Customer Reviews

Quartet

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This CD is definitely a departure from the other Pat Metheny Group albums of recent. Being roughly half improvisation or near improvisation and half carefully crafted songs like we're used to hearing from the Group, we get to see a side of the band we haven't seen before. And the result is extremely worthwhile, even if not always immediately pleasant. The fact that it is music played solely by the four core members and recorded in a live fashion with little or no overdubs and almost exclusivly on acoustic instruments lends uniqueness to this Group recording. While still a very large leap away from Pat's Zero Tolerance for Silence, this CD contains some stretching material for casual Group listeners. I for one, however, grew musically through repeated listens, and over time found myself placing this CD right up there with my top favourites by Pat and the group. In addition to some of the "out-there" stuff (music for the mind, ie. Dismantling Utopia, Badla! nd, etc.), it contains in my opinion some of the Group's most heartfelt and beautiful ballads (so satisfying to the soul, ie. As I Am, Oceania, etc.), and a couple of very grooving tunes bearing the label of jazz more fittingly than what we've been hearing from them lately (the stuff for the body, ie. When We Were Free, Montevideo, Language of Time). I would recommend this underrated CD as the most complete and satisfying musical ride I've ever taken part in. And if you're like me, you'll also grow as a result of it!

Before buying this recording I had my sights set low, thinking that less (e.g. the absence of vocals by someone like Mark Ledford or Pedro Aznar, and the emphasis on acoustical instruments) would indeed lead to less. But nothing can be further than my truth about this brilliant recording. For one, having the band captured playing in a more loose, spontaneous format provides a rare glimpse, albeit just as creative and poetic in vision as the more standard pmg sound we tend to expect. It's hard to know where to begin describing this work, so here's a short list some of things I love about this recording:
i) The beautiful "oceania" (in particular Steve Rodby's bass playing and Metheny's brilliant use of the synth guitar)

ii) The musical silence and space that one hears (or does not hear!) in "mojave", "badland", and "glacier". These are three of my favorites, and if you've ever been to the badlands or mojave desert, you'll hopefully better appreciate these tunes and realize the genious behind them. Compare these tracks to some of the stuff from Coltrane's "meditations". In some sense they will seem like opposites (in that Coltrane was trying paint every spot on the canvass) but the expansiveness and meditative nature of both works for me at least imply a vast similarity. Note also how these longer, contemplative tunes complement so well the celebratory "language of time", and the gorgeous guitar solo provided by Metheny on that track.

iii) "double blind" for many of the same reasons for ii). Again note Coltrane's and Ornette Coleman's influence here.
iv) The last two tunes, "sometimes i see" and "as i am" are good examples of Metheny at his lyrically best on guitar.

With all this said, I can also see why many PMG fans may not enjoy this cd, simply because not every (in fact most) listener wants to hear something that demands so much attention and takes time to absorb and appreciate. I love Coltrane's "meditations", but I know that many listeners believe this is where he went of the deep end. No, it's where he went deep, searching for his personal musical truth which has no end.

There will be many members of Metheny's fan club who are still struggling to digest 'Song X', the avant-garde album that he made with Ornette Coleman in the 1980s. The improvised content of 'Quartet' may not be as uncompromising as that, nor as grating as the industrial noise of the more recent 'Zero Tolerance ...'.

Nevertheless, the group's performances here travel a long way from the saccharine jazz-rock that has brought Pat and his loyal keyboardsman Lyle Mays such a huge international following. Instead of the usual lush, overblown rhapsodies, Quartet reminds me of the stark, ambient textures of Pat's early work for ECM.

I've had a love/hate relationship with Metheny's work for about twenty five years. I don't care a bit for his Trio work and his Brazilian influenced recordings are a bit too sweet for me. Having seen him in concert a half dozen times I can attest that even the stuff I don't like on CD is excellent in concert. The Group is simply that good! However, he and Lyle have done some things which I've considered to be utterly sublime: Travels, Offramp, Imaginary Day, AFWSFWF, Pat Metheny Group and Bright Size Life. I consider all these to be HIGHLY original works and would not hesitate to classify them as masterpieces. And....I put "Quartet" in this category. Yes friends, I think VERY highly of Quartet. I can understand why some would dislike, or even hate, this recording. The music is "seemingly" unstructured. The recording contains some dissonant passages here and there. All of this is true. HOWEVER, this recording should be viewed as ambient jazz at its finest! Something along the lines of Miles' "In a Silent Way"; but better. The way that the "Quartet" blends improvisation with structure is nothing short of incredible. This is one of the few Metheny CDs which I could NOT stop playing when I first bought it. I played it once, then replayed it again and again until I became fascinated by it and eventually fell in love with it. I view this recording as ONE looooooong piece. I find that "Quartet" flows more seamlessly than ANY other PMG release(with the exception of perhaps AFWSFWF). The spacing between the pieces is short enough that one cannot tell when one piece ends and another begins. I love when recordings flow like this. I would HIGHLY recommend this recording to anyone who likes Jazz; REAL JAZZ.............and.........to anyone who's a fan of ambient music, whether acoustic or electronic. "Quartet", in my opinion, is one of the VERY best recordings that PM has ever been a part of. This is one where the marketing department did not interfere with the creative process. Kudos to the Quartet for this modern masterpiece!

liner notes proclaim this was "fast take" and it sounds it, which is to say fantastic!!!!! guitar on "when we were free" rips your heart out, then stomps on it. very interesting album. the group just plays ---- very well. killer off tempo "dismantling utopia" "double blind". sometimes metheny seems to out-think himself-the strength of this album is that the group lets loose.

Kudos to Pat for turning out an album that is in the true spirit of jazz. Improvisational, experimental and bluesy. A pleasant change in direction. The essential four core members of the group, hence the title. The mood shifts greatly through thoughout. This album has grown on me has I have listened. There are a couple of pieces that experiment with dissonance that will put some people off. "Badlands" in particular casts a dark shadow which some people used to the more accessible and pleasant pieces such as "Beat 70" will find a little hard to take. There are some beautiful moments too. Lyle Mays playes well on this recording. You can finally hear Paul Wertico again, a very good drummer who is often buried/lost in the mix on many of the group's recordings. Steve Rodby is Steve Rodby, steady, reliable, subtle. More of a jazz direction than the preceding more contemporary "We Live Here". Pat continues to be a creative, inventive and vibrant musician who is not afraid to take chances, nor does he necessarily yield to public expectations.

I like this album a lot. There's a lot of neat stuff and a lot of variety. Some of the tracks don't interest me much, but to make up for the disapointing tunes, there are some amazing pieces as well. The guitar solo on "Take me there" is mind-blowingly impressive as well as the track, "Sometimes I see." There are better albums of Pat's (Life Still Talking, Secret Story, Letter From Home, Imaginary Day, Travels, and a host of others) but once you have purchased the above mentioned albums, then I recommend "Quartet."

This is not Question and Answer, Bright Sized Life or a typical PMG album. This is a much more mellow and free formed recording. It isn't to be rated as a comparison to anything, it stands by itself as an excellent piece of music because it is unlike anything else that the PGM has ever done. Nice Job !!!!

I am somewhat surprised that this album gets a lot of negative reviews. I saw some reviews (for different Pat Metheny albums) that really "trashed" this album.

It might not be the best, but I really like this album a lot.

This is a PMG effort featuring familiar players (Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby, and Paul Wertico), but it sounds much more like one of his solo efforts. Could this be why I like this album so much?

I tend to like his solo (non PMG) efforts better: TRIO 99->00, Question and Answer, 80/81, Bright Size Life, etc. However, I also like many of the PMG efforts as well: Offramp, First Circle, etc.

Admittedly, there are some parts of this album that many PMG fans may find challenging (i.e., tracks 7 through 12). This CD is definitely nothing like First Circle, Letter From Home, Still Life talking, Offramp, Speaking of Now, We Live Here, etc.

However, I seem to play this as much (if not more) than any other PMG cd that I have in my collection. I play his solo (non PMG) stuff much more of course...

Anyway, track #2 (When We Were Free) is one of my favorite all-time Pat Metheny recordings.

By the way, for those of you that think this is Pat Metheny's worst album ever, please listen to Song X (which quite ironically happens to be a solo effort with Ornette Coleman).

I'm not a big fan of Metheny's more experimental forays like Song X, but this album is a good balance between all-out "free" avant-garde and his more accessible albums.

It's a bit jarring at first, but with repeated listens you'll begin to appreciate the artistry behind these great musicians. If you're looking for music you can play in your car or something, don't buy this. This is for serious listeners who are willing to take the time to really get into the essence of the music.