Customer Reviews

The Sound of Summer Running

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a big enthusiast of Pat Metheny's music. This was my first contact with Bill Frisell, who can rival in talent with Metheny.
It was a great surprise to hear such instrumental album, even though sometimes it just gets distant from standard jazz, from such great musicians.
It evokes memories from places we might have never seen but gets to musically make these places close.
The title is maybe a quote to a Ray Bradbury short tale where the author remembers his youth after buying a new sport shoes and goes around the fields to run while the summer starts.
While it musically traces the atmospheres of the country side of America, it also presents a summary of the music
we would hear there.
Bill Frisell and Metheny simply create very inspiring guitar melodies.
Altough the music might not be complex, after all it is based on simple ideas, it is rich and it will please your brain and fill it with images.

This is very listenable and creative jazz. A nice synthesis of
all three artists. Won't disappoint if you like the best of Frisell and Metheny.

I had no idea who bassist Marc Johnson was before I bought this beautiful 1998 release. The first thing that caught my attention was the picture of the little girl on the CD cover. The sky was so blue, and she looked so happy and carefree that I was just drawn - and not in a sinister way, mind you. It's just that somehow in my mind, I thought that if this CD could make me feel as happy and carefree as she looked, I wanted it.

The second thing that caught my eye (and clinched the deal) was the clear sticker on the front of the CD which told me that Pat Metheny was on it. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Pat doesn't just play with anyone and I knew even without listening to it, that this was an album I would love. Well, that was eight years ago and this is still one of my favourite CDs ever.

I didn't know who Bill Frisell was either at that time but since buying this, I've become a huge fan of both Johnson and Frisell, who by the way gives one of the most exciting performances on this album that I've heard from him yet. I say it with the utmost respect, both to him and any other guitarists he's played with but I believe that with Metheny playing alongside him, Frisell simply had to raise his game to the utmost. And he truly does.

Joey Baron's drumming is incredible and right from the opener, "Faith In You", all participants let us know what we're in for: An hour or so of pure enjoyment. Johnson pens all the songs except for Bill Frisell's "Ghost Town"; a really good version of the tune he used to title his excellent CD of the same name in 2000 (another one I never got round to reviewing) and "The Adventures of Max and Ben". "In a Quiet Place" was written by Johnson and Eliane Elias and the beautiful closer, "For a Thousand Years", was written by Metheny.

Bill Frisell plays electric and acoustic guitars, Pat Metheny plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar and 42-string pikasso guitar, and Joey Baron plays drums and tambourine. Produced by the seemingly omniscient Lee Townsend, this excellent CD is truly the Sound of Summer Running. I love all the songs but the opener and closer are still firm favourites.

PS: If you'd like to try something a little more adventurous from Marc Johnson, a little more left of centre, I highly recommend two other CDs by him that I own. (Again, these are CDs I never got round to reviewing). The first is 1896's Bass Desires and the second is 1987's Second Sight. Both are on ECM and both feature Bill Frisell and my other hero John Scofield on guitar, with the phenomenal Peter Erskine on drums.

My favourite tunes on the former include the crazy fun "Samurai Hee-Haw", the John Coltrane tune "Resolution" and a cover of John Scofield's "Thanks Again". On the latter, I say look out for the Bill Frisell tune, "Small Hands", Peter Erskine's "Sweet Soul" and John Scofield's "Twister". Both CDs are a guitar scream fest and I mean that in the best possible way.

There are some really cool tracks on this album. (Listen to track #1 and #3)The album as a whole is quite tame for two potentialy wild guitarists (Pat Metheny and Bill Frissel). But that's what I like about it. It's mellow and enjoyable while at the same time being perhaps a little quirky (which should be expected from Bill Frissel). If you're a Metheny or Frissel fan than I recommend this CD for your collection. You won't be dissapointed. However, If you want to hear some exciting bass playing from Marc Johnson than there's nothing here for you.

What a dream. I don't profess to liking everything Pat Metheny has done, or to having listened to everything that Marc Johnson has done, but this is lovely. If you can't drift away to the sounds of Porch Swing then you just don't get it.

Considering the concentration of out and out genius on this album, it should have been one of the records of the decade. Every member of the band is a brilliant bandleader in his own right, and even producer Lee Townshend has presided over some of the most visionary and fruitful projects in recent jazz.

Sure -- there's nothing offensive here, and the tunes clock by like a day in the country. The melodies are hook-ish, but there's very little here that's haunting. There's no track you'll play again and again for weeks when you buy the album to better understand your own life, which is something you can only expect when the caliber of the band is this high. There's nothing that "itches at your ears until you understand it" (as Walt Whitman wrote) -- just a bunch of astonishing craftsmen kicking back and playing pleasantly. Where's the awe-inspiring intensity of Frisell's take on Madonna's "Live to Tell"? Where's the astonishing, redemptive luminosity of Metheny's solo on "Praise"? Where is Baron's sense of danger?

To be clear: I love Marc Johnson's other albums. I wish his Right Brain Patrol CDs were in print in this country -- they're both wildly inventive -- and I adore his ECM discs, recorded with virtually the same band that appears here. Something went wrong on this project, alas, as the presence of it in bargain bins in record stores coast-to-coast attests.

It's a very nice masterpiece in jazz music... though I am probably more rock and prog rock person, but I've always loved hearing this album since I first heard it... Metheny and Frisell make a very nice combination with Johnson and Baron on drums... all compositions are nice, relaxing.. when you listen to it, it really seems you're sitting on the front porch of your house in summer, and your mood lifts up in an instant... I highly recommend it to anyone who likes jazz at all, especially for those people who listen to Frisell and Metheny with pleasure... 5 stars by all means... enjoy!

With 2 great guitarists like Bill Frisell and Pat Metheny joining Marc Johnson in a group effort releasing this album, you say to yourself how I can not buy this album; it's like 3 in one. Yes it is.
Light compositions; this is not an album that goes in my top favorite Jazz album collection, however, the feel I get listening to this album is similar to a very relaxing day, in a convertible car on a beautiful spring day, cruising the desert roads in the West or Route 66. All the songs are very fresh reminding me of the start of a beautiful spring green season.
"The sound of Summer Running" or "Sound of Spring coming"? Never mind, both way it is fresh, smooth and relaxing. If this was the intention of these fine musicians, they have done a great Job

Metheny and Frisell make quite a team. "Summer Running" cooks up tender chunks of old-time country and rock & roll in the broth of an improvised jazz format, where both guitarists' respective seasonings seem to be right at home. As usual, Metheny provides his stately solos while Frisell's outings are characteristically jaunty; Baron is once again perfectly understated, and Johnson's tunes are fresh and evocative. I am wildly hoping to hear more from this particular team, the Most Obvious Combo of the 90's.

It's easy to forget the awesome legacy in jazz with which Marc Johnson has had contact: serving as sideman to the legendary Bill Evans, hooking up with the neo-legendary Lyle Mays, and backing up ensembles for Ralph Towner (Oregon). Here he takes a much more buoyant, "child-energy" approach to his music, marking a distinct departure from the more moody stylings in his ECM sessions, or his earlier "Right Brain Patrol." Metheny, Frisell, and Baron, while carrying the melodic and rhythmic lines with their wonted virtuostic flair, also provide the ideal counterpoint to Johnson's bass underpinnings, by turns sentimental and whimsical. It would be hard to imagine a more enjoyable album to slip into the player and listen to with a tall glass of lemonade at the ready. It's amusing to think that a man who always seems so somber in the published photos is so fully capable of evoking the range of moods that this album embodies. But given the company he keeps in this recording, perhaps not surprising. Two thumbs up! This album also makes a perfect introduction to ensemble jazz for those folks trying to break the "New Age" or "Adult Contemporary" habit!