Metheny Tour Kicks Ass in T.O.

[BarryL]

Pat Metheny Group kicked off their new tour in Toronto last night, and rocked this town.

Pat came out and started in solo on his guitar, kicking off the complete new album, about 70 minutes of a musical journey that covers the gammet of Metheny Group sounds and styles. It can be a long time to sit through one "song" for 70 minutes, but it went by fast, with the extremely talanted band moving from one instrument to the next and back again. They were working really hard to reproduce the album live and did a great job. This was probably the first time they played it live in front of a big audience, and they were rewared with about a five minute standing ovation. Pat and the boys were just beaming! I'm sure they were nervous before this major performance. Metheny commented about how hard it is to memorize such a long piece of music and perfrom it. I always thought that this feat of memory among musicians was something worthy of further study. After accepting the crowd's accolades and saying a few words, he stepped back up to the mike, waved his hand at the audience, and said "thank you, good night," and started to walk off. That got a big laugh from everyone.

The Group then proceeded to play for about another hour and a half what I would call a greatest hits set, sticking to tunes that everyone would know and you could hum along to, like The First Circle, a reworked version of James, The Roots of Coincidence, and a number of accoustic pieces. Lyle Mays was outstanding as usual, and seemed to be enjoying himself much more than I remember from past performances. Coung Vu on trumpet and vocals played with a purity that was amazing, and complemented Metheny's guitar playing and May's keyboards perfectly. The drummer got about a five minute solo and was friggin' amazing doing that Brazilian jazz playing. What a band, a what a great performance. I'm sure they will only get better as the tour progresses, so if you can go see them, this may be the tour to do it on, although any chance you can see someone of the musical caliber of Pat Metheny, you should put every other excuse aside and go. He's talented, he's a great player and writer, but more, he knows how to tell a story through music that carries the listener along from start to climactic finish.

Having seen Metheny in concert at least ten times if not more, I now have to say that he is my favorite musician, and while he gets categorized under jazz, he's much more than that. I doubt that there is a performing band out there that has more talent from start to finish than this man and this touring band. Metheny is about 30 years into a career that appears to have no bounds and continues to expand musically, and he can continue to convey sunshine and optimism through his universal music.

I guess I'm still pumped!

[Finch Platte]

Thanks for the review! I enjoyed reading it. Almost makes me want to go see them.

As for musicians and memory, I have a terrible memory- I guess that's why I play drums. :p

fp

[ForeverAutumn]

I'm glad you had such a great time. I love that euphoria that comes from a experiencing a truly great performance.

You've made me regret that I didn't join you. :(

[Dave_G]

Nice review, BarryL.

Almost makes me want to go see them, too.

Hey, I have your stuff done, finally, will ship next week.

Dave

[Chrisgnat]

Yeah,Metheny's always been stellar live. What pristine sound they have!
One question on the recent tour - was any of that 70 minute peice sequenced?
The album sounds like it is.

[BarryL]

Yeah,Metheny's always been stellar live. What pristine sound they have!
One question on the recent tour - was any of that 70 minute peice sequenced?
The album sounds like it is.

Not sure what you mean by sequenced. It did seem at times that there were sounds that may not have been generated by the instruments on stage, or triggered by the the players. For example, when Metheny first came out playing solo accoustic guitar, he was accompanied by other ambient sounds, but nobody else was on stage. But if there was anything, it was minimal. It also could have been eminating by somebody offstage.

[MasterCylinder]

Barry..................

Do you know a link to the tour schedule ?
If so, please post it here.




As a young lad, I saw Lyle Mays perform when he was in college with the One-O-Clock Lab Band at North Texas State..........Denton, Texas is 35 minutes North of Dallas.


Steve Houghton was in the same band (class).
He now runs the Percussion Institute out on LaLa land.

[BarryL]

Barry..................

Do you know a link to the tour schedule ?
If so, please post it here.


http://www.patmethenygroup.com/travels.cfm

[MasterCylinder]

HolyShyt Batman........those guys work hard.



Thanks for the (ambitious) schedule.

[Chrisgnat]

Not sure what you mean by sequenced. It did seem at times that there were sounds that may not have been generated by the instruments on stage, or triggered by the the players. For example, when Metheny first came out playing solo accoustic guitar, he was accompanied by other ambient sounds, but nobody else was on stage. But if there was anything, it was minimal. It also could have been eminating by somebody offstage.


Sequencers are computers that play musical parts via MIDI.
I know Metheny has used them before live ie - the song "Are You Going With Me".
Sequencors allow a small band to sound like a very BIG band!

Chris

[Mr MidFi]

I saw PM and his band back in 1985 at a very small venue in Athens, GA. I was front-row, dead-center, with my face about 5 feet from the guitar. It was an incredible performance. The drummer/percussionist blew my freakin' mind that night.

Two weeks later, I saw Stevie Ray Vaughn at an even smaller venue (a C&W bar) down the road. I was even closer for that one. My mind was perma-blown.

[Woochifer]

Thanx for the report from the T.O. I get my shot at them next Thursday at the art deco Paramount Theater in Oakland. This will be the first time I've seen them indoors since the Letter From Home tour landed for a multiple night engagement at the (also) art deco Wiltern Theater in L.A. Really looking forward to this one!

Should be very interesting to see how the new album translates in concert, because this is probably the most challenging album that Metheny has put out with the PMG. Normally, the PMG albums feature lighter weight stuff to go along with the more ambitious material. But, an album with songs that average 17 minutes a piece is not exactly aimed at the "smooth jazz" crowd.

Seems that the current tour is mostly going through smaller theater venues. The largest venue I saw on that tour schedule was the Universal Amphitheater in L.A., which seats over 6,000. Not sure if it's the concert biz in general, but despite the smaller venues, there are still good seats available at all three NoCal venues (Davis [Sacramento], Santa Cruz, and Oakland) that PMG's playing. On past tours, I remember him selling out much larger venues or playing multiple nights at the smaller thetaers. Whatever it means, I managed to secure my best location ever for a PMG gig, so it should be good!

[Woochifer]

Well, it's Monday and I'm still picking my jaw off the floor from Thursday's Pat Metheny Group concert in Oakland. My goodness, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like that, and after this tour concludes, don't think I ever will again. Their rendition of The Way Up was about as epic a jazz performance as I've ever witnessed. It pretty much defied all category and description. It's not even like some of the virtuoso live jazz recordings by the likes of Coltrane where they would improvise around a loose song structure for up to an hour at a time. TWU retains a lot of room for improvisation, yet it is a tightly composed piece. How these guys can play it for 70 minutes straight through with no sheet music is pretty astounding.

I get the feeling that this tour will be the stuff of legend as the years pile up, because this is really the only time that the PMG will play the entire album all the way through. It might get truncated down to either the opening song, or "Part 3" on future tours, but it won't quite be the same experience as seeing the entire album played through live.

Once he finished TWU, the audience gave a standing ovation (and on this tour, I have no doubt this is a nightly occurrence). I think the audience knew that they were witnessing something special.

The band in general seemed really geared up to play TWU, and the instrumentation and arrangement fit the piece to a tee. And I will confirm that they indeed used a lot of sequencing for the atmospheric effects.

With TWU played at such a high level, the rest of the concert almost seemed like a letdown. Make no mistake, it was enjoyable and a lot of my old favorites got played, but it did not have the same urgency and "in the zone" intensity that was on display with TWU. A lot of it also has to do with TWU being such a complex and involved piece. A much simpler piece like "James" seemed like easy listening by comparison.

Maybe they should have played the greatest hits part of the concert first, and then ended the show with TWU. Overall though, I think this tour is going to be talked about for years to come, and I don't see any other artists out there that are playing anything with the same ambitious scope as what PMG's attempting on the current tour.

[BarryL]

Well, it's Monday and I'm still picking my jaw off the floor from Thursday's Pat Metheny Group concert in Oakland.
I get the feeling that this tour will be the stuff of legend as the years pile up, because this is really the only time that the PMG will play the entire album all the way through.


Glad you were blown away too. And you're right, likely it'll never be played live again all the way through after this tour. It'll be a DVD experience only. Glad I didn't miss them. But I'm sure they're playing it with much more confidence with two weeks of touring under their belt, though I don't want to take anything away from the phenomenal Toronto performance.

[20to20K]

The Pat Methany Group was the first jazz concert I ever saw. It was the First Circle tour at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan...1985 I think. My view of music has never been the same since. I currently own over 30 Pat CD's including a few bootleg concerts from Europe and has seen him live over a dozen times (most recently with the Trio band in Leeds, England in 2001) and he is my favorite living musician.

Needless to say I am quite anxious to see his live rendition of "This Way up" as he comes to the Lisner Auditorium in DC in a couple weeks. At first listen I was not blown away by this release...I liked it OK, but did not think it was one of his best. By the 3rd or 4th listen it started blowing me away. Now It's my 4th favorite Pat album behind Still Live Talking, Pat Methany Group, and ...As Falls Witchita.

I'm hoping that they recording the live concert tour to make into a DVD. Pat's albums have always had outstanding sound as most of his CD's were recorded on the acoustically conscious ECM label so I'm sure the 5.1 live mix would be outstandings sonically. I still need to the get the Speaking of Now DVD-Audio.

Great to hear that there are so many people that appreciate Pat's music. I feel he's an American artistic treasure in the same vain as Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, and Miles Davis.

[BarryL]

I feel he's an American artistic treasure in the same vain as Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, and Miles Davis.

..except Joni Mitchell, who is Canadian. YOu should pick up the Woman of Heart and Mind DVD to see a great documentary of Joni's career and art.

[20to20K]

..except Joni Mitchell, who is Canadian. YOu should pick up the Woman of Heart and Mind DVD to see a great documentary of Joni's career and art.

Thanks for that...I never knew!

O.K....replace Joni Mitchell with Aretha Franklin.

Now is someone gonna tell me she's Dutch or something?

[Woochifer]

The Pat Methany Group was the first jazz concert I ever saw. It was the First Circle tour at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan...1985 I think. My view of music has never been the same since. I currently own over 30 Pat CD's including a few bootleg concerts from Europe and has seen him live over a dozen times (most recently with the Trio band in Leeds, England in 2001) and he is my favorite living musician.

Ah! This means that you have not yet caught Antonio Sanchez. He's an absolutely phenomenal drummer, and adds all kinds of new rhythmic wrinkles to what the group does live. However, I will add that for the Gottlieb-Wertico era songs, Sanchez doesn't quite have the same intuitive "rightness" on the rhythm that Wertico had. But, on TWU, his style so perfectly fits that piece, it's scary.

The rest of the band is also very much up to the formidable task of playing TWU live. They were a step down from previous percussionists/multi-instrumentalists/vocalists on the older material, then again I'm not sure how well suited Pat's previous bands would have been to playing TWU. Seems like he writes his material around the strengths of his band members, and TWU is definitely a show of strengths for his current lineup. I read that when Pat brought Paul Wertico and Pedro Aznar into the group, their first concerts did not go very well. But, they also brought new abilities to the group, which set Pat and Lyle off in new directions when they wrote First Circle.


Needless to say I am quite anxious to see his live rendition of "This Way up" as he comes to the Lisner Auditorium in DC in a couple weeks. At first listen I was not blown away by this release...I liked it OK, but did not think it was one of his best. By the 3rd or 4th listen it started blowing me away. Now It's my 4th favorite Pat album behind Still Live Talking, Pat Methany Group, and ...As Falls Witchita.

I've pretty much had the exact same impression with pretty much every PMG album since Offramp. (Except for maybe Letter From Home, which I liked from the very beginning, and Speaking of Now, which I'm still not too hot on) Not too thrilled at first, but on third or fourth listening I start to like it. And then when I see it performed live, the light bulb clicks on, and I'm listening to it day and night for the next few months.


I'm hoping that they recording the live concert tour to make into a DVD. Pat's albums have always had outstanding sound as most of his CD's were recorded on the acoustically conscious ECM label so I'm sure the 5.1 live mix would be outstandings sonically. I still need to the get the Speaking of Now DVD-Audio.

Keeping the fingers crossed on the DVD because that will be the only way to see TWU performed in its entirety after this tour!

Not sure if the sound quality has to do with the label (Pat hasn't recorded for ECM since First Circle), but he has worked with the same production team for quite a while and they also supervise the multichannel versions.

If you're looking for DVD-Audio, the only album that he's released in a multichannel mix is the DVD-A version of Imaginary Day, which is probably the PMG album best suited for a 5.1 mix. The instrumental sounds (percussion in particular), ambient effects, and guitar sounds are all cued around the channels so that they create very deliberate spatial effects. Very well done, and a great intro to what multichannel music is capable of. It definitely adds to the listening experience compared to the two-channel version.

I also highly recommend the Speaking of Now concert DVD (it's a DVD-V disc, not DVD-A). It's a great performance, but also a phenomenal recording with the DTS version. Very interesting way that they produced this one because it was done as a 4.1 mix with no center channel active. There's a pretty active debate right now among recording engineers about the merits of using center channels with multichannel music. For a live recording like this one, going without the center channel seems to make the sound more open and akin to being inside a concert hall. On the other hand, the center channel on the DVD-A version of Imaginary Day is used to great effect by anchoring the guitar sound into the middle when it's appropriate, and then switching it off to create a more deliberate spatial effect.

[20to20K]

Ah! This means that you have not yet caught Antonio Sanchez. He's an absolutely phenomenal drummer, and adds all kinds of new rhythmic wrinkles to what the group does live. However, I will add that for the Gottlieb-Wertico era songs, Sanchez doesn't quite have the same intuitive "rightness" on the rhythm that Wertico had. But, on TWU, his style so perfectly fits that piece, it's scary.

The rest of the band is also very much up to the formidable task of playing TWU live. They were a step down from previous percussionists/multi-instrumentalists/vocalists on the older material, then again I'm not sure how well suited Pat's previous bands would have been to playing TWU. Seems like he writes his material around the strengths of his band members, and TWU is definitely a show of strengths for his current lineup. I read that when Pat brought Paul Wertico and Pedro Aznar into the group, their first concerts did not go very well. But, they also brought new abilities to the group, which set Pat and Lyle off in new directions when they wrote First Circle.


I've pretty much had the exact same impression with pretty much every PMG album since Offramp. (Except for maybe Letter From Home, which I liked from the very beginning, and Speaking of Now, which I'm still not too hot on) Not too thrilled at first, but on third or fourth listening I start to like it. And then when I see it performed live, the light bulb clicks on, and I'm listening to it day and night for the next few months.



Keeping the fingers crossed on the DVD because that will be the only way to see TWU performed in its entirety after this tour!

Not sure if the sound quality has to do with the label (Pat hasn't recorded for ECM since First Circle), but he has worked with the same production team for quite a while and they also supervise the multichannel versions.

If you're looking for DVD-Audio, the only album that he's released in a multichannel mix is the DVD-A version of Imaginary Day, which is probably the PMG album best suited for a 5.1 mix. The instrumental sounds (percussion in particular), ambient effects, and guitar sounds are all cued around the channels so that they create very deliberate spatial effects. Very well done, and a great intro to what multichannel music is capable of. It definitely adds to the listening experience compared to the two-channel version.

I also highly recommend the Speaking of Now concert DVD (it's a DVD-V disc, not DVD-A). It's a great performance, but also a phenomenal recording with the DTS version. Very interesting way that they produced this one because it was done as a 4.1 mix with no center channel active. There's a pretty active debate right now among recording engineers about the merits of using center channels with multichannel music. For a live recording like this one, going without the center channel seems to make the sound more open and akin to being inside a concert hall. On the other hand, the center channel on the DVD-A version of Imaginary Day is used to great effect by anchoring the guitar sound into the middle when it's appropriate, and then switching it off to create a more deliberate spatial effect.


Unfortunetely I did not care for "Imaginary Day"...it may be my least favorite PMG album...either that or "We Live Here". I already have the DVD video of Speaking of Now and you're right, the sound is awesome. I thought, I guess I'm mistaken, that they did a DVD-A of it as well. It must have been the Imaginary Day I saw advertised.

I always thought Wertico was the perfect drummer for they type of music PMG was playing at that time. Strong emphasis on the hi-hats and rides...very little snare. Gottlieb was perfect for that more rockish sound from "PMG" and "American Garage". And of course Bill Stewart is an excellent straight ahead drummer so he was perfect for his trio band. It WILL be interesting to hear Sanchez for the first time live...Pat is excellent at picking the perfect percussionist for the style of music he's playing.

Were you aware that one of PMG former members, Mark Ledford, recently passed away of heart disease? Only 42 years old. Mark did most of the vocals from Still Life Talking and Letter from home as well has played rhythm guitar, trumpet, and percussion. He was quite a multi-talented musician. He's also done work with Kevin Eubanks. What a shame.