Author Topic: The Pat Metheny Discography Thread: Unity Band (2012)  (Read 14497 times)

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Offline darkshade

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Re: The Pat Metheny Discography Thread: Day Trip / Tokyo Day Trip (2008)
« Reply #245 on: September 24, 2021, 03:26:02 PM »
Pat Metheny - Day Trip (2008)
w/ Christian McBride & Antonio Sánchez




Pat Metheny - Tokyo Day Trip (2008)
w/ Christian McBride & Antonio Sánchez



Day Trip is a jazz trio album in line with previous albums like Question and Answer and Trio 99->00, this time featuring Christian McBride on bass and Antonio Sánchez on drums. Aside from a rendition of Pat's "When We Were Free" from the Quartet album, and a rendition of "The Red One" from I Can See Your House From Here, this is all previously unreleased music. Following this was a live EP titled Tokyo Day Trip, which features more new music. Both were released together and separately (the box set with both includes an extra tune on Day Trip "Whatnot")

Overall I like this album, but it's my least favorite of these kind of albums from Pat. To me, it's kind of an 'average' release by Pat's standards. There are some great melodies here and there, and the playing is great of course, expect no less. I just feel like he's released better. Some of the playing seems stiff and clinical at times. My favorite music between both releases is actually on the Tokyo Day Trip album, 2nd and 3rd tracks "Traveling Fast" and "Inori" contain the most interesting music to my ears. The former is high energy, but dynamic post-bop styled contemporary jazz, and the latter is an underrated ballad that no one talks about, with a cool melody as it's main theme. Not surprising since it's live, and I feel like the EP in general has more staying power than the original studio album.

Both are still good albums overall, and more Pat Metheny music is never a bad thing.

« Last Edit: September 25, 2021, 10:25:40 AM by darkshade »

Offline darkshade

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Re: The Pat Metheny Discography Thread: Quartet Live (2009)
« Reply #246 on: September 30, 2021, 03:38:22 PM »
Gary Burton - Quartet Live (2009)
with Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow, and Antonio Sánchez



Gary Burton reunited with Pat Metheny and Steve Swallow in 2007 for this live album performance, Pat and co. are joined again by Antonio Sánchez, the last PMG drummer before that band dissolved. This album mostly features renditions of tunes that appeared on the mid-1970s Gary Burton albums that feature Pat on guitar, like Ring, Dreams So Real, and Passengers, and some of Pat's tunes from Bright Size Life and Question and Answer; but updated for a more modern sound thanks to Sánchez and Pat's evolved sound since his early days in Gary's band. A solid release, maybe not the most essential listen, but if you like those 70s albums you'll likely enjoy this album. It can be a little boring at times, but other times it's as exciting as anything Pat has been a part of.

Offline darkshade

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Re: The Pat Metheny Discography Thread: Orchestrion (2010)
« Reply #247 on: October 03, 2021, 04:01:45 PM »
Pat Metheny - Orchestrion (2010)



Pat Metheny's 2010 release, "Orchestrion" marks the beginning of a new era of Pat Metheny's music. Orchestrion is an album played by Pat's orchestrionics which was created by many different people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestrion_(album) and is an 'instrument' that he has been using on most of his albums ever since.

The "Orchestrion" includes pianos, marimba, vibraphone, orchestra bells, basses, GuitarBots, percussion, cymbals and drums, blown bottles and other custom mechanical instruments. This is truly something different for Pat, as he is the only human player on the album. Musically, this feels like a proper follow-up to The Way Up, it is the spiritual successor to the later Pat Metheny Group albums, as by this point, the band had pretty much dissolved and broken up. There are many moments on this album that make me think of that band.

The music is also more in the prog-jazz vein as those later PMG albums. Opening with the nearly 16 minute title track, the album kicks off with a bang and never lets up. Moods change, and there is a great payoff towards the end. The piece really shows off the capabilities of mechanics of what Pat is doing (which I'm not even sure what it is, as he somehow controls all the instruments on the album.) Expansion is another title, this one is a really fun tune, and great guitar from Pat here. Some may feel the music sounds 'robotic' to them. While I understand that, and that can be the case on occasion, I like the compositions enough to overlook the fact that it is mostly mechanical instruments performing this music backing up Pat's guitar. There are some great melodies here. Some say since The Way Up, if not since anything released after 1993, Pat's music became a bit cold, clinical sounding and, with exception, was lacking the pop sensibilities that made albums from the 70s, 80s, and early 90s so successful. I don't agree with that 100% but I get it to an extent, as Pat has evolved and is constantly re-inventing himself. I think his most recent output of the last couple of years has been very strong, however, so I'm along for the ride whatever he does. Orchestrion is a good one, maybe not his best album, but a good addition to the canon.

Offline Orbert

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Re: The Pat Metheny Discography Thread: Orchestrion (2010)
« Reply #248 on: October 03, 2021, 07:30:30 PM »
Wow, I don't think I've ever heard of this album, let alone heard it.

Offline Orbert

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Re: The Pat Metheny Discography Thread: Orchestrion (2010)
« Reply #249 on: October 03, 2021, 07:35:15 PM »
Listening to the title track now.  Very cool stuff! :tup

Offline darkshade

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Re: The Pat Metheny Discography Thread: Orchestrion (2010)
« Reply #250 on: October 05, 2021, 07:31:45 PM »
Wow, really? It's not necessarily one of his more popular albums, but I recall this album was controversial when released.

Definitely an overlooked album of his, for sure.

Offline Orbert

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Re: The Pat Metheny Discography Thread: Orchestrion (2010)
« Reply #251 on: October 05, 2021, 09:03:02 PM »
Why was it controversial?  I thought it sounded sweet.

Offline SoundscapeMN

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Re: The Pat Metheny Discography Thread: Orchestrion (2010)
« Reply #252 on: October 05, 2021, 11:17:28 PM »
I remember seeing video and reading about "Orchestrion" with a lot of intrigue, and while the process of the album being produced was really unique, the music it self ended up being a bit of Pat Metheny by the numbers to an extent. Per listening to it, I could easily mistaken it for some of his other records.

Offline darkshade

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Re: The Pat Metheny Discography Thread: Orchestrion (2010)
« Reply #253 on: October 06, 2021, 06:47:21 AM »
Why was it controversial?  I thought it sounded sweet.

The fact that the album is like a modern take on the player piano but taken to more of an extreme. I recall at the time people were clamoring for a new Pat Metheny Group album, instead of an album played by a machine/robots; not knowing yet that PMG was done for.
I like this album a lot, it's one of my favorites.

I remember seeing video and reading about "Orchestrion" with a lot of intrigue, and while the process of the album being produced was really unique, the music it self ended up being a bit of Pat Metheny by the numbers to an extent. Per listening to it, I could easily mistaken it for some of his other records.

I wouldn't say it's by-the-numbers, as much as it musically follows the lineage of the last few PMG albums. I could see this being the PMG follow up to The Way Up. However, it'd be hard to mistake this for any of the albums released throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, what with the lack of South American instrumentation and wordless vocals, denser compositions, etc... but Pat surely had his style of writing, playing, and composition intact by 2010. Pat's melodies also have a way of making you think you've heard it before, not because it sounds like like he's repeating himself, but because it's so catchy and memorable you swear you must have heard this before (but you didn't) I will admit, too, there is a melody in the album that reminds me heavily of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", I think it's in the second track.

The fact that 90% of the music performed is done with the orchestrionics is surely not by-the-numbers.

Offline darkshade

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Re: The Pat Metheny Discography Thread: What's It All About (2011)
« Reply #254 on: October 16, 2021, 07:23:23 PM »
Pat Metheny - What's It All About (2011)



What's It All About is a solo album by Pat, truly solo, akin to One Quiet Night. The album comprises of all cover tunes, performed by Pat on a multitude of guitars, including the Picasso guitar, and the baritone guitar, but the originals are hardly recognizable, at least the ones I know.

It's not a regular pick, I generally go with world fusion Pat or Superjazz Pat; but the album's mood is highly melancholic, and a bit haunting, and I enjoy it for what it is. This album feels more sombre than OQN. It is an album to put on in a dark, quiet room, perhaps on a stormy evening. Not an album I was that into when it first came out, but it has since grown on me, just like OQN, over the years. The production is quite amazing as well. It's just so clear and Pat's various guitars all sound wonderful, especially on really good speakers.

Offline Fritzinger

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Re: The Pat Metheny Discography Thread: What's It All About (2011)
« Reply #255 on: October 18, 2021, 03:43:34 AM »
Pat Metheny - What's It All About (2011)



What's It All About is a solo album by Pat, truly solo, akin to One Quiet Night. The album comprises of all cover tunes, performed by Pat on a multitude of guitars, including the Picasso guitar, and the baritone guitar, but the originals are hardly recognizable, at least the ones I know.

It's not a regular pick, I generally go with world fusion Pat or Superjazz Pat; but the album's mood is highly melancholic, and a bit haunting, and I enjoy it for what it is. This album feels more sombre than OQN. It is an album to put on in a dark, quiet room, perhaps on a stormy evening. Not an album I was that into when it first came out, but it has since grown on me, just like OQN, over the years. The production is quite amazing as well. It's just so clear and Pat's various guitars all sound wonderful, especially on really good speakers.

I love this one. Pat is often overseen as a solo-/fingerstyle guitarist. But his solo arrangements are beautiful and very creative. And VERY hard to play, although they might not sound like it. I once tried Don't Know Why while I was still studying guitar. I used to play a lot of finger style stuff. I stopped in the middle of the first verse  :lol
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Offline darkshade

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Re: The Pat Metheny Discography Thread: Unity Band (2012)
« Reply #256 on: October 19, 2021, 04:47:28 PM »
Pat Metheny - Unity Band (2012)
with Chris Potter, Ben Williams, and Antonio Sánchez



Pat's then-new band after the demise of the Pat Metheny Group in the late 2000s. Released in 2012, Antonio Sánchez returns from his stint with PMG and Pat's work with Christian McBride, Chris Potter on sax (Dave Holland, Paul Motian) is the first sax player in a Pat Metheny band since 1980's "80/81" album, and young newcomer to the jazz scene at the time Ben Williams on bass join in as well. This is a jazzier effort than PMG, in that, it isn't as much of a fusion album as much as it's a hard, contemporary jazz album, with some of Pat's effects and the Orchestrionics return here as well. The album features Potter's sax playing which dominates the recording. There are some really great melodies on here, and the band overall sounds really good. I've seen some people call the music by this group to be very clinical sounding, too cold, and lacking the warmth of earlier Pat Metheny records. I would agree to an extent, but the approach here is not like previous albums.

I will admit, Potter's sax playing tends to grate on my ears after a while, so I don't put on this album or its follow up as often as I'd like, especially since I really enjoy Williams' playing against Sánchez's drumming. This album also marks a slight change in Pat's clean guitar tone. It seems like it's almost "hallowed out" or has a far-away feel to it, like it was recorded in a hall and you can almost hear an echo from it. This would continue for the remaining 2010s albums. I think the best tunes here are Roofdogs, Come and See, both have a PMG feel, but a little harder edged, and then Signals (Orchestrion Sketch) which is a longer piece, and Pat's synth guitar makes an appearance during the build up to a fast paced, emotional ride. While this isn't my favorite period for Pat's music, I have to respect his constant evolution and lack of fear from change and trying new things.