Rejoicing

80/81 Guitarist Pat Metheny gets to play with the big boys on this spirited double album. Having made a string of well-received albums with his young band, featuring keyboardist Lyle Mays, Metheny (a former Gary Burton sideman) had graduated to the front rank of youthful jazz and fusio...	Bright Size Life Larger ensembles may have provided Pat Metheny with his most visible successes, but he's repeatedly fired up his most fluid and personal playing in leaner trio settings, starting with this, his 1976 debut as a leader. Bob Moses brings both delicacy and effortless dynamics to his ...	Watercolors Pat Metheny was virtually defining a new musical form on this 1977 date, blending folk, country, and pop elements with jazz and creating a gentler, more intimate idiom than fusion had been. His distinctively chorused electric guitar often floats over the smooth textures created b...	Travels This two-CD set was recorded live during several 1982 concerts, covering music that grew out of the studio recordings As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls and Offramp. At this stage, the Pat Metheny Group was a quintet with longtime partners Lyle Mays on piano, organ, and syn...	As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls Guitarist Pat Metheny and his longtime keyboard collaborator/alter ego Lyle Mays saw in their rural American roots a mystical connection to an entire world of sounds, and with As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls, they began the process of fashioning an idiomatic folk express...
Question & Answer (Remastered) On December 21st, 1989, at the end of a busy year on the road and in the studio with the Pat Metheny Group, guitaristy-composer Metheny joined bassist Dave Holland (Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Theolonius Monk) and drummer Ray Haynes (Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughn, Chick Corea) at the ...	Day Trip Amazon.com Our job is to be deeply in the moment, says Pat Metheny. Day Trip, the first release from Metheny's current trio lineup, featuring bassist Christian McBride and drummer Antonio Sanchez, vividly depicts the group at one particularly inspired moment. As Metheny explains,...	New Chautauqua For this 1979 recording, Pat Metheny tried something very different: a solo CD with extensive overdubs that put the emphasis on his acoustic guitar playing. It's in an idiom all its own, mixing the open harmonies of country music with some flamenco phrases, resulting in the melod...	Metheny Mehldau Quartet New Age-leaning guitarist Pat Metheny and melancholic pianist Brad Mehldau have such distinctive, even rarified, sensibilities (each an acquired taste for some listeners), that their teaming may have looked like a one-time commercial ploy in the beginning. But having found rewar...	Trio Live Pat Metheny's brought a string of trios to bear on his music, none of them lasting as a touring band long enough to bring a session like Trio Live to life. As on Trio 99-00, Metheny's bandstand has Larry Grenadier and Bill Stewart beside him, and they burn from start to finish. T...

Why, Pat, Why?
Oddly, they used to say Ornette's music was just noise. Yet, if you listen now, it's positively conservative. This CD pits two of Coleman's alums with Metheny for a program on which a Horace Silver composition is the best track. But Pat couldn't seem to resist ruining what is otherwise a great record with his 9-minute noise experiment, "The Calling." This is a pretty short CD at about 44 mins, so 9 of them are a waste. I'm betting he would never put this on a CD like this today. It disrupts the flow. Maybe we'll be saying this sounds conservative someday, too. But I doubt it.

Perfect trio!
This 1984 ECM recording is, to me, is a perfect example of how the guitar/bass/drum trio should work. Produced by Manfred Eicher, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins' rhythm section is both solid and solidly behind Pat Metheny's guitar playing. When I bought it a few years back, after a couple of listens, I was struck by how I responded to Metheny's different forms of guitar work. My response to his acoustic playing was purely emotional, whilst my response to his electric playing was intellectual. I still haven't figured out why that is. Needless to say, I enjoy both immensely, just differently and on "Story From A Stranger", he adds in a dose of his guitar synth. It doesn't work for me everywhere he uses it but this is one of the places it works very well indeed. The CD seems to be some kind of homage; three of the eight songs are by Ornette Coleman and the opener is by Horace Silver. Charlie Haden writes one, Pat Metheny writes two and the final tune is written by both Haden and Metheny. I like all the songs. Well, almost. I've tried hard but I just don't get "The Calling". I guess it's one of those songs that is said to be for a 'specialist' audience. I usually just press the fast forward button - the only Pat Metheny song ever, to make me do that. Nevertheless, I still consider it a five star CD. I think it's absolutely brilliant.

Don't come "Calling".
I was really enjoying this album. I really was. Reading a magazine, clouds moving in, breezes in the palms...then came "The Calling". I admit I'm not a dissonance aficionado, but this ripped me from my revery. A live, real time evisceration. I would, I'm sure, enjoy as much following along behind the neighborhood trash truck Wednesday mornings for 10 minutes. I'm going to have to Ipod this album, because the rest of the musical text is great. One reviewer has suggested the number might be an acquired taste, I'll try! I gave the album a 4, because one song shouldn't jade what is otherwise a fine Metheny example. BTW, I love As Falls Wichita..., and to a lesser extent, "Silent Story".

A Classic Metheny Trio!!!
1984's "Rejoicing" finds guitar great Pat Metheny teaming up with two of his musical heroes, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Billy Higgins (both of whom had played with legendary saxman Ornette Coleman). Together, this trio has created a standout classic that not only shows Metheny in his then-current prime but also points to what laid ahead for him musically. The "Rejoicing" can be easily divided into two distinct halves. The first five tracks make up the straight-forward Jazz half. Metheny's interpretations of the three Ornette Coleman tunes (Humpty Dumpty, Tears Inside and the title track) are on the same par as the originals and show off amazing versitility from all three players. The opening cover of Horace Silver's "Lonely Woman" (not the same composition as Ornette's classic) is a rare piece of beauty with the goregous melody reinterpreted on acoustic guitar. Charlie Haden's original "Blues For Pat" is just that - a stellar blues piece in which Metheny really shines. Haden also delivers a muscular bass solo in this piece. The remaining three pieces form the experimental half of the album. "Story From A Stranger" isn't too far removed from a Pat Metheny Group composition as it features a folk-like acoustic guitar melody and a horn-like lead-line played on the Roland guitar-synth. "The Calling" is a 10-minute free-form piece in which Pat showcases a near-dissonant melody from his guitar-synth while Haden compilments with haunting bowed bass drones and Higgins provides free fills across his drum kit. Halfway into the piece, it switches gears as Pat moves from the guitar-synth to distorted jagged electric guitar stabs. The overall style of this piece isn't too far removed from what he would accomplish on "Song X", his acclaimed collaboration with Ornette Coleman which was to come less than two years later. There is also a slight hint of '80s King Crimson heard in this piece. "The Calling" leads almost directly into the album's closing piece "Waiting For An Answer", a 2-minute atmospheric coda consisting of a low-drone from Haden and echoed guitar harmonics from Metheny. Even after its release over 20 years ago, "Rejoicing" remains one of Pat Metheny's finest albums. Pat's work in a stripped-down setting gives plenty of room for improvisation and exploration. This album is no exception. The musicianship between Pat, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins is remarkable on every track. This is definitely a must.

Metheny moves closer to Coleman
With Coleman's original "rhythm section" Metheny tackles 3 Coleman tunes, Silver's "Lonely Woman" (oh, i wish it were Coleman's) and a group of originals including the long sound exploration "The Calling" which features Metheny's Guitar synth. As a huge fan of the avant garde, it pains me to say that this cut is the weakest on the album, though still quite interesting. If you like this one, look into Song X.