Recommend me a Pat Metheny album.

Karl Hungus

As it says really, I've loved what I've heard from him so far, so I'd like to get some of his stuff, and I gotta start somewhere. Recommend away.

shatners basoon

Tough one this as his stuff varies a great deal from album to album. Depending on what you've liked so far, i shall recommend the following.

The Way Up- Mad concept album of sorts and my favourite of his. Brilliantly arranged and some really nice playing. Grows on you like a fungus!

One Quiet Night- Solo guitar, really intimate, plays a baritone on it.

Speaking of Now- Similar style to The way up except its not a concept album.

Offramp- It has are you going with me on it!

Hope that helps. His new album is a collaberation with Brad Mehldau (piano) and its really class too. Probably a good place to start unless you can find the others cheaper!

Bert Fever

I still think Bright Size Life is one of his best...

carl_

Rarum, Vol. 9 - this might be worth a look since it's a compilation album with the tracks picked by Metheny himself. It might be a good way to get a taste of what he has done.

.. or maybe just try Pandora

The new Metheny/Mehldau CD is quite good.

Setun

Song X should be good, but slightly insane with ornette coleman on board.

Ancient1

Get the Pat Metheny / John Scofield album - "I Can See Your House From Here".

It's an incredible collaboration by two masters, guaranteed to blow you away.

Get it now!

JacoStanley

Bert Fever wrote:

I still think Bright Size Life is one of his best...

One of my favourite albums ever!

Buddhapadge

Song X is good, there's a remastered version out now with extra tracks, although Bright Size Life is still the best...

stevejazzx

I would say in all my wisdom

Speaking of now live...you get the a greta mix of stuff.
Solo acoustic guitar, straight ahead madenss and the beautiful solo on Jobims 'How insensitive'.
Shanters was right though checK out 'Are yuo going with me' asap.

flanger20002003

Cheers to whoever posted the 'The Way Up' recommendation above! What an album! The highlight of my Chrsitmas? You bet your brass ass it was!

Executive Steve

"works" is a nice little compilation of his finer moments on ECM recordings

slowhandrow

bright size life is a masterpiece

shatners basoon

flanger20002003 wrote:

Cheers to whoever posted the 'The Way Up' recommendation above! What an album! The highlight of my Chrsitmas? You bet your brass ass it was!

Happy to hear! May his cheesy genius single line melodies live long in our heads!

stevejazzx

shatners basoon wrote:

Happy to hear! May his cheesy genius single line melodies live long in our heads!

Cheesy?
sometimes maybe esp on acoustic guitar...but I would rather leave it at genius. The problem is when he's melodic and beautiful, people (jazz people you know who i mean:) ) say 'oh that's just melodic and beautiful' where s the interesting scales etc. So Metheny addresses this issue in live gigs by playing 'James' like a complete mentalist, or coming up with crazy songs which only use only lydian flat 7 scales etc. What i like about Metheny is he doesn't feel the need to 'modern jazz up' a lot of his compositions. When he thinks something is beautiful he just leaves it like that and doesn't over embellish the harmonization or the soloing. Look at the orginal album version of his solo on James, simple and beautiful or as I already mentioned his solo on 'How Insenstive'...just stunning..nobody else in jazz guitar world it appears would dare play such sweet sounding stuff but metheny does and wes did because they had such dimension in their playing. His solo break on third wind is ridulous btw and on a lot of albums he tries to almalgamte straight ahead complexities with nice melodic lines and i'm not sure it works too often but when decides on goign one way or the other beforehand it almost always works and we get things like 'are you going with me'...genius.

Setun

stevejazzx wrote:

Cheesy?
sometimes maybe esp on acoustic guitar...but I would rather leave it at genius. The problem is when he's melodic and beautiful, people (jazz people you know who i mean:) ) say 'oh that's just melodic and beautiful' where s the interesting scales etc. So Metheny addresses this issue in live gigs by playing 'James' like a complete mentalist, or coming up with crazy songs which only use only lydian flat 7 scales etc. What i like about Metheny is he doesn't feel the need to 'modern jazz up' a lot of his compositions. When he thinks something is beautiful he just leaves it like that and doesn't over embellish the harmonization or the soloing. Look at the orginal album version of his solo on James, simple and beautiful or as I already mentioned his solo on 'How Insenstive'...just stunning..nobody else in jazz guitar world it appears would dare play such sweet sounding stuff but metheny does and wes did because they had such dimension in their playing. His solo break on third wind is ridulous btw and on a lot of albums he tries to almalgamte straight ahead complexities with nice melodic lines and i'm not sure it works too often but when decides on goign one way or the other beforehand it almost always works and we get things like 'are you going with me'...genius.

Do you work for Metheny's PR??! That make's me want to go out and get a couple of his records!

stevejazzx

speaking of now live is my recommendation.It's quite recent but you really get an idea of his overall style. Other concept albums might leave you a bit cold.

Desmo

stevejazzx wrote:

Cheesy?
sometimes maybe esp on acoustic guitar...but I would rather leave it at genius. The problem is when he's melodic and beautiful, people (jazz people you know who i mean:) ) say 'oh that's just melodic and beautiful' where s the interesting scales etc. So Metheny addresses this issue in live gigs by playing 'James' like a complete mentalist, or coming up with crazy songs which only use only lydian flat 7 scales etc. What i like about Metheny is he doesn't feel the need to 'modern jazz up' a lot of his compositions. When he thinks something is beautiful he just leaves it like that and doesn't over embellish the harmonization or the soloing. Look at the orginal album version of his solo on James, simple and beautiful or as I already mentioned his solo on 'How Insenstive'...just stunning..nobody else in jazz guitar world it appears would dare play such sweet sounding stuff but metheny does and wes did because they had such dimension in their playing. His solo break on third wind is ridulous btw and on a lot of albums he tries to almalgamte straight ahead complexities with nice melodic lines and i'm not sure it works too often but when decides on goign one way or the other beforehand it almost always works and we get things like 'are you going with me'...genius.

Metheny is one of my favourite musicians and I have about 15 of his albums.
Just like you say, a feature of his solos is that he makes them very melodic and musical (like Gary Burton who he played with when he was young?). The melodiousness makes it beautiful to listen to but can be double edged? Sometimes it veers towards sounding a bit "nicey nicey". There is a fine line between beautiful and poppy. He plays really close to that line sometimes. He can play the arse of most other guitarists out there no question and he is still one of my favourite people to listen to.

eugener

I have to second the recommendations for The Way Up and the more recent album with Brad Meldhau. As well as having interesting tunes and continuity between them, The Way Up has some nice harmonica playing by Swiss player Gregoire Maret (ok, so I'm a harmonica player...)

Bert Fever

eugener wrote:

I have to second the recommendations for The Way Up and the more recent album with Brad Meldhau. As well as having interesting tunes and continuity between them, The Way Up has some nice harmonica playing by Swiss player Gregoire Maret (ok, so I'm a harmonica player...)

Have you checked out Maret with a band called Dapp Theory. The band is fantastic.

http://www.andymilne.com/dapp_site/y'all.htm

eugener

Hey - thanks for reminding me about Dapp Theory. I have heard them, but I don't have any albums - I might do get one now that you have reminded me.

Gregoire plays on the Charlie Hunter CD "Right Now Move". Have you heard it? I really like that one too - it's probably *slightly* more accessible than Metheny's The Way Up - more straight-ahead, at least.

Maret was here with Steve Coleman a couple of years ago.

Bert Fever

eugener wrote:

Hey - thanks for reminding me about Dapp Theory. I have heard them, but I don't have any albums - I might do get one now that you have reminded me.

Gregoire plays on the Charlie Hunter CD "Right Now Move". Have you heard it? I really like that one too - it's probably *slightly* more accessible than Metheny's The Way Up - more straight-ahead, at least.

Maret was here with Steve Coleman a couple of years ago.

Yeah, Dapp Theory are a very good group. I highly recommend their latest CD "Y'all just don't know". Milne, the piano player, played with Coleman and the M-Base crowd too...

I must check out that Charlie Hunter album, I haven't heard it. Thanks!

eugener

Bert Fever wrote:

Yeah, Dapp Theory are a very good group. I highly recommend their latest CD "Y'all just don't know". Milne, the piano player, played with Coleman and the M-Base crowd too...

Ok - done - it's going on the shopping list. Thanks.

I must check out that Charlie Hunter album, I haven't heard it. Thanks!

Do - it's very good. Tower didn't have it at Christmas anyway; I was going to get it for someone.

Bert ("if that is you real name" ), - do I know you from some of the jazz gigs?

Bert Fever

eugener wrote:

Bert ("if that is you real name" ), - do I know you from some of the jazz gigs?

Possibly, I do play the odd gig here and there

eugener

Bert Fever wrote:

Possibly, I do play the odd gig here and there

Nyuk nyuk nyuk Me too.

Looking forward to Bela Fleck later today, should be good. Probably will be loads of bassists'n'banjoists there.

On Metheny, if the title track Bright Size Life with Jaco is anything to go by, the rest of the album should be excellent. Another one for the shopping list.

Bert Fever

eugener wrote:

Nyuk nyuk nyuk Me too.

Looking forward to Bela Fleck later today, should be good. Probably will be loads of bassists'n'banjoists there.

Can't make that gig tonight, but i've seen them a bunch of times so I don't feel so bad.

eugener wrote:

On Metheny, if the title track Bright Size Life with Jaco is anything to go by, the rest of the album should be excellent. Another one for the shopping list.

Yes, the rest of the album is great. Round Trip/Broadway Blues is a good track...

Enjoy the gig tonight!

stevejazzx

are yuo going with me with orchestra


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re_xVzTybU8

Desmo

stevejazzx wrote:

are yuo going with me with orchestra


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re_xVzTybU8

That is a great clip and I happen to really like that tune.
If you look at the comments though you see the full range of reactions to PM.
One guy said he thought PM was avantgarde; another said he thought it sounded like Kenny G (spit).

Des

sceptre

Upojenie, his collaboration with Anna Maria Jopek, is rather good and I'd recommend it. Having said that, I'm a fan of Jopek so I'm a little biased. Most of the songs are in Polish but it's certainly worth getting in my view.

Velvet Vocals

You should check out Shadows and Light, its a live recording, Joni Mitchell vocals with Pat Matheny on guitar and Jaco pastorius on bass. I think Michael Breaker plays sax on it too. You can get a recording of it, but the dvd is outstanding!! and I know it's already been recomended but One Quite Night is really fantastic, it has only nice version of the song Ferry across the Mersy ever as far as I'm concerned. I normally don't like that song at all.

a_ominous

Karl Hungus wrote:

As it says really, I've loved what I've heard from him so far, so I'd like to get some of his stuff, and I gotta start somewhere. Recommend away.

Coming to this thread late. Not a guitarist, but I bought "Beyond the Missouri Sky" for tracks 1 and 2, Waltz for Ruth, Our Spanish Love Song

shatners basoon

If you liked that album you'd probably like Haden album with guitarist Antonio Forcione. Very similar stuff though but it is quite good.