Thursday, March 6, 2008

Now's the Time: Pat Metheny


Pat Metheny's trio performs tonight in Lee's Summit. The concert is sold out; the event's principals in the Metheny Music Foundation strongly discourage ticketless fans from showing up. Here's Joe Klopus' preview.

This video features the current lineup. Here are a few things I love about it:

*It's more King Crimson than Wes Montgomery
*Pat seems to be channeling Miles Davis
*Christian McBride's fat bass sound and imaginative supportive playing
*The complete disregard of sartorial matters
*The immaculate drumming of Antonio Sanchez
*The quiet tension of the last two minutes

4 comments:

the unthinking lemming said...

Hope you made the Untiy Village concert. It was worth $35 just to witness Antonio Sanchez's solo on Lone Jack.

Happy In Bag said...

I didn't make the show, UL. I was at the Uptown instead. I'd love to hear more- what was the audience like? How long did they play? Was there a lot of talk about the foundation? Did Mike join the trio, etc.

the unthinking lemming said...

A mini review...

I arrived the Unity Village Activities Center as the hall was filling up. Most of the 1,100 seats were already occupied by a testament to Pat's musical appeal, schoolboys to octogenarians. (Alright, the schoolboys were Pat's two young children and the octogenarians were his parents, Dave and Lois Metheny.)

The event began with the Lee's Summit R-7 All-Star Marching Band which proceeded to perform a medley of Pat Metheny tunes arranged by Mike Metheny. This was followed by a short video presentation providing an historic overview of a century of civic involvement by the Metheny family in Lee's Summit and Unity Village.

The Foundation was certainly mentioned noting its mission and such, nothing more expansive than what you can learn from the Foundation's website.

Pat took a seat on the stage to perform a number of solo numbers cycling through a number of guitars including his Pikasso for 'Into the Dream'. In typical Metheny fashion, the tunes come back to back with only enough pause for his tech to swap out the guitars. Such was the transition to the trio format. Out goes the chair. In come Antonio Sanchez and Christian McBride. Fresh guitar in hand. On with the show.

The trio portion of the concert was heavy with the material from their latest release, Day Trip. Although, as I mentioned, the highlight was the duplet of Unity Village/Lone Jack. Both Sanchez and McBride demonstrated awsome technique. Sanchez in particular was well received by the audience but I was taken aback more than once by something Christian would play. Two finer young musicians you would be hard pressed to find.

Mike Metheny joined the trio for a Flugle ballad and then a rowdy romp on EVI. With an encore the entire thing was just over 2 hours.

Happy In Bag said...

Thanks, UL! That's invaluable.