Pat Metheny's latest record, Day Trip, his first trio record in years, joined here by bassist Christian McBride and drummer Antonio Sanchez, was released late last month and made available in the Nonesuch Store with the two exclusive live bonus tracks. In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, critic David Fricke gives the new record four stars. He writes that Pat "doesn't make enough records in a trio setting" and this one "should not be the last" with McBride and Sanchez. Fricke calls the pair "jazzmen with R&B and rock bones" and cites Day Trip as proof that "Metheny thrives in a trio format." Read the review at rollingstone.com.
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The Trio has been working its way down the California coast, from Napa on February 19 through San Francisco for a four-day residency at Yoshi's last week, down to The Wiltern in Los Angeles for an Oscar-night show, and closing with two shows in San Diego at Anthology tonight and Wednesday.
In the Napa Valley Register review of the town's Opera House show, staff writer Pierce Carson reports that the "all-star trio" played for "a wildly enthusiastic packed house." Carson calls McBride and Sanchez "the most awesome rhythm section in the business" and says of this trio grouping that it "might arguably be the best" Metheny has worked with. "This was an evening of pure jazz," writes Carson, "accessible yet intelligent, complex and swinging---offered by three musicians who obviously understand and like one another." You'll find the review at napavalleyregister.com.
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The Contra Costa Times, out of the Bay Area, found the opening-night show at Yoshi's in San Francisco to be "a real treat." Reviewer Jim Harrington was left in "dumbfounded amazement as Metheny plucked and strummed out a variety of sounds." Harrington lauds Metheny's partners as "certainly one of the best trios he's led." You can read the full review at contracostatimes.com.
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Variety magazine's Richard S. Ginell writes of Pat's performance at Sunday's show at LA's Wiltern Theater: "it was clear he enjoys a good joust with a pair of virtuosos." For Ginell, the set was "as eclectic as ever ... concluding with some shredding guitar-hero rock." To read the review, visit variety.com.
Reviewing the show for the Los Angeles Times, writer Don Heckman calls it "a night to remember." He asks rhetorically whether there is "a harder-working guitarist in jazz than Pat Metheny," referencing the sheer length and variety of the set. Heckman reports that the show was "as athletic as it was imaginative, a muscular display of guitar virtuosity," with the Trio bringing "delectable variations to everything they offered." To read the review, visit calendarlive.com.
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Leading to this week's San Diego shows, the San Diego Union Tribune profiles Sanchez, calling him "one of the most distinctive drummers around---and one of the finest." To read the article, visit signonsandiego.com.
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After the last California set, the Trio makes its way to the Southwest this weekend. The Albuquerque Journal previews the group's upcoming Santa Fe set with an interview with Pat, focusing particularly on the new album's track "Is This America? (Katrina 2005)," the larger impact of the New Orleans floods, and the power of music and jazz in particular to address such important issues. To read the article, visit abqjournal.com.
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For more upcoming tour information, click here. To listen to an interview with Pat on BBC Radio 3's Jazz Line-Up from last Friday, visit bbc.co.uk/radio3; his segment begins about ten minutes into the show.
Click here to add the Day Trip CD plus the free album MP3s, with two exclusive live bonus downloads, directly to your Shopping Cart now for only $15.98.