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Featured Release
Pat Metheny
The Orchestrion Project
Recorded at a church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, The Orchestrion Project showcases the full evolution of the Orchestrion as documented at the tail end of a sprawling 2010 world tour. The two-disc set features all five tunes from Metheny's Orchestrion—“a soaring five-movement suite featuring some of the most intricate music he's ever created" (Boston Globe)—plus eight additional Metheny compositions, which he plays on his phalanx of remarkable, custom-made instruments via solenoid switches and pneumatics. Q gives the album four stars, as does the Observer which calls it "fresh, elegant and surprising." The album, says the Financial Times, "captures the guitarist in inspired form."
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Pat Metheny
Tap: John Zorn’s Book of Angels, Vol. 20
Pat Metheny’s recording of John Zorn’s Tap: The Book of Angels, Vol. 20 from Zorn’s Masada Book Two is the first collaboration between the two artists. Besides his frequent collaborator, drummer Antonio Sanchez, Metheny plays all other instruments—guitars, sitar, tiples, bass, keyboards, orchestrionics, electronics, bandoneón, percussion, flugelhorn, and more—himself. The New York Times calls it "an impressive feat of imagination, and a strikingly clear distillation of both artists’ distinctive languages." All About Jazz says it's "the work of an artist who is doing anything but resting on his considerable laurels and accomplishments." The Independent concludes: "It's all dazzlingly virtuosic and evocative."
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Pat Metheny
The Orchestrion Project
Recorded at a church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, The Orchestrion Project showcases the full evolution of the Orchestrion as documented at the tail end of a sprawling 2010 world tour. The two-disc set features all five tunes from Metheny's Orchestrion—“a soaring five-movement suite featuring some of the most intricate music he's ever created" (Boston Globe)—plus eight additional Metheny compositions, which he plays on his phalanx of remarkable, custom-made instruments via solenoid switches and pneumatics. Q gives the album four stars, as does the Observer which calls it "fresh, elegant and surprising." The album, says the Financial Times, "captures the guitarist in inspired form."
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Pat Metheny
Unity Band
For the first time since his 1980 release 80/81, Metheny has recorded with a band that features tenor saxophone. Unity Band introduces a new Metheny ensemble of the same name with Chris Potter on sax and bass clarinet, longtime collaborator Antonio Sanchez on drums, and the up-and-coming Ben Williams on bass. The album features nine new Metheny compositions, "each one exquisitely performed and uniquely absorbing," says the Observer. All About Jazz says Unity Band is "unequivocally one of Metheny's finest—an album that's sure to find its way to 'best of' lists for 2012." Grammy Award winner for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.
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Jim Hall + Pat Metheny
Jim Hall & Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny's 1999 duo collaboration with Jim Hall, whom Metheny called the "father of modern guitar playing," features 17 tracks reissued for the first time on Nonesuch—original tunes from each guitarist, several improvisations captured in the studio, plus six tunes recorded live in concert, including Gershwin's "Summertime." "The excellence of the playing is the heart of the matter," says the Philadelphia Inquirer. "It's a privilege to listen in." The Los Angeles Times calls it "extraordinary."
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Pat Metheny
What's It All About
What's It All About, Pat Metheny's sequel to his Grammy-winning first solo baritone-guitar effort, One Quiet Night, features classic tunes from songwriters like Paul Simon, Lennon & McCartney, Burt Bacharach, and Henry Mancini. The Boston Herald says: "Metheny’s thoughtful, loving approach elevates every tune he tackles to a realm of beauty."
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Pat Metheny
Orchestrion
“Now,” says Pat Metheny, “ten years into the new century, it feels like time to try to create something particularly connected to the reality of this unique period in time.” What he’s created, Orchestrion, is an adventurous “solo” recording that pairs the composer-guitarist with a phalanx of remarkable, custom-made instruments played via solenoid switches and pneumatics, resulting in what the Guardian calls his "most ambitious experiment" yet.
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Pat Metheny
Day Trip / Tokyo Day Trip (LP+CD)
This three-disc vinyl release combines the 2008 Day Trip studio album and Tokyo Day Trip: Live EP in a three-pocket deluxe package with all the music on two CDs as well. “The trio format brings out the best in guitar virtuoso Pat Metheny," declared the Boston Herald upon the Day Trip CD release, calling this ensemble "arguably his best yet.”
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Pat Metheny
One Quiet Night
Metheny settled into his home studio with a new baritone guitar one November evening in 2001 to experiment with a low "Nashville tuning." The result is this no-overdubs solo set of originals and from-the-heart covers. Downbeat has praised its ”spiritual-like ruminations as well as a relaxed and chiming sense of unadorned, heartfelt beauty.” The CD reissue includes the bonus track "In All We See," written by Metheny.
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Pat Metheny
Question and Answer
This newly remastered version of Metheny's 1989 studio jam with two jazz legends, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Roy Haynes, features standards and Metheny originals. The set, says the Washington Post, "has a wonderfully free and spontaneous air about it."
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Pat Metheny
Upojenie
This first US release of the 2002 European hit offers previously unavailable bonus tracks. The set features evocative Polish singer Anna Maria Jopek reimagining well-known Metheny instrumentals with lyrics and vocals. All About Jazz praised "the intensity and creative spark" of Metheny's playing.