Customer Reviews

Trio Live

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When you think it can't get any better, it does. After the release of the excellent "Trio 99-->00" rumors circulated of a Pat Metheny Trio recording of his tour with Larry Grenadier on bass, and Bill Stewart on drums. Our prayers have been answered, and we get a wonderful 2 CD package, "Trio--> Live" taken from Metheny's tour of the US, Europe, and Japan. Disc 1 starts out with a nice reworking of Pat's classic "Bright Size Life" featuring a nimble, quick fingered solo from him, and impeccable rhythm work from Grenadier and Stewart. Next is one of the highlights of the entire album, an incredible nearly 20 minute version of Pat's "Question and Answer". The tune starts out with a relaxed bluesy solo from Metheny on his regular Ibanez "Pat Metheny" model electric, followed by a bass solo, and a spectacular solo from Bill Stewart, showing some Elvin Jones like circular rhythms, all the while showing great originality and authority of his own. He is one of the top drummers on the scene today and a force to be reckoned with. Then comes the coup de grace: Pat whips out the guitar synth for a literally torching solo with Stewart upping the ante to a inhumanly possible degree. I've never heard Pat generate this much heat from his Roland GR300 on record, and he slowly lets us down from this tremendous orgiastic,(for lack of a better term) roller coaster ride with a gradually fading ending to the much enthusiastic audience approval.

Among other highlights on disc 1 are a very cool, lightly swinging and rhythmically interesting interpretation of John Coltrane's "Giant Steps", and a beautiful rendition of "Into The Dream" on the 42 string Pikasso guitar. This piece has come a long way from it's first version on "Imaginary Day" and it beautifully segues into a wonderful trio arrangement of the PMG classic "So May it Secretly Begin".

Two tunes are the major talk of disc 2: an 18 minute avant garde exploration called "Faith Healer", and a bizarre 12 string guitar blues called "Counting Texas". "Faith Healer" features some searing guitar work from Pat, and his Roland VG 8 pick up(by way of his Synclavier guitar) finds him, along with Grenadier and Stewart creating very thick textures, and colors, rather than a song per se. Pat's mindblowing work on this track goes from welding tool like scrapes, to flat out thrashing noise that ranks up there with any hardcore/metal bands out there. From Pat's primal phrasing to Larry's bee like buzzing using a bow and Bill's tumbling, sprawling drums "Faith Healer" brings to mind a war, a struggle for survival, a megalomaniac bringing down the world to it's knees in an apocalypse. The tune features a rare semi quiet moment when Pat switches to the GR300 for a solo reminiscent of something from "Offramp". And finally, for a closer, Pat and company play a freaky tune called "Counting Texas" which features him playing a processed fretless 12 string guitar sounding something not unlike a drunk Country and Western guitarist, as well as great tradeoffs between Larry and Bill.

Special mention has to go to engineer David Oakes for his superb job on the sound for these live recordings, making you feel like you are there. Catching every nuance of the small clubs and theatres. Also PMG bassist Steve Rodby did some seamless work digitally assembling and editing the pieces from different venues together to form a continuous performance. No decrease in sound quality, strange fluctuations in pitch or anything of that nature here. I love Pat's straight ahead, and Group projects, but this album is not for everyone. Some fans of the PMG may be scared off by the rawness of this record, as well as some of the more adventurous stuff like "Faith Healer", and some long time fans of his straight ahead work might be put off by the last two tunes. Overall, this is a brilliant document in the ever changing musical life of Pat Metheny. His playing is hotter and more inventive here than in anything he's recorded under his own name recently, and he has a first rate trio of players in Larry Grenadier and Bill Stewart. Let's hope they get back together again in a few years for another great recording.

Pat Metheny(acoustic, electric guitars, guitar synth, 42 string Pikasso guitar,12 string fretless guitar) Larry Grenadier(bass) Bill Stewart(drums)

*note, Carolyn Chrzan, Pat's guitar technician strums a few notes on the Pikasso, slightly hidden on stage at the end of "So May it Secretly Begin"

Pat Metheny has been playing music for many years, in various settings across many different spectrums of music, such as his famous Pat Metheny Group's world music-inspired polyrythmic compositions, his stint with the ECM gang of the 80's, and his more recent release of sparse, beautifully composed music in a duo with Charlie Haden.

But in every setting he has played in, he is always rooted in jazz. Recently he has been playing with an excellent trio, which includes Larry Grenadier on bass and Bill Stewart on the drums. While the fans on his Pat Metheny Group days may disagree, I think his latest work is one of his best yet: a romantic comeback to his very early days of "Bright Size Life" mixed in with his postbop trio compositions of "Question and Answer" and bringing back a fresh look at the Coltrane standard "Giant Steps".

Pat Metheny is best appreciated live: which makes this a great venue to listen to his amazing talents. The opening track "Bright Size Life" shows how his playing has gotten better over the past decades between his first album and of this latest offering. Larry Grenadier's bold, funky bass lines is a great complement to Pat Metheny's explosive guitar solos, and Bill Stewart's witty drumming rounds up the talent showcased here.

This album is a very sophisticated yet accessible postbop offering. There are a few new compositions, such as the avant garde-ish "Faith Healer" and old favourites, "Question and Answer" and "So May It Secretly Begin". There's plenty for everybody, from complete strangers to faithful fans from the yesteryears. Can't wait for the next opportunity to see him live!

I reserve the term "miracle" for what is properly considered supernatural--an act of divine intervention such as a resurrection from the dead. However, I'm tempted to apply the term in a loosely emotive and aesthetic sense to these superlative live trio performances. Pat Metheny started out very good twenty-five years ago, and he just keeps improving... There is so much music in this soul.

Pat has always radiated improvisational and interactive excellence in trio settings, but he takes it even another notch higher here. The chemistry (or, better: alchemy) of these performances comes both from the virtuosity of the players and from their working together for over a year. Pat's previous trio recordings have not been born of that matrix. ("Question and Answer"--great at it is--was a one-day gig.)

The group covers Pat's entire career--from the Pat Metheny Group standards, to two cuts from "Pat Metheny Trio 99-00," to free-jazz reminiscent of what he did with Ornette Coleman ("Song X"). "Faith Healer" is an 18-minute "outside" piece featuring quick, tight ensemble work; at least three changes of mood; and open-ended, hard-edged guitar-synthesizer work. Those who only like the PMG material may skip over this, but not me!

The most surprising cut was a new 20-minute version of "Question and Answer," which features a statement of the theme, a solo by Pat on electric guitar, then solos by acoustic bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Bill Stewart. After this, the band ascends into the stratosphere as Pat switches to guitar-synthesizer. (Few people play this instrument, and no one but Pat has mastered its expressive possibilities.) The level of intensity and emotion--especially generated by the interplay of Stewart and Pat--is enough to bring tears to your eyes or goosebumps to your flesh (or both). Amazingly, after a frenzied pitch of wild, but tight crescendos...it all calms down and ends in a whisper.

There are also more mellow numbers, some with acoustic guitar. Pat plays his specially-made 42-string instrument to great effect, as well as a 12-string, fretless guitar on the inimitable "Counting Texas"--something totally unlike anything Pat has done (to my knowledge).

So much more could be said, but I'll end with this: Pat, thank you for all the beautiful music you have given us throughout the years. I hope you know from whence this gift of yours came.

Douglas Groothuis

I was afforded a chance to get this album early, thanks to a timely radio promo showing up. The performances are impeccable; the band is loose, and obviously had been playing together on tour long enough to reach the point of telepathy while playing. All players are in peak form, and as on the 99>00 album, the interplay between Metheny and drummer Bill Stewart is a special thing to hear. If you enjoyed 99>00, this will give you more of the same, just in a live setting. "Bright Size Life" makes a welcome comeback, as well as "James" and a nice reworking of "Unity Village." Only complaints: although this was recorded in smaller venues, the applause is obnoxiously loud at times, and though it may be a personal pet peeve of mine, I cannot stand recordings made at separate venues edited together to create the illusion that it was all one show, one set. Fadeouts with listings of dates would be more in my ballpark. But, way to go Pat; he is a true master of his instrument, and still reaching further.

Pat Metheny is one of the world's most versatile and technically awe-inspiring guitarists. Best known for the accessible and distinctive "folk-jazz" of his Pat Metheny Group, Pat can also tear it up with panache in the "straight-ahead jazz" format. Only, the results never seem to be simply "straight-ahead," but incorporate the same creativity, uniqueness, and singular musical voice he puts into all his projects. Here in this double-CD is a collection of performances from a tour of Japan and the U.S. with his "99-00" trio with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Bill Stewart. All the potential that this trio could possibly embody in sonic and melodic exploration of the tunes is here fully realized, in stunningly exciting and dramatic fashion, comprising some of my favorite music ever.

Metheny has a characteristically mellow, uneffected timbre on guitar that forms the basis of his sound. But surprisingly given that fact, he has a penchant for very colorful sound explorations when he does deviate from his standard sound. "Question and Answer" starts out straightforwardly enough, but just builds and jams and soon becomes a full-out woodshed. Bill Stewart, surely one of the best jazz drummers out there today, lays down a simply riveting extended drum solo. Pat's "synth-guitar" sound comes into play during his second solo, and the number reaches a frenetic climax that leads into a delicate and deathly quiet outro. After the song finishes its 19-and-a-half minutes, the audience howls with approval, and one just has to nod one's head in agreement.

For "Into the Dream" Pat gets out his "42-string guitar," which has a harp-like clarity and deep resonance that is incredibly lovely. The piece is actually one of the most beautiful things I've heard. Then there's "Giant Steps," that blistering signature Coltrane tune, which this group plays laconically at about a quarter-speed, but it sounds so natural that way, one could easily get used to it and then go back to the original and think of it as a sped-up version of this one. Then their up-tempo version of "All the Things You Are" (I think Scofield was the first to do that standard this way) shows off this band's chops with impressive alacrity.

The second disc starts off with some songs which (I'm told; I haven't heard the originals) are trio reworkings of tunes Pat originally played solo on record. All are of excellent quality; but just when you think Pat has settled back again into traditional-jazz-trio format, he wheels out the 19-minute noise-collage "Faith Healer." Pat could always be as avant and challenging as any jazz musician, and he does like to pull out that card every so often. The result here is impressively meticulously-composed, and demands one's full attention to appreciate. It's not easy-listening, and was a bit much even for me at first, but it satisfies. Finally, Metheny throws out another curveball with his "fretless guitar" (!) on the loopy, careening "Counting Texas." With this number, he once again gets to show off yet another side of his musical virtuosity, and it is just plain fun to listen to him go to town on it.

I haven't mentioned bassist Larry Grenadier yet, but he seems to know Metheny's tunes so well that he and Pat seem to musically interact telepathically. Overall the trio coheres as a group exceptionally well, bringing to mind the "unified improvisation" of Bill Evans' trio with Scott La Faro and Paul Motian, although certainly in a way all their own. I'd label this essential listening for any jazz fan and/or serious musician.

This album is stunning! A true surprise. Not because of it's excellence since Pat has been pushing the envelope on the jazz, contemporary jazz and fusion fronts for years. More so because in a case where a band who has just completed a studio album, usually you get embellished renditions of the album cuts and a few new pieces. NOT SO HERE! Thank you!

Pat takes a strikingly different tact. He reinterpret many of his previously recorded pieces, some of which have quite a following, to stunning effect.

In my opinion, here is a superior version of "James" for all to consider. "Unity Village", "So May It Secretly Begin", "Into The Dream" "Question and Answer", and "As Night Turns into Day" are all redefined here. Both Larry Grenadier and Bill Stewart shine throughout this recording. Bill is much more forceful drummer than Paul Wertico and it lends the music a much more vital pulse. Larry Grenadier is a marvelous bassists, who literally sings on bass. The resonant bass tones, the vital pulse. I was king of hoping that when Pat announced the line up for his new group that this man would be in it. All due respect to Steve Rodby.

"Into the Dream" is given an extended treatment here, Pat uses the Pikasso guitar to great effect from there he segues into "So May It Secretly Begin" which lends itself well to a trio setting. For me, it sounded better in this spare environment sans vocal and keyboards. There was something more expressive about it lending itself move fully toward improvisation.

"Soul Cowboy" is just plain out and out fun to listen to.

"Bright Size Life" was close to the original and of course took me down memory lane. Pat, of course, played it differently enough to not rehash it.

Which brings me to "Question & Answer" this is where Pat will completely reinvent a piece. Question & Answer is worth the price of the CD alone. Pat starts out in a straight impressively, expressively on jazz guitar playing melliflously, with great skill, dexterity and imagination which leads to a very rhythmic, clever (Max Roach would be proud and smiling) drum solo. That drum solo was right there in the pocket. Then Pat comes in on such a flight of virtuosity that at the end you have to wait for your pulse to slow down before you play the next cut. You almost have to skip "Giant Steps" and listen to "Into The Dream" to help you along.

"Faith Healer" is one of those unique compositions that Pat does which is subject to much discussion. It varies in moods, it is reminicent of the kind of thing he did in the title track of "Offramp" and also on "Song X". Faith Healer shifts through many moods and is challenging to listen to.

I would hope that Pat keeps the door open for this to be a working Trio when he is not involved with the group. The symbiosis is strong here. Inspired and forward thinking.

The trio play in such close concert that you don't miss all the extra instrumentation. I can't say enough about this particular Trio and and Pat has worked with some good ones. A masterpiece in my view.

This is simply Pat Metheny playing at his very best, with an incredibly simpatico rhythm team. I have enjoyed all aspects of Metheny's career, from his regular Group to his excellent sideman work with musicians that range from Milton Nascimento to Ornette Coleman to Derek Bailey to Joni Mitchell to Herbie Hancock to Gary Burton. But the trio area is one that Metheny owns. I don't think any other guitarist has ever been so successful in this environment, as Metheny has shown in his previous trio records. But this one is the best of all those, mostly due to his near telepathic rapport with Bill Stewart, the only drummer I have heard that rivals Roy Hayne's incredible playing.

This was the first very definitive experience of Pat Metheny for me. Metheny, Bill Stewart, and Larry Grenadier form a very tight trio, producing smooth, breathy tunes for this double disc performance.
The highlight of the album, for me, is the second track, "Question and Answer". A rather large track (19:53), the trio doesn't show any signs of wear throughout, keeping the swinging 6/8 waltz very steady. The solos are very tasteful, not too long or too short.
Great band, great CD. Get it.

i got this cd quite a while ago, but i never, and will never stop listening to it. the selections are perfect and he plays them spectacularly. a couple of my favorites are Bright Size Life, Giant Steps, Question And Answer, All The Things You Are, and many, many others. to tell you the truth, i'm still just listening to the first cd, and havne't really moved on to the second yet! it's that good. me being a drummer, i love bill stewart, and his playing is phenomanal. i was a little skeptical about having stewert instead of wertico, but it turned out alright. please get this one, it's amazing.

Pat Metheny has done it again. Of course, we all knew that this would be a great record, but this goes so far beyond anything I might have expected, even with the high expectations that I already had been harboring. We have been waiting for 20 years for Metheny to release a live record that featured his more straight-ahead playing, this does that and yet so much more. It is in fact a kind of personal manifesto where Metheny not only redefines some of his better known older pieces, but creates a larger statement on the state of jazz as it exists right now apart from the Ken Burns/Marsalis view of it being basically all over and that the best we can do is look nostalgically at Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington one more time. (uh, we have all already been doing that for the last 50 years, guys...) Metheny is a musician who is complete in his command of bebop and postbop styles, but is not a slave to any previous style feeling more like inventing his OWN tradition on his own terms. This record has too many highlights to name, but the biggest highlight of all is the fact that among all the wannabes out there in the jazz world, there is a musician who can craft songs and improvisations that hang together with a continuity that honors such luminaries as Lester Young without copying them. As with Bright Size Life and forward, Pat Metheny once again establishes a new standard of excellence in jazz.