PAT METHENY GROUP: AMERICAN GARAGE

"America Garage" is an excellent electric guitar and piano-oriented modern jazz album. Lyle Mays's keyboards consist in OMNIPRESENT lively piano and in some modern keyboards. Pat Metheny's particular electrical guitar sound is very urban. This record still has not the usual atmospheric and flamboyant sound of the next albums like "Letter from home" and "Still Life", mainly because Lyle Mays' modern keyboards arrangements are still too discreet and in the background here; however, the compositions are just very well achieved, and the tracks are often quite loaded and elaborated. The omnipresent fretless bass is very refined. I think the tracks are very accessible, especially the lively and dynamic "American Garage" and "Cross the Heartland", which sound like a music theme of a popular Canadian TV show of the 80's. The complex & catchy "Epic" is particularly impressive: it has many rhythm and air changes, and the instruments are very well synchronized; the track passes from loaded, structured and fast bits to more mellow ones, and vice-versa; the fast and delicate cymbals patterns combined with the melodic & jazzy piano and the fretless bass make this track among Metheny's best one so far; Metheny's fast and melodic electric guitar sound approaches the one on his best albums; finally, Lyle Mays' impossible piano solo on this track is ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL! All the tracks are excellent, and all the instruments generously participate to create true modern urban jazz instrumental tracks, without any flashy pattern.

Rating: 4.5 stars