Pat Metheny - 1983 [1986] "Travels"

 

Travels is the Pat Metheny Group's first live album, released in 1983. It won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance.

The album consists of live material recorded in July, October, and November 1982, in Philadelphia, Dallas, Sacramento, Hartford, and Nacogdoches (Texas). The Group for this album consisted of Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby, Dan Gottlieb, and guest Nana Vasconcelos.

It was voted number 570 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).

Travels was recorded as part of the tour for the Group's 1982 studio album, Offramp, but also featured previously unrecorded and unreleased songs.

In the liner notes for his ECM Rarum compilation album, Metheny expressed great love for the live rendition of "Are You Going with Me?" and appreciated the audience for whom it was played in Philadelphia.

The track "Song for Bilbao", dedicated to audiences in Bilbao, Spain, was often played as an encore.

This is a truly remarkable album for jazz and non-jazz fans alike. Although Metheny's compositions are quite complex, they are immediately accessible. melodic and at times dream-like. This album will quickly draw you in and keep you on the hook from start to finish. As a bonus, this is a very fine pressing with excellent dynamics. I purchased the album originally in vinyl when it first came out not long after I had seen them live at Red Rocks. But since disposing of my vinyl collection years ago, I had forgotten about the album. Thrilled beyond words to have it back. It sounds as tight and fresh and ethereal as I remember it. A must buy for the serious music collection.

Some live albums are distractions and/or are sloppy in comparison to the original, but that is not the case in this wonderful collection. It is so powerful in its delivery, so honest in its presentation, that I sometimes just stop doing everything to listen to its detail, and then, conversely, to its completeness. Every player comes through so keenly - and yet it merges so well.
My personal favorite: The Fields, The Sky. The simple play between Metheny and Mays, the unpretentious presentation, the bass and drums pushing to a climax...it always makes me laugh with glee!
My favorite album to put on when the house is empty and I can rev it up.

Now well into its gliding Brazilian-tinged mode, the Pat Metheny Group hits the road, as this two-CD set catches the band live in Dallas, Philadelphia, Hartford, Sacramento, and Nacogdoches, TX. Percussionist Naná Vasconcelos is still listed as a "special guest," but ever since Wichita Falls, he had not only been a part of the group, he was the transforming element in the Metheny "sound," adding his various shakers, effects and ethereal vocals. Sidekick Lyle Mays gets deeper into floating, glistening synthesizer textures, but he is still able to take formidable and touching solos on acoustic grand piano. Still experimenting with new hardware, Metheny's work on a detuned guitar synthesizer gives the live "As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls" an exotic Balinese-like sound. Other highlights are the hard Brazilian grooves on "Straight On Red" and "Song for Bilbao," as well as the trademark Metheny glide of "Are You Going With Me?" -- and the brief title track has a winning, guileless simplicity much like that of Keith Jarrett in a prayerful mood. If you liked the popular Offramp, you'll fall for Travels, too, but get the former album first.

If you’ve ever desired a Pat Metheny Group greatest hits album, then Travels is for you. Compiled from the group’s touring activities in 1982, this double set is a must-have. From the glittering lotus of melody that is “San Lorenzo” to the even more effusive “Phase Dance,” the requisite classics are all here. We also get a curtailed, though no less epic, version of “As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls,” which here draws out like a long cinematic fade and throws the windows open wide to the band’s boggling sonic purview. And one can hardly help but swoon from the dizzying heights reached by this live version of “Are You Going With Me?” Here the studio version seems but a memory on the path to glory, and finds exuberant life in what is perhaps Metheny’s best solo on record. An absolute affirmation.

Yet the album’s true value comes in the handful of songs exclusive to it. Through these we encounter softer sides of the PMG, each burnished like a different shade of leather. “The Fields, The Sky” is an outstanding place to start. Vasconcelos’s unmistakable berimbau threads a supremely melodious backdrop, while Metheny is at once distant and nearby, winding a slow and organic retrograde around the fiery center within. Vasconcelos is also the voice of “Goodbye,” a forlorn piece of sonic stationery across which Metheny inscribes a most heartbreaking letter toward a ripple of an ending. This pairs nicely with the title track, a laid-back photograph of Americana that is like a rocking chair on the back porch: lulling, and affording an unobstructed vista. Similar strains await us in “Farmer’s Trust,” a slow plunge into an ocean of undriven roads gilded by the whispering of baby birds and the rustling of the leaves that hide them, and in the smoothly paved blacktops of the synth-driven “Extradition” and “Song for Bilbao.” Each of these creeps along like wispy clouds over badlands, spun by keyboardist Lyle Mays into sunset. But it isn’t all drawl, as drummer Dan Gottlieb proves in the invigorating “Straight On Red,” throughout which he provides the perfect springboard for the masterful dialogues of Metheny and Mays.

Track listing:

All tracks are written by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays except where noted.

Disc one:
1.    "Are You Going with Me?"         9:19
2.    "The Fields, the Sky"    Metheny    7:46
3.    "Goodbye"    Metheny    8:16
4.    "Phase Dance"         8:03
5.    "Straight on Red"         7:26
6.    "Farmer's Trust"    Metheny    6:25

Disc two:
1.    "Extradition"    Metheny    5:45
2.    "Goin' Ahead/As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls"         16:22
3.    "Travels"         5:03
4.    "Song for Bilbao"    Metheny    8:28
5.    "San Lorenzo"         13:35

Personnel

    Pat Metheny – acoustic and electric guitars, guitar synthesizer
    Lyle Mays – piano, synthesizers, electric organ, autoharp, Synclavier
    Steve Rodby – acoustic and electric bass, bass synthesizer
    Danny Gottlieb – drums
    Nana Vasconcelos – percussion, voice, berimbau

McCoy Tyner - 2008 "Guitars"

 

Guitars is an album by McCoy Tyner released on his McCoy Tyner Music (a subsidiary of Half Note Records) label in 2008. It was recorded in September 2006 and features performances by Tyner, Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette with guitarists Marc Ribot, John Scofield, Béla Fleck, Derek Trucks, and Bill Frisell. The album also contains a DVD featuring video footage of the studio sessions.

This is McCoy Tyner's second release on his own label, and it is odd, to say the least. Around the fixed trio of the pianist, Ron Carter on drums and Jack DeJohnette on drums, one of today's leading guitarists is added to form a quartet : first Marc Ribot, then John Scofield, Belà Fleck, Steve Trucks and ending with Bill Frisell. All six guitarists are of course stylistically totally different, although they kind of accomodate McCoy here. The end result is at best entertaining, fun to hear, with great musicians showing some of their skills. But it's not great music, just good. The playing is good, the music a little boring. And at times it's even a little pathetic, like when Belà Fleck plays "My Favorite Things" on his banjo. It is all a little bit sad : it lacks musical vision and creativity, and I hate to say this about a musician for whom I've always had the greatest esteem. Yet if you like to hear jazz guitar in its many variations, you might like this, although it adds nothing to these musicians' already vast list of albums. Well, maybe. It's the first time I hear Ribot play in such a conventional jazzy fashion (on "500 Miles").

Ah, but McCoy had one more twist for this one-of-a-kind record: he let the guitarists themselves decide which two or three songs they wanted to play with Tyner’s trio. Tyner was clearly interested in getting his guest six string slingers firmly invested in his project.

These guitarists were also given a lot of lead parts, often being the ones who state the main melody instead of Tyner. So much so, that sometimes Tyner is virtually a sideman on his own record. However, few can play that supporting role as well he does, and his presence is always felt. Perhaps not so coincidentally, Tyner shows a somewhat lighter touch on the piano than what he’s normally known for.

As to each of the collaborations, they’ve all worked out reasonably well, but some better than others. John Scofield previously duet-ed with Tyner on a couple of tracks for Tyner’s otherwise solo piano record Things Ain’t What They Used To Be from 1989.

Scofield chose two classic compositions from Tyner’s sixties period. “Mr. P.C.” is one that is tied to Tyner via his stint with ‘Trane. Scofield does yeoman’s work, even if he sounds a little stiff at first, then loosens up nicely after a while. His other selection is a Tyner standard, “Blues On The Corner,” a great tune, but a it’s pretty pedestrian rendering.

Bela Fleck’s contributions stand out from the others, as expected, simply because he’s playing an instrument foreign to a jazz trio. However, Fleck chose some tunes that provided a good setting for both himself and the pianist. The first two are Fleck’s own compositions “Trade Winds” and “Amberjack,” and the Broadway song made famous by Coltrane, “My Favorite Things.” Both Tyner and Fleck play surprisingly well together, but Dejohnette’s outstanding kit work on the latter two that also got my attention. for his part, Fleck seems much at ease with Tyner and the two blended together their playing effectively.

The Allman Brothers’ Derek Trucks came to the session with Tyner’s “Slapback Blues,” which is a logical choice since Trucks comes to jazz via the blues and Tyner’s own conception of jazz is blues-based. Trucks is clearly in his element and shines on his solo turn. “Greensleeves” is performed in much the same way that “My Favorite Things” is, and Tyner puts in a particularly crisp solo.

Like Bela Fleck, Bill Frisell also came to the proceedings with a couple of his own tunes in hand: The mystical, rhythm-less “Boubacar” and “Baba Drame,” which with it’s extended world music groove evokes Tyner’s excellent early seventies Milestone work. But for the third piece, Frisell, like Scofield, digs up a superb selection from Tyner’s 1967 Blue Noter The Real McCoy, “Contemplation.” And once again, it’s solid but not exceptional. Frisell’s playing is subdued throughout, preferring to play a texturist role than a true lead part.

Bela Fleck notwithstanding, the most successful pairing overall was one I would have least expected: that experimental, John Zorn/Tom Waits kind of guy Marc Ribot. Ribot is more than those things, naturally, but while he suppressed his rough edges for this meeting, he was nonetheless the most creative and nonconformal of the lot.

The traditional piece “500 Miles” is made new again with Ribot’s arrangement, which isn’t too much unlike the way Coltrane might have handled it when Tyner was in his band. Subtly but effectively using pedal effects, Ribot’s guitar is both stinging and soulful. “Passion Dance” is worth listening to just to hear Ribot’s fuzz guitar pair up with Tyner’s forceful left hand. The guitarist’s rock solo sounds a bit out of place, but the backing trio is so muscular, they don’t get overwhelmed like most other acoustic backing units would.

Track listing

All compositions by McCoy Tyner except were indicated

    "Improvisation 2" (Marc Ribot, Tyner) – 1:34
    "Passion Dance" – 6:10
    "500 Miles" (Traditional) – 6:22
    "Mr. P.C." (John Coltrane) – 6:21
    "Blues on the Corner" – 6:07
    "Improvisation 1" (Ribot, Tyner) – 3:46
    "Trade Winds" (Bela Fleck) – 6:35
    "Amberjack" (Fleck) – 4:36
    "My Favorite Things" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers) – 7:01
    "Slapback Blues" – 3:46
    "Greensleeves" (Traditional) – 6:15
    "Contemplation" – 7:55
    "Boubacar" (Bill Frisell) – 2:18
    "Baba Drame" (Boubacar Traoré) – 5:21

Personnel

    McCoy Tyner – piano
    Bill Frisell – guitar (tracks 12, 13 & 14)
    Marc Ribot – guitar (tracks 1, 2, 3 & 6)
    John Scofield – guitar (tracks 4 & 5)
    Derek Trucks – guitar (tracks 10 & 11)
    Béla Fleck – banjo (tracks 7, 8 & 9)
    Ron Carter – double bass
    Jack DeJohnette – drums