Search - Pat Metheny :: Travels

Yes, I am going with you...

B. Allen | southern CA | 01/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"1978 was a transformational year for me. Having nearly gotten the bad taste of high school out of my mouth, I was, like most teenagers on the verge of adulthood, in search of some deeper meaning and substance in my life. Of course I didn't realize any of that at the time when, on a lazy, summer afternoon, my friend said that he had a new album that he wanted me to listen to.



I was a rock fan then and so was he, so I was expecting the usual Zep or Doors when I suddenly heard the opening notes to San Lorenzo. That album was of course, the self titled "Pat Metheny Group" and it was the only music that we listened to for the entire day. It was, for me, an epiphany. To say that the next forty minutes changed my life sounds like hyperbole but, in truth, my concept of music and how I listened to it changed forever on that sunny afternoon. Metaphorically, I had just sat down at the table. smelled the food and realized just how hungry I was. Hungry for more...The world of Jazz opened up to me on that day, which is not to say that I had never heard Jazz before. On the contrary, my father had many Jazz albums, but they were, well, they were my fathers... That was stuff that he listened to (and with respect to my father and those talented musicians, such as Sinatra, Art Tatum, Buddy Rich and Count Basie, it is part of the music that I now also listen to)... But these guys just blew me away. They touched me ineffably with their depth of feeling and gift for melody. They touched me in a way that those musicians of my fathers age, talented though they were, could not. It probably helped that Pat and I were both mid-western boys and that he wasn't too much older than I was, and that, as I was to later discover, we both loved Jimmy Hendrix...



A few years later that same friend called me up and said that Pat was coming to town and that we should go see him. Pat wasn't the icon then that he is now of course and the tickets were pretty cheap and not at all hard to get, at least not in my little town. The show was in, of all places, a Cathedral. The irony was palpable as it turned out to be a near religious experience. That tour was part of the band's "Travels" that were later, to comprise this album. I listened to that album everyday as soon as I got my hands on it. Listened to it until you could nearly see through it.



The t-shirt that I got at that concert has also long since worn out, and of course there have been other great albums and their associated concerts (most notably Still Life-(talking) in 87' and We Live Here in 95') but none have affected me so deeply and completely as that first concert in that darkened Cathedral. To hear these cuts now on disc... it takes me back to that hallowed, ethereal, place, all those years ago and I get the same chill down my back as I did that night.



I confess that I have not loved every note that Pat has composed. Indeed he has taken some paths on his journey as an artist down which I could neither follow nor comprehend, but I do respect his courage in choosing that path. Now as I think about it, all the years and all the miles in between then and now, seem a bit clearer, seem to have a little more meaning, when I listen and I smile and I weep, to this beautifully crafted music. And it becomes apparent to me that perhaps this was what the truth of the music was all about; that the travels and the path that I had unwittingly embarked on, all those years ago, While circuitous and sometimes painful, wasn't so fruitless after all.



It isn't hyperbole to say to you now that if you have never enjoyed Jazz, you should buy this album, that if you have never heard of Pat Metheny, you should buy this album, that if you are in search of something in your life and music plays any part at all in that search, then you should most definitely and without hesitation buy this album...



Thank you Pat. Thank you Lyle. Thank you Steve. Thank you Dan. Thank you Nana, and thank you, most of all, to my dear friend who opened my mind to the beauty of this music. Where ever you are, I want you to know that I think of you often and hope you are well and have had safe travels..."

The best documentation of pat's ECM years

B. Lafave | lakeland , fl | 08/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"i understand that pat felt frustrated by ECM records method of hastily recording his various albums , however , i think even pat would or will come to concur that manfred often captured pat at his very best in all respects . "rejoicing" , "80/81" , "as fall wichita , so falls wichita falls" , "offramp" , "watercolors" , "the pat metheny group" to name several . this album likewise is an awesome live overview of pat's formative years with ECM . few individuals make an album of this merit and quality in their lives , let alone as part of a string of essential recordings . were that we all could be so frustrated even once in our lives . this recording has never diminished in monetary (let alone any other) value since the day of its' release . simply one of the greatest jazz recordings of all time . required listening for any true jazz lover . timeless . thank you pat ."

Sparkling, brilliant sets

Pietro | Pietro Da Cortona | 12/12/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This recording is pure magic. It is almost painful in searching for something else like it and not finding... something that captures the spirit the same way that this album does. The sparkling chimes, the piano and organ, the drums, and of course, the guitar all seem to create these waves of lydian-blues and brazilian rhythms and every tune is perfect. This is the best CD of the ECM catalogue (though some of the Keith Jarrett concerts might be candidates for such a title). This Cd seems to mark a point where PMG really discovered their combined voice. Critics have said this isn't "jazz" etc. etc. and no, it is jazz... taken to new heights."