Pat Metheny - 1992 "Secret Story"

Secret Story is an album by Pat Metheny released in 1992. that won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album in 1993. All of the music is composed by Metheny (shared credit on one track), and it is one of his most ambitious and successful studio ventures, integrating elements of jazz, rock, and world music. On the performing side, it includes collaborations with the Pinpeat Orchestra of the Royal ballet of Cambodia, the London Orchestra and its conductor Jeremy Lubbock, the Choir of the Cambodian Royal Palace, Toots Thielemans, and Lyle Mays.

The opening song, "Above the Treetops", is an adaptation of a Cambodian spiritual song; other pieces, such as "Antonia", take influence from Eastern Europe. Japanese pianist and singer Akiko Yano appears on "As a Flower Blossoms", earning the only co-writing credit on the album. Yano had previously collaborated with Metheny on "Good Girl", "Lots of Love", and "Love Life", from her 1991 album Love Life, and on two Metheny covers: "'It's for You'" on Welcome Back (1989) (which also featured Metheny performing on two additional songs) and "Praise" on Super Folk Song (1992). Orchestral arrangements for the album were conducted by Jeremy Lubbock.

“The New York Times called Pat Metheny’s 1992 Grammy Award-winning Secret Story the most sweepingly ambitious album that the jazz guitarist has yet recorded...a nearly 80-minute world-music suite with symphonic underpinnings. If the album functioned then, in the words of critic Stephen Holden, as part travelogue and part soundtrack for a nonexistent film, then this expanded and re-mastered edition can best be described as the director’s cut. Composer and guitarist Metheny revisited and restored five previously unreleased tracks in the studio over the last year, and he’s collected them on a bonus disc. More pastoral in tone than most of the original material on Secret Story and with a decidedly cinematic, orchestral feel these tracks are like the deleted scenes from a deeply evocative yet wordless narrative feature. Back in ’92, Metheny declared that Secret Story was unlike anything I’ve ever done. It’s the largest in scope – 80 people were involved in the record – but it’s also the most intimate record I’ve done.”

Metheny took Secret Story on a concert tour, and a video recording of a live performance at New Brunswick, New Jersey, was issued. This film, also called Secret Story, was re-released on DVD in 2001.

The album was certified gold by the RIAA on December 1, 1995

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Track listing

All tracks are written by Pat Metheny except where noted.

01.    "Above the Treetops"    2:43
02.    "Facing West"    6:05
03.    "Cathedral in a Suitcase"    4:52
04.    "Finding and Believing"    10:00
05.    "The Longest Summer"    6:34
06.    "Sunlight"    3:53
07.    "Rain River"    7:09
08.    "Always and Forever"    5:26
09.    "See the World"    4:48
10.    "As a Flower Blossoms (I Am Running to You)" (Pat Metheny/Akiko Yano)    1:53
11.    "Antonia"    6:11
12.    "The Truth Will Always Be"    9:15
13.    "Tell Her You Saw Me"    5:11
14.    "Not to Be Forgotten (Our Final Hour)"    2:22

Personnel

    Pat Metheny – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards
    Ryan Kisor – trumpet, flugelhorn (track 9)
    Mike Metheny – trumpet, flugelhorn (track 9)
    Michael Mossman – trumpet, flugelhorn (track 9)
    Dave Bargeron – trombone, tuba (track 9)
    Tom Malone – trombone (track 9)
    Dave Taylor – bass trombone (track 9)
    John Clark – French horn (track 9)
    Andy Findon – flute (track 7)
    Toots Thielemans – harmonica (tracks 8 and 11)
    Lyle Mays – piano, keyboard (tracks 2 and 6)
    Gil Goldstein – accordion (tracks 4, 7, and 9)
    Skaila Kanga – harp (track 13)
    Charlie Haden – double bass (tracks 1 and 8)
    Steve Rodby – double bass, bass guitar (tracks 4-7, 9, and 11)
    Will Lee – bass guitar (tracks 4, 6, and 12)
    Anthony Jackson – contrabass guitar (track 9)
    Steve Ferrone – drums (tracks 3–5 and 12)
    Sammy Merendino – drums (track 6)
    Paul Wertico – drums (tracks 4–5, 7–9, and 11)
    Danny Gottlieb – cymbal roll, percussion (tracks 3 and 11)
    Armando Marçal – percussion (tracks 1–7, 9, and 12)
    Naná Vasconcelos – percussion (tracks 1, 4–5, and 10–12)
    Mark Ledford – vocals (tracks 3 and 4)
    Akiko Yano – vocals (track 10)