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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Your Thoughts On Pat Metheny?
    Posted: May 11 2013 at 08:22
I'm an big fan of Pat Metheny   but he's new albums are so boring,uninteresting,...I miss the old days when he was playing with the Group.

Does any of you share simmilar thoughts?


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 08:48
I find that album he did with the 'mechanical accompaniment' a.k.a. Orchestrion to be very stiff and laboured albeit it's a very ingenious and imaginative use of technology. Otherwise I find his music to be unremittingly soulless, bland and like so much post 70's fusion, tantamount to a hollow victory for accuracy over expression. He has a lovely head of hair though...
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 09:11
Haven't checked out too much by him, but man, he's a damn good guitarist. His technique is astonishing. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 10:59
I haven't checked out anything recent by him except Orchestrion, which I enjoyed a lot, and has the feel of the Group albums, though a little mechanical sounding, if you will. I hear the live Orchestrion album from last year is even better.

However, I mostly enjoy everything I've heard from Pat Metheny. Some of his solo albums are favorites, some of the PMG albums are as well. Also, albums he appears on with other jazz greats are usually awesome, like Parallel Realities: Live with Jack DeJohnette, Herbie Hancock, and Dave Holland. That album from 1990 is one of the best jazz/fusion albums in the last 25 years.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 11:17
Hate to say it, but Pat had a golden era and as of late I haven't found the stuff he's doing all that interesting.  Orchestrion would be the exception.  I think he became less interesting when he dissed the notion of him being a jazz fusion artist...

Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 11:24
His collaborations with Brad Mehldau are indeed forgettable.
However, he is one of few artists (maybe with John Zorn and Mike Patton) who can play two extremes : easy listening ('letter from home') and avant-garde music ('Song X', 'Zero tolerance for silence').

By the way, if you like his eighties stuff, Marc  Berthoumieux (accordionist) is mandatory listen.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 11:29
Bright Size Life    1976
Watercolors    1977
New Chautauqua    1978
Pat Metheny Group    1978
American Garage    1979
As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls    1980
Offramp    1982
Travels    1982
First Circle    1984
STILL life (talking)    1987
question and answer    1989
Secret Story    1992
Imaginary Day    1997
Map of the World, A    1999
One Quiet Night    2001
Speaking Of Now    2002
Way Up, The    2004
Orchestrion    2010

That's what I have, everything after First Circle is hit and miss.

Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 11:34
Slartibartfast, you need The Road To You, it's better than most of the albums you have.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 11:34
And his work with Joni Mitchell has very cool....check out Shadows and Light recorded in '79 for some vintage Metheny along with Pastorius, Mays, and other great players.  There's a cd and dvd of the show.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 12:10
Pat had some choice words to say about Kenny G and his role in ruining jazz.  Here's the link if you haven't read it.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 12:47
Yeah, Pat got me in to Joni. Big smile 

I'll put that one on my list, dark.
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 13:38
Originally posted by FLAC FLAC wrote:

I'm an big fan of Pat Metheny   but he's new albums are so boring,uninteresting,...I miss the old days when he was playing with the Group.

Does any of you share simmilar thoughts?


 
Totally agree...my favorite material by him is with his orignal group.....but I also like solo and side projects.
I only have about 8 cd's and an early ECM complilation.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 15:00
I prefer the more upbeat/out stuff to the more easy listening/lighter stuff. So his discog is very hit and miss for me. But when he is good, he is quite good. My favorite would be Song X, and I'm very fond of his live Orchestrion disk. The samples I've heard of Unity Band were also very very good.


Honestly, I may prefer newer to older now that you have me thinking about it.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 19:37
He's quite the noodler. I think he has a ton of skill. I put up their with Jessie Cook and Joe Satriani, but I like super joe the best!!
Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 19:44
My thoughts on Pat Metheny?

Pass the lotion honey.

Lotion is of course incredibly handy in many situations, and astonishingly so those are in fact the exact same moments where I really dig Metheny...

“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”

- Douglas Adams
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 20:03
I want to listen to more of his stuff sometime, all I've heard so far is a few songs, Back Arm and Blackcharge being my favorite. He's really talented.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 11 2013 at 20:13
I have read so many positive things here about Matheny.  He must be seriously talented.  The only thing I own bearing his name is a 7" single 'This Is Not America' (with Bowie) - and I've always thought highly of it, even though it's probably not indicative about the guy's potential.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 12 2013 at 15:44
A guy at work (a Genesis fan, so I know he has good taste ) recommended PM to me a while back. I checked out some tracks of his, and while I could clearly hear the guy is a very talented guitar player, none of the tracks did anything for me. But I would like to give him another shot and check out 2-3 albums, so I would be thankful if any of you could tell me which album(s) to start with.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 13 2013 at 14:39
Originally posted by The Bearded Bard The Bearded Bard wrote:

A guy at work (a Genesis fan, so I know he has good taste ) recommended PM to me a while back. I checked out some tracks of his, and while I could clearly hear the guy is a very talented guitar player, none of the tracks did anything for me. But I would like to give him another shot and check out 2-3 albums, so I would be thankful if any of you could tell me which album(s) to start with.
 
He has many interesting lp's over the years but I really like the early one called 'Pat Metheny Group' with the song Phase  Dance and 'As Falls Wichita Falls'...but several of his more recent ones are also very good.
 
 
Pat Metheny Pat Metheny Group album cover
 
Pat Metheny As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls (with Lyle Mays) album cover
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 13 2013 at 15:12
I think my top favorite is American Garage.  His work with Joni Mitchell is a close second.
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...

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