Once and Future Pat Metheny

Don’t play that song for me (yet)

By BlueTwango

Remember the first time you ever heard a live band that grabbed you by the ears and wouldn’t let go? Maybe not for a lifetime. You walked into the theater on a hunch, a tip or just a lucky accident. Then, a musician you’d never met struck a chord that resonated within your soul. Your life as a music listener divided at that moment, into before and after.

For me, that happened one night in Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium, in the early Seventies. It was one of those apples-and-oranges double bills like Bill Graham put on at his Fillmores, East and West, mixing up the likes of the Dead or Quicksilver with soul singers, folk musicians and straight-ahead Jazz cats.

My big night started out calmly enough, with a mellow set by the Marshall Tucker Band, who more of us will probably remember than admit remembering. With a twang and a flute in 4/4 time, they were perfectly adequate.

Then came something completely different. Five men dressed in white walked to the front of the stage. A tall, thin Englishman asked for a minute of silence. The first thirty seconds of that came for free, as the audience puzzled over the unfamiliar request. But I wasn’t so surprised. This was the home of the city’s symphony orchestra, after all. Every time I’d been there on school field trips, they began by ordering us to be quiet. But this Bubba-studded crowd started to grumble. “Play some music!”, someone demanded. Someone else, in the back, yelled,”Whipping Post!” That broke the tension, a perfectly timed joke lifted from the Allman Bros.’ live album of the time.

Finally, the long minute passed and the Orchestra began to play. The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Rivers of surging electric violin poured from the stage, while a double-necked electric guitar shot lightning bolts at the ceiling. Chiming keyboard notes clattered the chandeliers. A landslide of drums tumbled over the crowd who, caught helplessly in their seats, had no chance to resist.

The world hadn’t known such a juggernaut as John McLaughlin’s breakthrough instrumental ensemble. Like no band before and few bands since, it mixed classical complexity with Jazz audacity, delivered with the amplified power of arena rock. Although a commercial success, Mahavishnu was dismissed by generations of critics under the dreaded label of “fusion.” Much of their music is unendurable to me now, but at the time, the wonder was that there could be such music at all. So wild, but so controlled, so committed, so composed, so free. I’d never heard their records, and the music certainly wasn’t played on the local Top 40 stations. This was the very first Jazz I’d heard, except in some passing, lo-fi soundtrack. And I’d walked in expecting some guy to sit on a cushion and play sitar, or something.

Virgin ears — that’s what I brought to that concert, and it was part of the magic. I’ve tried to recreate that feeling, but as every ex-virgin knows, it’s a bit more difficult now. But the challenge has come, and I’m doing my best to meet it.

Every day, I say this little affirmation to myself: “I will not listen to the new Pat Metheny album.” Not yet. And don’t think about an elephant, either, that’s about as hard. For I’ve followed Metheny like a sunflower follows the light, ever since he emerged as a more melodic, less frenetic master of his own post-fusion school of eclectic, adventurous jazz. Now he’s debuted a new project, the Orchestrion. Rumor has it as a remotely-controlled array of acoustic instruments forming a backup band, inspired by the mechanical orchestral music machines that were briefly popular a century ago. I imagine a steam calliope that brought all its friends along to play, with the Mighty Oz standing behind the curtain in a striped shirt.

Every other “Metheny-ac” already knows how this contraption looks and sounds. The record is on the shelves, the downloads are streaming and Pat’s own board is bubbling with ecstatic reviews. Emphatic adjectives abound, such as “epic” and “amazingly complex.” One fan writes, ”I gotta say, for a bunch of solenoids, it swings pretty hard in places.”

Me, I’m keeping cotton in my ears until the Orchestrion Tour arrives locally, on May 5. Only three (ouch) months (damn) away (no!).

Am I crazy? Am I denying myself sure pleasure now, in exchange for future delight? Maybe I’d enjoy the live performance better if I was familiar with the music, the better to follow the flow. I dunno– I don’t even know if I can keep my curiosity in the bag for that long.

”Jazz is the music of surprise,” said Duke Ellington. Should be, anyhow. I’ve grouched about other musical efforts that didn’t bother to try stretching envelopes — including Pat’s recent string of Trio records. Now, the most inventive Jazz guitarist since Les Paul has been tinkering again. I can’t wait to hear what he’s come up with. But I will wait… until I can see it for myself.

Has anyone else ever faced this dilemma? My best advice is to avoid it. Instead, check out http://www.patmetheny.com for the whole scoop. If you like what you hear, do me a favor and don’t tell me too much about it. But do yourself a favor,too.There might still be a seat available when the Orchestrion visits your town.

Note from thejazzmonger – See Bluetwango’s earlier post at: http://thejazzmonger.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/pat-metheny-fusion-guitarists-genre-purity/

bluetwango

Back to the Old Format

Apparently, the new format we experimented with was slower to load on some people’s systems and that is a very bad trait. I really hate a website that takes forever to load, and we want to be a quick, easy, pleasant diversion for those of you who visit.

So the experiment taught us something, and that is a good thing. Back to business. Thanks to those who sent us a note. We really appreciate it.

thejazzmonger

Trying a New Look

We are a text-heavy blog. We try to feature a photo, or two, in every post and we include soundtracks and/or video wherever applicable. Still, our content, overall, is primarily text. I thought we would experiment with a new wider format that saves some scroll-down effort when reading a long post. If we can get our wordsmith buddy bluetwango to post again, this will really pay off.

Take a look. See how it works on your screen display. I have tried it on a wide-screen monitor and on a 14-inch laptop and it seems to look okay. Help us out with some feedback, please. Let us know whether this works for you, or if you greatly prefer the original format.

Stay tuned. Reviews on some new talents coming up!

thejazzmonger

P.S. To keep this from being a thoroughly boring post, here is a teaser track from T-Cash, one of the new talents I spoke of.

thejazzmonger hits 100,000

100,000+

We celebrated our one-year anniversary a few days ago and managed to hit 100,000 page views just a couple of days before that. Not bad for a little ol’ blog that started off pretty darn slowly in the first few months. I am really gratified, and kind of stunned, that this humble effort has managed to get its “signal” out there in the big world and at least get a peek from a wide number of folks. We have a small number of regular subscribers receiving our posts by email or RSS feed. Links to both appear on the right sidebar.

It has been an interesting and educational undertaking. One recent commenter spoke of how the early posts were not too remarkable (she said it MUCH more diplomatically than that) but that we eventually started to show some “creativity and originality.” I appreciate both ends of that critique. I will keep that in mind as a spur to think outside the box and not be afraid to share my weird, personal, take on things.

I apologize to both subscribers and casual visitors alike for being somewhat absent the latter part of 2009. I lost a very close friend to long battle with cancer and the latter stages of that cost me some time and the aftermath was dispiriting for a while. BUT, she would be very angry with me for grumbling around and not enjoying my days to the fullest. SO, here we are, back to annoy you some more.

As always, we invite your comments and/or contributions. If you have some strong opinions about music, or anything else, go to the “Contact Us” link at the top and send me an email.

Happy New Year, everyone. Let’s hope that the last year of the decade (yes, despite what all the TV commentators say, the tenth year is numbered 10 not 9) is kind to all.

thejazzmonger

SoundCloud is a Very Cool Site

If you like music, and you enjoy sampling cutting-edge tracks by new talent, you need to check out a great new site called SoundCloud. Regular readers may have noticed that I posted some tracks in an earlier message using the high-quality SoundCloud audio player.  The player is a very versatile utility, letting you upload a track, edit, scrunch, tweak and manipulate it all over the place. Then playback and store the new creation.

SoundCloud is also a vast community of music creators and fans which offers quick-and-easy, down-and-dirty facility for uploading and sharing sound tracks. In just a few days of poking around, I have found some interesting tracks. Here is one posted  by a young man who calls himself T-Cash. He presents it as “inspired by an old church song.” T-Cash has stepped-up the beat and pushed that melody through the electronic instrument window to create a “Funky Piano/Tech/Power-guitar” track that I think is really good. Give a listen to The Golden City RC-2:

Take a look at the Sidebar (over to the right) and you will see a button/link inviting you, or anyone you know, to send me a soundtrack via my personal “drop box” at SoundCloud. I will listen, give the sender/composer/arranger/whoever some feedback and will consider posting the best tracks on this site. Hopefully, some hard-working new talent will get a modicum of exposure. We ain’t the big-time but, heck, we are pushing toward 40,000 hits and we just came online in January of 2009. It took quite a while to get the hang of it and develop enough decent content to invite scrutiny so, actually, we have only really been “out there” about six months.

Here is what you are looking for on the Sidebar:

Send me your track

Jazz Guitarist Norman Brown

Norman Brown is another of the newer talents I like to spend a little time with. Quick, smooth and precise, Norman is easy to listen to while reading, driving, cooking, partying, a whole range of activities. Brown does all of his own arrangements and creates some great combinations of talent and instruments.

Guitarist Norman Brown

His 2008 album After the Storm was Jazz Album of the Year on at least two charts. It is one of my favorites and it features a great version of  That’s the Way Loves Goes, a composition by James Harris, Terry Lewis and Janet Jackson.

Another great track on this CD is Norman’s shift to the acoustic guitar. Titled  Acoustic Time, this is a soft, lovely tune:

Brown is probably best recognized for his version of Ernie Isely’s  For the Love of You, which gets tons of play on all smooth jazz radio stations and live streams.

Speaking of live jazz streaming, Norman Brown (like the jazz radio pioneer Dave Koz) broadcasts a great show every weekend on The Smooth Jazz Network.  The link is http://smoothjazznetwork.com

I also really enjoy Norman’s Just Between Us CD.

thejazzmonger

http://thejazzmonger.wordpress.com

Gota – Man of Many Talents

Continuing the short series of posts on some of the newer artists and groups that I listen to regularly, I have to give a big shout out to Gota. His full name is Gota Yashiki, but he performs and records under his first name only.

I am listening to this guy all the time. Whether it’s CDs in the car or the big system at home, earbuds stuck into the laptop, or the SanDisk player on an airline flight, a little Gota always perks me up.

Gota Live

Born in Kyoto, Japan, a young Gota learned traditional Japanese Drums. In 1982, at the age of 20, he moved to Tokyo and became a drummer in various reggae groups and started experimenting with electronic dubbing. By 1988 Gota was based in London and heavily involved in studio remixing and working on film soundtracks. He also worked with a number of top recording artists and groups.

Moving beyond just his talent for drumming, Gota became heavily involved in the programming of electronic instruments and remixing. He recorded and toured with Simply Red, and contributed to recordings by Seal, Soul II Soul, Swing Out Sister & Depeche Mode. Alanis Morissette has called him the “Groove Activator” on her brerakout album Jagged Little Pill. He played drums and programmed all the electronic instruments on Sinead O’Connor‘s smash hit Nothing Compares 2 U.

Let's Get Started cover

In 1999 came the American release of Gota’s second album, Let’s Get Started, where I first discovered him. Lend an ear to the title track:

The third track on Let’s Get.. became a No. 1 hit on Jazz radio. Listen to In the City Life

In 2001, Gota released day & night, a strong follow-up to Let’s Get..
Still working in the style of electronic, fusion Jazz, day & night is another strong collection of tunes and one of those rare albums that are great to play just straight through. Track 1, Cruisin’ Your Way is absolutely one of my favorite up-tempo Jazz pieces. Give it a listen:

I hope these samples of this terrifically creative artist motivate you to buy his CDs. I am believer in artists getting paid and the music I put up here is meant only to whet your appetite and turn you into a paying customer.

thejazzmonger

http://thejazzmonger.wordpress.com

Down To The Bone – the non-band

When I am looking to get groovy, get funky. When I am in one of those moods where I want my shoulders shaking and my head bobbing, I put on a little Down To The Bone. I call them a non-band because DTTB is essentially the genius of Stuart Wade – DJ, mixer, producer – pushed through a varying mixture of musicians.

Stuart Wade

Wade never studied music, nor does he play any instrument. He is not a composer, in the traditional sense. Rather, he “creates music” by humming tunes and grooves into a Dictaphone, or face-to-face with musicians in the recording studio. Over several years he has collaborated with a sizable group of musicians in producing three very successful albums with a new one about to be released. If this sounds kind of bush-league to you, take a few minutes and listen to the two sample tracks below.

My favorite is From Manhattan To Staten, released in 1997 by nuGroove Records. This is a collection of funky beats and cool Jazz. Take a sample of the opening track, Staten Island Groove:

My favorite DTTB track, without a doubt, is Brooklyn Heights. In fact, it is one of my favorite Jazz tracks of all time. I defy you to keep still with this track going at a decent volume. I love to listen to this one through my Sennheiser headphones, getting every note from every instrument. My grandson, Evan, when he was just a wee tot, became a groovy dancer when I would put on a little Brooklyn Heights. Cutest thing ever. If you’re holding a beverage, put it down before you listen to this tune:

Manhattan to Staten cover

Some Newer Guys I Listen To

I have been writing a lot about the Big Band & Swing eras and, consequently, featuring a lot of performers who did their best work many, many years ago. I have been pushing Hoagy Carmichael‘s Stardust, Swing bands like those led by Larry Elgart and Walt Levinsky. I do love the old stuff, and play a lot of Dizzy, Brubeck, Benny Goodman and Satchmo.

But I have been asked a few times, recently, if I don’t listen to any “new stuff,” anybody young who is writing arranging and recording now. I do. I definitely do. So, over the next few days, or weeks, I am going to try to feature some of the newer stuff I like to listen to. In no particular order of preference, just beginning with what is closest at hand today, I like:

LEE RITENOUR

I have been listening to Jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour for several years. I first knew about him as one of the founding members, along with pianist Bob James, bassist Nathan East and drummer Harvey Mason, of the top Jazz group Fourplay. But, in truth, I had been hearing Ritenour play long before I knew his name. he worked as a key session guitarist with talents as diverse as Pink Floyd, Steely Dan (on Aja, which has been a recent topic), Dizzy Gillespie, B.B. King, Peggy lee, and Herbie Hancock. How good do you have to be on the guitar to be requested by B.B. King?

Lee Ritenour

I have several Fourplay CDs, my favorite being Between the Sheets. Of Lee’s solo CDs, I like This Is Love, from which the song Ooh-Yeah has continued to get major play on jazz radio.

My favorite Ritenour effort, however, is his collaboration with Dave Grusin on the CD Two Worlds. These two have done a good bit of work together, producing several albums. Two Worlds is a thing apart because of the musical selections AND the involvement other talented collaborators, like soprano Renee Fleming, violinist Gil Shaham and cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. The album opens with J.S. Bach’s Concerto in A Minor for Four Keyboards and Strings:

Concerto in A Minor

Dave Grusin

Track 3 – Sonatina is, according to the Album Notes, “an homage to the genius of Andres Segovia (1893-1987) the Spanish guitarist whose artistry was almost single-handedly responsible for the 20th Century revival of the guitar as a ‘classical’ instrument.” Segovia’s legacy is well-served here. Listen up:

Sonatina

Track 11 _ Siciliana has cellist Julian Lloyd Webber joining ‘our boys’ for another Bach piece, as transcribed by Dave Grusin. This is nice:

Siciliana

thejazzmonger
thejazzmonger blog

Tate – MoMA – Frick, Major Art Galleries Online

Another Non-Musical Post

The Internet is just a wonderful, and powerful thing. Did you know that you can tour most of the great art galleries in the world right from your easy chair? Several of them include an option that lets you save your own personal collection of your favorites, so you can come back and view them any time you like without having to go through searches or numerous page views.

National Gallery - west wing

One of my favorites is the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., partly because it has a huge collection of Rembrandts. The building is an architectural stunner and the art is wonderfully displayed. The collection also includes a very small work by Leonardo da Vinci, painted on a block of wood and painted on both front and rear. It is displayed, out on the floor in a special case that gives a 360-degree view as you can walk behind the painting. The scene on the rear is exactly what a viewer would have seen in real life if standing behind the subject. Incredible! What a mind that guy had.

The Tate Gallery, in London offers a virtual map of the gallery. As you mouse-over the various rooms you get a note of the period or artists displayed within. Click on the room and you can see the works within and can save them to your virtual collection. It is a great way to plan your visit and make sure you don’t miss a favorite while there.

The Guggenheim site lets you tour the collections in New York City, Venice, Berlin and the new Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain. Once your are in your chosen collection, click on any piece and a wealth of information pops up. It is a new, and very enlightening, way to experience these great works. Very educational!

Reubens Wife & Child

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York City has a terrific site with all sorts of capabilities. There is database feature that lets you set your search criteria and then look through all the works that meet those data-points. They also have what are, in effect, virtual lectures, organized around interesting topics like “Art of the First Cities,” or “How van Gogh Made His Mark.” You can save a personal collection of art from The Met, too.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City has one of the coolest of all the sites. The collection is displayed, onscreen, as artwork only. No text. Mouse-over an artwork and the Name, Artist and Date pop up. Again, you can save your own personal art gallery to revisit.

My favorite gallery of all, at least for a live visit, is The Frick Collection in New York City. Not only is it a stunning collection of art, but it is presented in the actual Frick Mansion on 5th Avenue, just across the street from Central Park. You get to see the art just as old Henry Clay Frick, one of America’s industrial giants, enjoyed it as he walked around his splendid home. Major rooms have a virtual tour video that lets you scan 360 degrees, zoom in and out and see the room and its art almost as if you were walking around inside. On my visit there, I delighted browsing his personal library, with works like J. H. Jesse’s English Histories, History of the U.S., and Book of Wealth by George Bancroft.

My advice is to spend a little time with these great resources. The links are scatttered throughout this post, but here is a recap to make it easy for you:

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Tate Gallery, London, UK

The Guggenheim Museum, NYC – Venice – Berlin -  Bilbao

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Museum of Modern Art, New York City

The Frick Collection, New York City