Sunday evening, the wife and I went to The Wiltern in L.A. to catch the Pat Metheny Trio.

This edition of his trio work features...



...Christian McBride on acoustic bass and Antonio Sanchez on drums.

The above photo I found online and includes David Sanchez on sax and Christian playing electric.
Although Christian's electric was onstage, he didn't play it Sunday night.
Other than those differences, the stage setup was identical.

He started the set with two solo acoustic pieces.
The second featured luthier Linda Manzer's creation...



...The Pikasso


Later in the set he related to the audience that due to the traffic they ran into driving down from a few nights at the new Yoshi's location in San Francisco, the band arrived in L.A. just in time for the show. This allowed him no warmup time. He said this became apparant during the opening number (a new composition with a high degree of difficulty). Without tipping off the audience, in the middle of the tune he switched to something he knew could play without too much trouble (How Insensitive - Carlos Jobim) and would allow him get the proper muscles in gear while onstage. I thought he had just created a rather elaborate intro for the tune. Who knew?

He also said that seeing one of his idols (Herbie Hancock) winning the Grammy for Album of the Year in the current anti-Jazz musical climate changed his whole outlook on life in a matter of 30 seconds.

Most of the selections were taken from the recently released album...



...Day Trip


The significance of the title is that unlike most albums, where new material is recorded then played on tour for the first time, they'd been playing the tunes live first. They then took a "Day Trip" to the studio and recorded the performances.

Toward the end of the set he did a duet apiece with Christian & Antonio.
For the final song of the night, he reached way back and pulled...



...Lone Jack from the first Pat Metheny Group album


The show was a great lesson in ensemble playing.
This is something Metheny has shown in duo, trio, quartet and larger band formats throughout his career.


Time and money well spent.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431
[Edited 2/26/08 14:10pm]

theAudience said:

Good lookin' bruh. Knew I missed a goodie, but I didn't have too much of either at the time you called.

PFunkjazz said:

I agreed to let you know if entry was possible.
You would've enjoyed it. Spectacular playing.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

You know I'm gonna ask for recommendations, right?

Hope they come out to the D.

theAudience said:

Yeah. I was "on lock down" and couldn't have made it into LA.

RipHer2Shreds said:

Done...


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Pat Metheny was/IS the idol of a (studio musician) friend of mine, Jack. We went to a concert years ago... and I have to say, I'm not a huge jazz fan, but he is one amazing musician. Jack made me a compilation tape (yes, tape) of his favorites pieces at that time.

Glad you enjoyed the show!

...

Kool!! Pat's THE Man!!! I'm supposed to be catching them on 3/14 in Falls Church, VA ...





...

theAudience said:

This thing is just craziness.

minneapolisgenius said:

Glad it was a good one, tA.

I agree with the above post, though. For me, that guitar raises three burning, if not particularly serious, questions:-

1. Can Pat actually tune a guitar , or are many of his songs in multiple keys and tunings, so having the monster with four heads makes it easier to improvise and play in multiple tonalities within a swift time period, thus preventing the inconvenient need to, er, walk over and pick up another, differently tuned model?

2. How does one play such a thing without getting impaled on good ole' cherrywood or whatever it's made of? I suspect a low hanging position would be the only feasible one that would result in survival.

3. tA, you are well aware of my love of fusion . So, what is it with fusion guitarists and multiple fretboards? It may sound nice, but that thing's just ridiculous. Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass all managed pretty well with one. Personally, I think it's the fusion guitarist's one concession to showbiz.

Miles said:

You're killing me.

1. Pat has a guitar tech that takes care of the mundane guitar tasks like tuning.
The night I saw him he used 4 guitars. A standard acoustic (2 songs), the Pikasso (1 song), a synth guitar shown in the photo of my original post (1 1/2 songs) and...



...the Ibanez Jazz guitar, the instrument he used most of the night.


2. I've always seen him play the Pikasso sitting down.
It has a very unique sound with many of its 42 strings dedicated to a drone function.




3. To tell you the truth, the fusion guitarists that I pay attention to all play traditional single neck 6-string instruments.
John Mclaughlin did the double-neck thing for a minute and so did David Sancious.

You'll have to give me a list of any other fusion guitarists you might be referring to.

Now the bass players are a different story with their ERB (extended range) instruments...



...of 5 to 12 strings.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

And that just looks like a cartoon.

...

BTW, This is still my Favorite Metheny composition (Without The Pikasso, mind you, Just a plain ol' single-neck acoustic, ):

Pat Metheny Group, First Circle:

http://www.youtube.com/wa...EmL6tIaYWU

2nd favorite

OK This time, his hollow bodied, and also the Roland guitar synth...but They Still got one neck each, )

Pat Metheny, "To The End Of The World":

http://www.youtube.com/wa...re=related






...
[Edited 2/29/08 13:23pm]

theAudience said:

The Pikasso sounds to me like a cross between a Japanese koto and a mandolin - nice sound, if a little 'hard' stringwise. Interesting.

Compared to the history of the keyboard down the centuries, the guitar has had a remarkably static, unchanging history in terms of its general design, number of strings and the like, so it's good that there are some guitarists willing to try new design ideas, especially in an acoustic model.

And, as to other fusion guitarists who have two 'heads' as it were - Multi-headed guitars are imo a cliche of fusion to the uninitiated. Mahavishnu John McLaughlin sprang immedately to mind, and I thought Metheny dabbled in the black arts of 'polyfretboardery' (my new word! tm ) from time to time. Both are pretty big stars of the fusion world, but I defer to your good self in deep knowledge of fusion, so I suppose I was generalising for cheap laughs in my ignorance. As Frank Zappa once said - 'If we cannot be free, at least we can be cheap'. .