Metheny's Magic Shines in Toronto

[secondtube]

Metheny's Magic Shines in Toronto

Last night, at the Hummingbird Centre, was the first time Pat Metheny has joined us here in Toronto, since 1999. The show was scheduled to start at 8pm, and there wasn't an opener scheduled. The doors of the theatre were kept shut until quarter to eight.... Really kept us in suspense. At exactly 8:10, Pat walked out to a sold out house, with the house lights still on, acoustic guitar in hand...He started out with some riffs I recognized as the opening riffs to his new album The Way Up.

With its 12th studio album, The Pat Metheny Group has created a ground-breaking masterpiece. With longtime collaborator, pianist Lyle Mays, Metheny has created a 68-minute "jazz" suite that defies every stylistic label. “The Way Up” is as much classical as it is jazz.

Pat found himself a comfortable seat center stage, and played a few minute acoustic intro, until his fellow band mates joined him on the stage.... Just as they were finishing the opening track to The Way Up, the house lights dimmed, and the magic began. Symphonic in structure, The Way Up is also a natural extension of the group's sound and body of work. Sometimes hard-driving swing/fusion, sometimes bordering on atmospheric, “The Way Up” keeps coming at you in creative waves of textures, rhythm and melody.

The blue and purple incandescent lights gave way to Pat, wearing the classic blue striped shirt and jeans, with huge flowing hair. Pat effortlessly made his way through the opening section of his piece, showcasing his relationship with the Drummer, Antonio Sanchez. Antonio Sanchez was born in Mexico City and at age five, he discovered an irresistible attraction towards the drum set. At age seventeen he enrolled in the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City where he pursued a degree in classical piano and composition.

Sanchez's musical background was obvious, as he constantly went head to head with Metheny, trading licks like I’ve never seen a guitarist and drummer do. At times, they played like they were the only two musicians in the world, and had been doing it forever....

Playing a Grand Piano, with an electric beside him, and a moog on top of his Piano, Lyle showed us why he's been a member of Pats band pretty much since the beginning. At times it felt like the Piano was just an extension of Pats playing, the two were unstoppable all night. The co writer The Way Up, Lyle Mays has been an integral part of the Pat Metheny Group since its inception (in 1977).

Acoustic and electric bassist Steve Rodby, in addition to performing with the Pat Metheny Group for the past 22 years, has conducted orchestras, recorded with many other artists, and lately has spent much of his time producing. Since the PMG last toured, he has done production work on several projects with Pat, including the "Jim Hall & Pat Metheny" duo record, and the two live Pat Metheny Trio records. Playing mostly a standup acoustic bass, Steve also picked up a beautiful electric bass with the sweetest sound you ever did hear....

The rest of his band was filled with the hard working 'mega musicians'. I called them this because New Yorks own Cuong Vu, Swiss Jazz Legend Grégoire Maret, and Brazilian Nando Lauria played every other instrument available. Taking turns between Rhythm Guitar, Vocals, Trumpet, Two xylophones, shakers and pretty much everything else you can think of, those three took care of it.... My favorite parts were the xylophones duos and the haunting backing vocals.... talk about soundscapes....

The Way Up was performed exactly like I was expecting to be performed; professionally. The album clocks in at 66 minutes, and Pats performance of the album was exactly 1 hour and 7 minutes…The 67 minutes of performance found Pat effortlessly switching between his 7 guitars, one being played in the front, while another was swung around his back…. These guitars were kept in tune by the hardest working guitar tech team. Yep, Pat needs three onstage techs at all times; he’s a mad man. The thing I noticed about Pats playing, something I’ve longed to see for sometime, was the lack of petals. He didn’t have any petals on stage, outside of a couple of switch boxes. No fuzz, no Wah, nothing to alter that beautiful Metheny sound we have come to love.

Another interesting aspect of the Metheny Bands playing is their separation from traditional jazz. They left the “pass the solo” approach behind, giving way to a more full jamming sound. I don’t want you to think jamming as in jamband wanking, but as each musician perfectly playing off one another, creating a total sound incomparable to any other musician today. Metheny’s solo’s were another beast entirely. It was amazing to watch him effortlessly meander through complex scales and time signatures. The most unbelievable thing is he Never misses a note. I don’t understand how a guitarist can play as technical music as Pat Metheny, and never make a mistake. I’m sure he makes them, and I’m sure a trained guitar player would catch them, but not this trained audience ear. I was impressed!

As Part 1 made its way into Part 2, I couldn’t help notice the parallels with this piece of music, and Pink Floyd Meddle. Fearless and San Tropez-like sounds warmed the stage, all the while Metheny eclipsing my every hope and dream. I was watching the most technically brilliant guitarist of our time, I felt privileged.

Everyone in the Hummingbird Centre, which grew more apparent as the quite sections of Part Three were played, shared this feeling I had. I’ve Never heard a quieter, more respectful audience. I really hope the recording shows this….You could hear Pats finger nails tapping the fret board from the top of the Balcony where I was seated. Pat followed his 66-minute performance of The Way Up with another 70 minutes of Crowd Favorites. Unfortunately, I didn’t recognize any of the choices, but I enjoyed each and every one. I’m not sure the name of the song, but his fourth to last song of his set features the best guitar work I’ve ever witnessed, including all of Trey’s work. The crowd gave Pat a five-minute standing ovation at the end of the song, and he wasn’t even finished yet! Pat politely just took a bow, and went on with the set, playing another three or four songs before ending the set just before 11pm, a complete two and a half hour set.

After a brief encore break, he was out kicking our Asses one final time. It didn’t matter what he played by this point, I had already decided it was the best 50 bucks I’ve EVER spent.

Willy, you missed a good one!

Steve

[Del]

Great review Steve, glad you had a good time...

[bouche]

Steve, I'm very glad you made it to the show. I don't think I've seen you e-respond so incredibly to any show like this!

fan-friggin-tastic.

[secondtube]

i was up to 4:30 in the morning last night...i couldn't get rid of the post show buzz....i was BUG EYED. (so i wrote, lol)

[gentlemonkey]

nice review tube!!

So, I only have a few few Metheny albums, but a lot of the time he seems to use a synth effect.. You mention that he used no effects last night, all just straight up guitar? I'm used to that effect that makes it sound like a strange electronic horn..

[Pablo Sanchez]

I so wished I had seen this show. I've only seen PMG once and that was more than 15 years ago. I'm suprised that he didn't use his synth sound. I love that tone although people complain about it all the time.

Just downloaded the show. can't wait to give it a listen. nice review!

[secondtube]

ok. i'm not a guitar guy....sooo....i really dont know what i'm talking about.

all i noticed is, he has no petal racks, no petals on stage at all...each different sound came from a different guitar.

as i said, he had seven of them. the one with that crazy tone you guyz are talking about is the small, redish, gibson looking like guitar...the one with the nice, sweet, clean tone is the tan, almost trey looking like guitar.

but i can say, he never once played, touched, or fiddled with any pedals. so i guess what i meant was, he played with effects, but each different effect came from a different guitar completely...

[StoneMtn]

Steve:

That review was AWESOME! How did you know all that background on the musicians?

You have me really excited about this show next week.

The only thing is ... I'm almost afraid to review the Vancouver show on the Skanc, 'cause my review is going to look like it was written by a six-year-old who's never heard music before; compared to your masterpiece above.

Thanks for sharing the thoughts, and thanks to HeadyGouda for that BT link. (Hopefully there will be a BT of the Vancouver show, but I don't have the technical capabilities to create one; sot it will have to come from someone else.)

Loved that review!

[Del]

Do you tape StoneMtn?

[secondtube]

the background on the musicians came from metheny's site.

that was the first review i've ever put any time and effort into. rather than bringing the camera, i brought a notepad and pencil.

funniest part was me writing in the dark, then trying to read it later on...

[StoneMtn]

Del:

I used to tape back in the analog days. (As you all know, I'm 95 years old.) I just gave up as technology started to develop beyond me.

The thing is, I have to get back into it. I do have a nomad, and Blane tells me I can download software to use that to tape. I think I'll get my ass in gear and start doing that. I mean, in the next month or two I'm seeing Pat Metheny, Arlo Guthrie, Ravi Shankar and his daughter, GTB, Lotus, and probably others I haven't even planned yet. It's just a waste that I don't get these things recorded; especially considering my pee-brain causes me to forget almost everything I saw at the show within about 12 hours.

If anyone has some tips for me on:

1) What I need (hardware/software) to make my nomad taping compatible; and

2) How to create and upload BT's (so far I don't even know how to download them and have to get my brother to do it for me;

...I encourage you to PM me, and I promise to become a diligent taper.

SecondTube: I know what it's like trying to read your notes from the show the night before. It makes me appreciate the effort my secretaries must go through trying to type out the chicken scratches I scrawl for them at work; and those are done during the day, sober, and with proper lighting!

[hamilton]

Ravi Shankar and his daughter

Norah Jones is playing with her old man? Or is that one of his other daughters?

[Del]

Someone help StoneMtn out please! It'd be nice to hear some of those shows you mentioned, particularly the Ravi show (I'm a big Ravi Shankar fan). Weirdness? bradm? headygouda? I'm no help at all, I've never taped. If you do get some stuff recorded, I can probably help you get started on torrenting some of it, although Esau would know a hell of a lot more than I would. Glad to hear you're thinking about starting up again, the Canadian scene definately needs more tapers!

[Del]

I's a different daughter... Anoushka Shankar I believe?

[StoneMtn]

Ya, Anoushka. I saw the two of them play a couple years ago, and she is definitely the "heir apparent" to her Dad. You actually hallucinate from their music, (and I can tell you it is NOT for the same reason that used to happen to me on Grateful Dead tour) it seems to be just from their playing and what it does to your brain.

I'm bugging my little brother, TODAY, to help me get started on taping again. He lives in Toronto, but hopefully he and I can talk and I'll try to have some gear ready for taping before these shows (although probably not before Pat Metheny next week). I'll worry about converting to BT and uploading after that.

[Del]

I know what you mean about the Shankar's music doing something to you. I have an old show of Ravi's from 1967-06-17 at the Monterey Pop Festival that is absolutely magical. I wish Ravi would come to Ottawa, I'd be all over those tickets...

[headygouda]

Someone else's notes on the show, clip from the yahoogroups pat-metheny2 group:

-----------------------------------

Just arrived home from the Hummingbird Centre and an amazing PMG

show, I would refer people to John Kelman's great review of the

Potsdam, N.Y. show for an idea of what to expect.

(http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=16589)

I will add that "The Way Up" played live is not to be missed. It is

the benchmark by which all future shows will be compared. It is

overwhelming to see all the players contributing to the rich, full

sound and actually look like they are having a blast in the

process.The venue was standing room only (they actually were selling

SRO tickets).

The setlist is similar to previous evenings, excuse me if I get some

titles out of order, but here goes:

1 - This Is Not America - Pat solo intro, then segue right into

2 - The Way Up - Pat Metheny Group followed by standing ovation,

Pat talks

3 - (Go) Get It - Metheny/Sanchez duet

4 - James - Metheny/Rodby/Sanchez trio

5 - Are You Going With Me?- Intro with Pat on Pikasso & Cuong on

trumpet, followed by standing ovation

6 - Lone Jack - Metheny/Mays/Rodby/Sanchez quartet

7 - Roots of Coincidence

8 - Last Train Home

9 - Always and Forever - Metheny/Maret duet

10 - Farmer's Trust - Metheny/Mays duet with Steve on bass at end

11 - The First Circle (Pat Metheny - Lyle Mays)

ENCORE:

12 - (It's Just)Talk

All in all a great evening that lasted just over 2 1/2 hours. "The

Way Up" was about 65 minutes long, not including Pat's solo intro.

Antonio, Steve, Gregoire and Nando came out after the show, but no

Lyle (what else is new?) and strangely no sign of Pat. Staff said he

was in 'a meeting'(?) and cleared the house. But considering that Pat

was on stage and playing his @#$ off all evening, I was not one to

complain. Anyone attending future shows is in for a first class treat.

Enjoy!

David in Toronto

[secondtube]

i'd just like to add how cool it is to be listening to the show not 15 hours after it!

[StoneMtn]

I am really excited about next Friday's show; in no small part due to this thread.

[Booche]

"that was the first review i've ever put any time and effort into."

Tube, that was well done. You should keep at it.