Pat Metheny: The Advancing Guitarist by David Adler
An Excerpt from the March 2005 issue

One thing is entirely clear after five minutes in Pat Metheny's presence: His imposing artistic stature is no accident; it's the result of skill and untiring effort.
Metheny emerged as a teen prodigy in the mid-'70s, but the fame he has found since then can't be explained by precocious guitar chops alone. His acute business sense, and his awareness of how to make the music industry work for him, has proven equally important.

With his recent move from Warner Bros. to Nonesuch, one could say Metheny, at 50, has come full circle. Nonesuch's president, Bob Hurwitz, began as a protege of ECM's Manfred Eicher and has played a major role in Metheny's career, dating all the way back to his 1976 debut, Bright Size Life (ECM). Metheny has long made a point of surrounding himself with people who "get it," and Hurwitz is one of them.

Hailed by the New York Times Magazine as a "post-industry record label," Nonesuch has defied prevailing trends not only by putting artists first and refusing to worship at the altar of the mega-hit, but also by insisting on a multigenre talent roster. Thus, Metheny now sits under the same roof as kindred spirits (and erstwhile collaborators) Bill Frisell and Steve Reich, but also Wilco and Emmylou Harris, to name just a few. It's hard to imagine a better home for The Way Up, the unclassifiable opus that is the 14th release by the Pat Metheny Group.

Being commercially boundary-free isn't new to Metheny, however. During the PMG's six-album run on the Geffen label, he recalls, "They didn't think of us as a jazz group. We were just a band, like Nirvana. In fact, it was Nirvana, Guns 'n' Roses, the Pat Metheny Group and Cher-we were the four big artists. Nobody ever talked about it like, 'Oh, jazz.'"

But that began to change during Metheny's stint with Warner Bros. "As soon as we were pulled into that jazz thing," he says, "it's like nobody had any expectations. What's great about Nonesuch is they're not thinking about jazz, they're thinking about music. There have been two previous occasions that I almost signed with Nonesuch, and in both cases I've regretted that I didn't."

If Nonesuch cuts against the industry grain, so does The Way Up, with its underlying message that long-form music isn't dead, that today's short attention spans and bite-size media blips are things to be resisted.

http://www.jazztimes.com/...e_id=15294
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If you're in to Pat Metheny, or the Jazz scene in general, it's worth your while to get this issue and read the rest of the article.
The explanation of how they recorded The Toy Ensemble pieces was very cool.
(along with the Miles Davis The Pimp Of Darkness? article)

tA
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The Way Up is a long form composition that runs 1:08:08
The piece consists of 4 movements with no interruption between them.
Even a toy instrument ensemble is employed within the arrangements.


Picked this up today (one of my Fathers Day presents to myself ).
I'm currently 40 minutes into the piece as I write this and am quite impressed.

For more commentary on The Way Up...
http://www.jazzonline.com...asp?id=285
http://www.tedkurland.com...on=doc.380
http://www.npr.org/templa...Id=4565323


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm
[Edited 6/19/05 15:56pm]

It's especially impressive played live! I caught their show earlier this year...they played the entire piece/album from beginning to end, then played for two more hours! Great show! Check'em out if they come your way!




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paligap said:[quote] It's especially impressive played live! I caught their show earlier this year...they played the entire piece/album from beginning to end, then played for two more hours! Great show! Check'em out if they come your way!


Sounds good.I like the cd so far.