As I said in an earlier but still very recent post, I’ve been aware of Metheny since my mid to late teens. But it’s only now, aged 49, that I’m having an epiphany, as his music finally enters my heart. Perhaps I just hadn’t heard the right stuff, or maybe I wasn’t ‘ready’?
Anyway, just over the last week I’ve been bathing in the goodness that is this album, and American Garage, it’s follow up, and New Chautauqua. I already had Bright Size Life (for quite some time), with Jaco and Bob Moses, but that’s quite different.
PMG, American Garage and New Chautauqua are all 1978-9, and share a very particular vibe. A vibe I find I totally adore. There is not one duff track on all of these three albums. In fact, it’s all amazing. Even individual pieces frequently contain an almost overwhelming range of mood and expression.
One reason the good ship Metheny hadn’t docked in my heart till now was the fact I wasn’t so keen on some of his later stuff, some of it with Mays, whose keys/synths sounds weren’t always to my tastes. I love that Mays favours piano a lot on this disc.
As I type this Lone Jack, the final track is playing. It’s a blisteringly uptempo number, mixing jazz and a Latin samba-esque feel, but with flashes of jazz-rock, and even lighter more mellow interludes. As I said earlier, even with individual numbers the scope is astonishing.
Casting my mind back, I could rhapsodise about every single track. It’s all totally top drawer. Beautiful compositions, played by masters, and recorded with a crisp icily warm clarity. Opener San Lorenzo, like the final track is an embarrassment of riches. And sandwiched between these two monsters of musical drama and feeling, is naught but magic.
What an album. Ten stars wouldn’t be enough. Can’t recommended it highly enough.