Guitarist Pat Metheny’s musical collaborations range from John Zorn to David Bowie and he remains the only person with Grammys in 10 different categories. That edgy eclecticism features on his latest album, a trio recorded live in New York, with James Francies and Marcus Gilmore on keyboards and drums.
The set opens and closes with sonics boosted by multiple layers of synthesised guitars and orchestrion wizardry. In between, rootsy organ jazz sits next to soft-focused fusion, and raucous rock is at one with an Ornette Coleman blues. Metheny, playing with focus and panache, audibly thrives on the energy of his youthful collaborative support.
Metheny’s first forays into orchestrion technology bordered on the bland, but here he mixes the portentous tension of a film score with the energy of a live gig. The 14-minute opener “It Starts When We Disappear” moves from bustle of percussion to laid-back bridge and supports edgy Francies piano and fluent Metheny guitar with a background thrum. In contrast, “Zenith Blue”, the album’s zippy final track, begins with Metheny crying the blues before the orchestrion subtly supports 11 minutes of the trio’s ebb and flow.
The rest of the set looks at Metheny’s past through a contemporary lens. Gilmore’s drumming blends supple swing with hip-hop’s rattle and crack, and Francies, whose credits range from Chris Potter to Questlove, is as adept at old-school virtuosity as he is with the flavours of R&B.
The winsome “Better Days Ahead”, from 1989’s Letter from Home, mixes old styles and new, the up-tempo “Timeline” refreshes the sonics of organ-trio jazz, and Coleman’s “Turnaround”, re-cast as a blues song, delivers rabble-rousing piano and phrase-swapping trades. Elsewhere, Gilmore drums sensitively on the floaty “Sirabhorn”, complements Metheny’s guttural rock power on “Lodger” and adds urgency to “Bright Size Life”.
Last month, Metheny launched an extensive world tour of the project; he is due at London’s Apollo on June 12 next year. Mark it down as a gig not to be missed.
★★★★☆
‘Side-Eye NYC (V1. IV)’ is released by BMG Modern Recordings