band’s sound.
The final selection is a stunningly beautiful
rendition of the Horace Silver composition “Lonely
Woman” recorded in 1983 with Charlie Haden and Billy
Higgins. Here we come full circle back to the trio format,
and Metheny’s acoustic guitar work here is nothing
short of breathtaking. For those detractors who feel that
Pat has not been a ‘real’ jazz player or lacks
the ability to play in a more traditional style, this track
as well as the album from which it comes, Rejoicing, should
put an end to that viewpoint.
As with all the :rarum series recordings,
this one is nicely packaged and contains liner notes by
the artist himself explaining his reasons for picking each
tune and some of the history behind it.
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