Pat Metheny Side-Eye – NYC (V1-IV)

September 10, 2021

Pat Metheny

Side-Eye – NYC (V1-IV)

Modern Recordings

No ‘jazz’ musician except Chick Corea has amassed more Grammy awards than Pat Metheny but the use of quote marks around jazz indicates that both for Corea and Metheny, some of these awards were due to projects in other genres besides jazz. Our greatest artists are both consistent and unpredictable. No one is quite sure what Metheny will take on next, and that is part of his compelling, enduring, appeal. Consider that Metheny is the only musician to have won twelve of his twenty Grammy awards in twelve different categories. His recent recording, Road To The Sun, garnered attention in the classical music world for its intricate chamber music compositions. At the same time, its immediate predecessor From This Place was Downbeat magazine’s Jazz Record of the Year as an expansive and timeless large-scale work.

Pat Metheny Side-Eye- NYC is a new trio platform for the guitarist, featuring both new music and creative re-workings of Metheny classics, all recorded in front of a live audience at Sony Hall in NYC. Metheny hopes that it might become a rotating group of musicians who could come and go in different combinations. So far, there have been four iterations, hence the V.1-IV sub-heading on the record. Metheny is tapping into this next generation of players that includes folks like Immanuel Wilkins, Joel Ross, Derrick Hodge, Marcus Gilmore, James Francies, and others. The latter two are part of this recording. Metheny explains, “…About every ten or twelve years, there seems to be a crop of players coming along who find a certain resonance with whatever it is that my thing seems to represent to them. The last time that happened was the Josh Redman, Christian McBride, Brad Mehldau, Antonio Sanchez generation, and it seems to be happening again now.”

Interestingly, drummer Eric Harland, who plays in Chris Potter’s Circuits trio with Francies, suggested the young keyboard whiz to Metheny. When Metheny suggested they get a bass player, Harland said none was needed with Francies. Potter’s trio doesn’t have one. Francies is noted for his rapid runs, inventive use of textures, complete command of and ability to play multiple keyboards, both acoustic and electric, simultaneously (i.e. “Bright Sized Life”). This writer witnessed Francies at work in Newport, both with Potter’s trio and, for the first time, with Christian McBride in an electric, turntablist driven group called Christina McBride Situation. And, by all means check out Francies’ Blue Note debut as a leader, Purest Form, that dropped in May. Suffice to say that Harland offered a strong recommendation. Despite the generation gap, Metheny and Francies have such similar sensibilities, that they match perfectly.

After some sessions with Harland, Metheny turned his attention to some of the new drummers making a ‘buzz’ on the scene, among them Philly drummer Anwar Marshall who works often with Orrin Evans and is featured on the new Jazzmeia Horn big band project, Dear Love, that also drops this week. After that it was Nate Smith, who also has his own album, Kinfolk 2 – See the Birds, issuing next week. That’s a round about way to getting to Marcus Gilmore, grandson of the living legend Roy Haynes, for this outing. NOLA drummer Joe Dyson, who works with Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, will be on tour with the group this Fall.

Metheny says, “In recent years, with the newer kinds of musicians that are around these days, it is more likely that I can put together groups of musicians where nothing is mutually exclusive to anything else, The kinds of players that will fit into the profile of the Side-Eye thing will certainly have to have that kind of range. The constant factor for me as a leader from the beginning, regardless of who I invite along the way, is to draw on the strengths of the players I have with me at the time and to encourage everyone to do their best.”

There is over a half our of new music on this recording, beginning with the opening nearly fourteen-minute composition called “It Starts When We Disappear”, like many Metheny pieces explorative beyond the simple head/solo/head format and featuring stunning solos from both Metheny and Francies. One will quickly grasp that this configuration is much like the classic organ trio upon which Metheny comments, “At its core, this is a kind of “organ trio”; but an organ-trio for the 21st century. James has the capacity to play bass lines with his left hand that rivals the great Jack McDuff, my favorite “bass player” of all the classic organ guys. But additionally, I can play bass from guitar now too. I wanted to push the whole idea of a keyboard/guitar/drums trio. I was interested to see what would happen if I got some of my orchestrionic instruments involved too, a whole other dimension of challenge to add to the equation. Those instruments are featured on the opening and closing tracks.” {closing track is “Zenith Blue.”}

Following the opener, Metheny then completely transforms his own “Better Days Ahead that dates back to 1981 or 82 but was first recorded in 1989 with the Pat Metheny Group on Letter From Home. Riding Gilmore’s groove and Francies’ blues and gospel roots, Metheny turned the sunny Brazilian inspired melody into a dark, smoky, R&B backbeat that puts a new spin on his signature lyrical delivery.

Surely, the “organ-trio for the 21^st century” is at the heart of the record but the trio honors original tradition with “Timeline,” a piece he had never performed before that was written for a Michael Brecker album that featured both Metheny and the great drummer, Elvin Jones. “Lodger” is another piece that has not appeared since his recording of John Zorn’s TAP, or maybe even going back to The Roots of Coincidence and it finds Metheny in full rock mode. The piece is dedicated to and inspired by his friend and one of his favorite guitar players, Adam Rogers, and features heavy organ contributions from Francies. Both Metheny and Francies are so versatile with electronic effects, sometimes it’s difficult to identify who is leading the melody. “Lodger” just keeps swelling and building until it recedes peacefully at the close. “Sirabhorn” is an abstract blues while Ornette Coleman’s “Turnaround” straddles the line between traditional and more contemporary organ trio fare.

The Side-Eye series is the latest chapter in Metheny’s nearly approaching five decades career. His new sidekicks are keeping him invigorated.

Jim Hynes

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