Pat Metheny - Still playing the most sublime music

Pat Metheny

Pat Metheny is one of the most accomplished and versatile guitarists I’ve ever seen. His music is jazz, for sure, full of the most amazing solos. But it’s so much more, reflecting his huge range, musically and culturally. 

It is a rare thing to find an individual musician who can move effortlessly from gentle acoustic playing to frenetic and 'challenging' jazz freak-outs. 

Over his long career, Pat Metheny has explored many different musical landscapes and he manages to find a purity of expression in each of them.

His records and live performances are uniquely multi-cultural, absorbing influence from across the Americas. The sounds are reflective, sinuous, exuberant and sometimes jarring. Above all, in a live setting, it is just amazing to see musicianship at this level up-close.

Back in the mid-1980s, I saw Pat and members of the Pat Metheny Group (which then included keyboardist Lyle Mays, bassist Steve Rodby and drummer Paul Wertico) up-close at the Half Moon pub in Putney (London), playing jazz standards as a warm up for a UK tour. To this day, I don't think I've ever seen a virtuoso musician in that close proximity. His virtuosity is undeniable and if you’re close enough, just to watch his hands moving is mesmerising.

On Sunday I was lucky to be just a few rows from the front (thanks Julia) at a matinee - “the breakfast show” as Pat called it - and we had the luxury of being able to watch him work his incredible magic on a wide range of guitars.

The concert was part of a summer jazz series at The Barbican – 3 shows over the weekend.
His latest band, the Side-Eye III trio of Chris Fishman (keyboards) and Joe Dyson (drums), augmented by Jermaine Paul (bass) and Leonard Patton (vocals and percussion), are of quite a different generation to Metheny. The mutual respect is clear, though, with Metheny demonstrably acknowledging each of his bandmates’ exceptional playing.  

On stage at the Barbican. Photo by UK Jazz News

Fishman is a versatile and gifted keyboardist, surrounded by a grand piano, various electric pianos and synths and a Hammond B3 organ. He covers a lot of ground. 

Drummer Joe Dyson’s playing style harks back to that of long-time PMG drummer Paul Wertico, with lots of fine cymbal work, but with a muscular energy when it comes to soloing. Jermaine Paul is one of the most adept and musical upright bassists I have heard in a long time. And Patton’s vocalising is in keeping with a long line of latin-tinged singers from PMGs of the past.

Metheny's recorded work is often melodic and played with a distinctive style that once heard is seldom forgotten. But he has also wandered off into more challenging areas, taking influences from free jazzers like Ornette Coleman. On many of his albums, he doesn't always play safe and has never been afraid to push the boundaries.

In this latter part of his career, working with a new generation of players, he has reached a point where he feels able to revisit some of his most popular tunes in a live setting, while continuing to push at the boundaries of jazz and world music exploration.

For his current audience, the mix of the new and familiar is just about perfect. As well as material for the most recent Side-Eye III+ record, early on in his set we heard a new arrangement of Bright Size Life, and a duet between guitar and keyboards on Phase Dance.

The classic vocal crescendos of First Circle are complemented with more gorgeous vocalising from Patton on the gentle, slow Brazil-inspired Más allá. Metheny and band sound as good as they ever have. It’s really something to see how he and the band so effortlessly shift between moods and rhythms.

The stage emcee had told us that the previous night there were “many encores” and this afternoon, we were again treated to four – two with Metheny playing solo acoustic. On these, Pat played beautifully, creating a medley of his most beloved tunes, including Last Train Home, Minuano, James, September Fifteenth and his Bowie collaboration This Is Not America.

No filming allowed in the auditorium, so you won't find much on youtube. The link above to First Circle is worth a look and listen. And here's a clip of them playing the PMG classic Are you going with me? earlier this year in Rome. 

Listening to Pat Metheny live always sends me back to the records. I have several of his 1970s and 80s ECM albums on vinyl. My most favourite of the ECM era is the Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays album As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls. It features September 15th, their tribute to Bill Evans. It's an almost meditative album, full of atmosphere and reflection, while also managing to be uplifting. Like so much of Metheny’s music.

For a really in-depth understanding of Pat Metheny's musical genius, this interview that Rick Beato did with Pat in 2021 is essential viewing. 

ALSO ON THIS BLOG

Idiot Wind Marks Bob Dylan's Return to Greatness, 1975

Joni Mitchell and The Hissing Of Summer Lawns

A Visit To The Annual Nick Drake Gathering

Sandy Denny and Fotheringay - A Beguiling Songbook

Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan's Artistic Peak In The 1960s

People Power - Live Aid, Mandela and Political Gigs

Seeing Bob Marley - live in New York 1978

How my mid-1980s funk band was revived in 2019

2-Tone and possibly my best gig ever

Memories of the Reading Festival, 1975

Five Days of High Drama at the Isle of Wight, 1970

From Pinner to LA - Elton's Big Breakthrough, 1970

My Woodstock 50th Anniversary Diary

A Wizard, A True Star - my all-time favourite album

A Tribute to David Sanborn

Sanborn with David Bowie in 1975

Here was an artist who had been a feature of my life since I first heard him on record in the early 1970s. On his passing this week, I felt a tinge of regret that I might have taken him for granted of late. Time for a reappraisal of his career.

On Sunday nights as mid-teenagers a bunch of us would gather at a girlfriend's house in Pinner. We'd sit in her bedroom and listen to records. Actually only two records, but they were both excellent - Steely Dan's Katy Lied and David Bowie's Young Americans. 

The title track of the Bowie album had that instantly familiar intro sax line and solo by David Sanborn that everyone recognises, whether they know his name or not.  

Sanborn at Woodstock

Sanborn's first major exposure (to a mere 400,000 people) had come, aged 24, as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. He appeared at the 1969 Woodstock festival with the Butterfield band, though not in the movie. 

Then in 1972, he got his first big exposure on record, featuring on Stevie Wonder's classic album Talking Book, on the gorgeous track Tuesday Heartbreak. 

It was a sound that became Sanborn's calling card, a signature style that would make him a first-call session player from then on. 

When Bowie decided to record in the US in 1975, it was an inspired move to have Sanborn provide the saxophone riff that would usher in his new sound. 

Young Americans was a bold change of style for Bowie, one that some found difficult to take. From Glam rocker to Soul crooner? Come off it mate! But our little gang loved the new album. Sanborn's sax was integral to the whole vibe, especially on tracks like Win and Fascination.

His solo career took off in the late 1970s and early 80s, with albums such as Hideaway, Voyeur and Change Of Heart. His collaboration with Bob James, Double Vision won them both a Grammy. In all, Sanborn won six.

He kept the best company in his choice of backing musicians and collaborators, not the least of whom was bassist Marcus Miller, who was just 19 when they first worked together. Tracks like Chicago Song and Run For Cover demonstrate how important Miller was to Sanborn's sound in that classic 1980s period. 

Sanborn capitalised on his popularity as one of New York's finest, leading the house band on Saturday Night Live and featuring on David Letterman's late-night chat shows. There are some legendary performances from those days on Youtube. 

Here's the cream of New York's session players, including Marcus, guitarist Hiram Bullock and drummer Omar Hakim playing the Weather Report track Teen Town. 

He also co-hosted Night Music, a late-night music show on television with Jools Holland, and curated a syndicated radio program, The Jazz Show with David Sanborn.

I first saw him live in London in the 1980s, as the support act for Al Jarreau. Sanborn's band included drummer Steve Gadd, so my mate Graham and I - both mad keen drummers - went along two nights running to check him out. 

Here's one of my favourite clips of Sanborn, Mike Mainieri, Robben Ford et al at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1981.

Here's Run For Cover with George Duke and Marcus Miller

And from Night music, here's the band backing Miles Davis on Tutu, introduced by Dave Sanborn.  

Of his more recent recordings, I picked up the album Time Again on a business trip in Singapore in about 2005. And I'm still playing it. Again, just the best musicians; Steve Gadd, Mike Mainieri, Randy Brecker, Christian McBride, playing a mix of old and new. Here's a live version of the first track on Time Again, Comin' Home Baby. 

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS

Also on this blog:

Miles Davis and the track name mix-up on Kind Of Blue

 A tribute to jazz giant Chick Corea

Pat Metheny, Live in 2020 and Way Back

Jazz, Blues, Folk - Musical adventures in New York

2-Tone and possibly my best gig ever

Queen's 1976 Free Concert in Hyde Park

Memories of the Reading Festival, 1975

Five Days of High Drama at the Isle of Wight, 1970

From Pinner to LA - Elton's Big Breakthrough, 1970

My Woodstock 50th Anniversary Diary

A Wizard, A True Star - my all-time favourite album

Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan's Artistic Peak in the 1960s

 Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns

Miles Davis and the track name mix-up on Kind Of Blue

Kind Of Blue - the best selling jazz record of all time - had one major flaw. The names of the tracks on side two of the vinyl record were wrongly named. 

Despite plenty of evidence to resolve the mystery, recent commentary on the album track names continues to muddy the waters. 

Side two of Kind Of Blue had two tracks - All Blues and Flamenco Sketches. Bill Evans, who played piano on the sessions - and was composer and arranger on some tracks - wrote the original sleeve notes to the album. In summary he gave a short description of each track by turn, referring to Flamenco Sketches ahead of All Blues. Original versions of the album had the names of the tracks thus, with Flamenco Sketches as the first track on side two.

Early version, track names in the wrong order

Evans' original handwritten sleeve notes describe Flamenco Sketches as "a six-eight, twelve measure blues"  and All Blues as "a series of five scales, each played as long as the soloist wishes."

Somewhere along the line, soon after the album came out in the US in 1959, the track names were transposed, but the tracks on the actual record stayed the same. It's not clear why the change was made or by whom, but the most likely explanation is that it became clear to those closest to the sessions (including Miles and Bill Evans) that the sleeve notes were wrong.

Evans said in an interview that "Flamenco Sketches was something that Miles and I did together that morning before the date. I went by his apartment and he had liked Peace Piece that I did, and he said he’d like to do that." 

So we know that Flamenco Sketches is the last track on the record, because it's the one that starts like Peace Piece. What is less clear is why Evans described Flamenco Sketches as a blues in 6/8, which it isn't. All Blues, however, is in 6/8 time.

Successive generations have misidentified the two songs. This is surprising, because even if they were not trained musicians, it should be apparent that the tracks, as described by Bill Evans in the record's liner notes, are not as they appear on the record. 

Coltrane, Adderley, Miles and Bill Evans

The magazine Jazzwise published an interesting appraisal of the Kind of Blue sessions earlier this year, but their comment that "the blues in 6/8, called either ‘All Blues’ or ‘Flamenco Sketches,’ depending on who you believe" tells you a lot about the ongoing confusion, 60 years after the fact. The magazine's piece doesn't provide a clear answer either way.

In his acclaimed biography on the making of Kind of Blue, Ashley Khan quotes the revised notes as coming from Evans' original sleeve, which is wrong, but at least Khan stuck with the corrected track names - All Blues first, Flamenco Sketches second.

Amy Herot's sleevenotes to the 1990s Mastersound Edition of Kind Of Blue got it right, stating that in 1959, the label copy was corrected to All Blues followed by Flamenco Sketches. More recent releases have also corrected Evans' original notes. 

The Mastersound version in 1992 was also the first to correct a pitch error on the master tape. Columbia's recording policy at the time was to run two tape machines simultaneously, a master and a safety. Apparently, the master tape was running slow. As a result, the tracks on side one were about a quarter tone sharp. According to producer Teo Macero, this was not intentional. 

The session tapes indicate that every take used for the album was the first complete take of that composition. I have recently bought an anniversary edition of the vinyl record, which comes as a double album with an alternate take of 'Flamenco Sketches' and a great version of On Green Dolphin Street, recorded prior to the Kind of Blue sessions (and previously available on the CD of Some Day My Prince Will Come) with the legendary line-up of Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb. They sound amazing.

Original video of So What, from the Kind Of Blue sessions:

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS

See also on this blog:

Miles Davis at the Isle of Wight festival, 1970

A tribute to jazz giant Chick Corea

2-Tone and possibly my best gig ever

Queen's 1976 Free Concert in Hyde Park

Memories of the Reading Festival, 1975

Five Days of High Drama at the Isle of Wight, 1970

From Pinner to LA - Elton's Big Breakthrough, 1970

My Woodstock 50th Anniversary Diary

A Wizard, A True Star - my all-time favourite album

Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan's Artistic Peak in the 1960s

 Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns

A tribute to jazz giant Chick Corea

Chick Corea's musical journey took him to many different destinations. Each shared a common quality, reflecting a lifelong exploration of keyboard sounds and rhythmic possibilities. As a piano player, composer and innovator, he was up there with the very best in jazz history, and he combined this musical gift with great humour and a naturally positive attitude.

His journey ended, quite suddenly it seems, on February 9th, when Chick passed away at the age of 79 from a rare form of cancer, which his family said was discovered only recently.

Of all the modern jazz greats I have seen in concert, Chick was the one I saw the most -The Elektrik Band in London in the 1980s; the expanded Acoustic Band in New York in 1992; with John McLaughlin in the Five Peace Band in New Zealand - and many other nights of amazing music.

At the Blue Note, Hawaii

When my wife and I took a holiday in Hawaii a few years ago, as we approached our hotel on Waikiki beach, I noticed a sign for the Blue Note jazz club just a few yards away. Chick Corea was having a week's residency at the club, in a trio format with Eddie Gomez and Brian Blade. So the first thing I did was get down there and buy tickets for the following night's show.

Chick was a great advocate of pianist and composer Bill Evans and as a feature of these shows in Hawaii, Chick showcased some unrecorded Bill Evans tunes that Evans' son (called Evan) had passed to him.

For my wife and I, there were echoes of a night 20 years previously. Back in December 1992, just before we were married, we flew to the US from London to visit her brother and sister in law in Connecticut. 

The flyer for the 1992 Blue Note show

Out in the suburbs it was freezing and the snow was piled high. There wasn't much to do out there and we were going a bit stir crazy. So one weekend we ventured into New York City and booked a hotel in midtown Manhattan, opposite Carnegie Hall on 57th Street. 

On the Saturday night, after an expensive restaurant meal, I had booked us in to see Chick Corea and his band at The Blue Note in Greenwich Village. And what a band that was - as always Chick had the cream of the jazz players working with him. On this occasion it was Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, John Pattitucci on bass, Bob Berg on sax, Wallace Roney on trumpet.   

Here's a clip, from that same time, of the trio, Corea, Pattitucci and Colaiuta at the Blue Note in Tokyo. I bought a CD of this show from a store in Tokyo and later got the DVD. It's that good.

Chick and Dave Holland with Miles Davis

There were so many highlights and different musical collaborations in Chick's career. His time in Miles Davis's band, during the period when Miles went electric and invented jazz rock fusion with the album Bitches Brew, is captured in this clip from 1969, and here, when Miles and band appeared at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970. 

A reviewer of the IOW performance said, "The group's use of rock rhythms was far more evident than before, but they proved beyond any doubt that they are capable of making it as subtle, as complex and as rewarding as any conventional jazz rhythm."

In the 70s, Chick collaborated with vibraphonist Gary Burton, with whom he recorded several duet albums for ECM, including 1972's Crystal Silence. 

ECM Records founder Manfred Eicher said: “Crystal Silence introduced the piano and vibes duo of Corea and Gary Burton who played together every year for more than four decades, perfecting a virtuosic chamber music of their own (aptly augmented with strings on 1982’s Lyric Suite). 

with Gary Burton

"Chick and Gary were quickly able to anticipate each other’s improvisational responses, phrasing, and rhythmic accentuation. The result was often breathtaking: an effervescence of melody and countermelody, with synchronized cascades of sound."

“I’d call our music true contemporary music,” Chick had said back in 1974. “Classical music has influenced our music harmonically and formally. What I’m striving for is incorporating the subtlety and beauty of harmony, melody and form with the looseness and rhythmic dancing quality of jazz and more folky musics.”

He picked up with Burton regularly thereafter, including for these live shows in 1981, for the album Like Minds, which also included his Miles bandmate, bassist Dave Holland, his original trio drummer Roy Haynes and Pat Metheny - the first time Chick and Pat had worked together. Later, New Crystal Silence reunited Corea and Burton once again. 

Chick is perhaps best remembered by rock listeners for his work with the jazz fusion group Return To Forever. In common with Weather Report, RTF went through different line-ups that made a significant difference to their sound. The earliest, latin-tinged incarnation contained Joe Farrell, Stanley Clarke, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. 

Return To Forever

Eicher said of the original Return To Forever sessions: “The whole band had a wonderful energy as they played Chick’s compositions. And Chick’s sound on the Fender Rhodes was beautiful, luminous, hypnotic.”

Here's some great footage of that band playing live, minus Flora, from 1972 

Only Clarke was retained for the second version of RTF which moved much more into the jazz rock arena, adding drummer Lenny White and guitarist Bill Connors to the mix. Their album Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy has some remarkable playing and interaction between all four band members.

Connors left the band and was replaced by Al Di Meola, who was only 19 when he joined! This was the most commercially successful version of Return To Forever, beginning with another great album, Where Have I Known You Before, which followed the feel of the previous album but with a bit more funk, courtesy of Clarke's electric bass riffs. 

Though they disbanded in the late 70s, this version of RTF reformed to tour in 2008, including a concert at the Montreux jazz festival that was released on blue-ray.

In October 2011, I caught one of the shows in the month-long season in honour of Chick's 70th birthday at the Blue Note in New York. This one featured another of the Bitches Brew alumni, John McLaughlin. 

The show was capped by an appearance by Gayle Moran, Chick's wife, who had been a member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the 1970s. They played Smile of the Beyond, from the MO album Apocalypse, with Gayle singing and the drummer Brian Blade whipping up a storm in the concluding passage of the tune. I wish I had a video of that. It was astonishing. Someone did post it on youtube at the time, but it has since disappeared.

So all in all, with the albums, DVDs and live shows, I think Chick Corea must be one of the artists I have seen and listened to the most.  

On his passing, Chick's family posted the following note on his Facebook page:

Chick with John McLaughlin

"Throughout his life and career, Chick relished the freedom and the fun to be had in creating something new, and in playing the games that artists do.

He was a beloved husband, father and grandfather, and a great mentor and friend to so many. Through his body of work and the decades he spent touring the world, he touched and inspired the lives of millions.

Though he would be the first to say that his music said more than words ever could, he nevertheless had this message for all those he knew and loved, and for all those who loved him:

“I want to thank all of those along my journey who have helped keep the music fires burning bright. It is my hope that those who have an inkling to play, write, perform or otherwise, do so. If not for yourself then for the rest of us. It’s not only that the world needs more artists, it’s also just a lot of fun.

“And to my amazing musician friends who have been like family to me as long as I’ve known you: It has been a blessing and an honor learning from and playing with all of you. My mission has always been to bring the joy of creating anywhere I could, and to have done so with all the artists that I admire so dearly—this has been the richness of my life.” 

Thanks for the music Chick. Rest In Peace.

More Chick Corea listening and viewing pleasure :

The Spanish Heart Band - “Armando’s Rhumba” 

New Akoustic Band - 'Round Midnight, live @ Blue Note Tokyo - 1992

A phenomenal performance by the Akoustic Band 

Akoustic Band feat. John Patitucci & Dave Weckl - 2018

Chick Corea & Gary Burton - La Fiesta, 2011

Chick Plays "Spain" (Tutorial with Overhead Camera and Transcription)

Chick, Miroslav Vitous, Roy Haynes - 'Now He Sings, Now He Sobs', 2012

The Ultimate Adventure 2007

 IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS