Pat Metheny

I submitted the following review to the Washington City Paper about three weeks ago. I haven't heard from them since, so I am posting it here on the assumption that if they haven't run it by now, they won't.

***

Pat Metheny Trio, Day Trip
(Nonesuch Records, 2008)

Pat Metheny: acoustic and electric guitars, guitar synthesizer
Christian McBride: bass
Antonio Sanchez: drums

Longevity is the measure of creativity. The question is not only “what can you do?” but “how long can you sustain it?” and it is the answer to the latter that we tend to use when crowning a great artist. By that standard, Pat Metheny has done better than most. Since arriving on the scene in the mid-1970s, with a minimum of missteps he managed to evolve enough from one recording to the next to avoid boring his listeners while remaining instantly recognizable. While we know Metheny mostly for his distinctive flavor of light, worldly fusion, a big part of what enables him to stay relevant is a steady diet of side projects, both as a leader and as a sideman, and the backbone of those has been his various acoustic trios, the latest of which, with Christian McBride on bass and Antonio Sanchez on drums, has just released its debut Day Trip on Nonesuch.

Day Trip is at least as diverse as its predecessors in its choice of raw materials, perhaps more so. The fast, angular rubato of “Let’s Move” recalls Metheny’s early days of enthusiasm for Ornette Coleman, the soulful backbeat of “Calvin’s Keys” grooves and sizzles, and on the cool swagger of “When We Were Free” Metheny’s playing is bluesier than anything he has recorded in recent memory. For those who prefer something a little less intense, the lilting bossa-nova of “Snova” and the vaguely melancholy chord changes of “At Last You’re Here” find Metheny playing attractive, wistful, restrained solos, and the acoustic “Dreaming Trees” brings to mind the best of his early Pat Metheny Group mood pieces, in feel if not in actual sound.

As good as most of the guitar playing on Day Trip is, Metheny deserves at least as much, if not more, credit for consistently finding musicians for his trios with an amazing ability to integrate with both his artistic vision and his sound, and inspiring them to perform not only at the peak of their own prowess, but also with an intense sensitivity to others around them. Christian McBride, almost as much of a veteran as Metheny himself, is astonishing. In the best tradition of modern bassists, his harmonic thinking is advanced but always in the spirit of the tune, much like Metheny’s own. When comping, he stays out of the spotlight, but remains consistently engaging. A true accompanist, he enriches the leader’s playing without overshadowing it. He solos frequently but never gratuitously, and always employs his prodigious technique in the service of music. The younger Sanchez, who first appeared on Metheny’s Speaking of Now in 2003, is just as impressive. He is more self-effacing, taking only two short solos, but gives the record a spine without which it would be an aimless mess. Of previous Metheny trio drummers, he is closest to Bill Stewart – less edgy than Roy Haynes and more modern than Billy Higgins, he fills more space than either, but always organically.

The album is the first Metheny trio record to feature nothing but his original compositions, and one gets a sense that perhaps he has overextended himself just a bit. Usually an inspired songwriter and a tasteful arranger, Metheny is not above recycling himself: “Is This America?,” written in honor of the victims of hurricane Katrina, is a dead ringer for his “Travels,” most recently recorded in 2000 with his last trio. The most grievous offense to these ears, however, is his old guitar synthesizer, first used in an acoustic context on 1984’s Rejoicing. He dusts it off for two tracks on Day Trip. Never particularly pleasant and out of technological necessity one-dimensional, a quarter century ago the synth’s tone could at least have been said to push the envelope and make an attempt at something genuinely new in an essentially ossified sonic world. Today, it is simply irritating.

Day Trip is a solid recording, recommended with very few reservations, but one can’t help wondering whether after thirty-plus years of incessant music making, Metheny is finally starting to run out of steam. Each of his previous trio records had a distinctive sound and feel, different from anything he has done before, and dedicated fans could look forward to having their long waits rewarded with something almost ground-breaking. Day Trip, on the other hand, while competently written and expertly played, echoes Trio 99-00 of eight years ago readily, perhaps a little too readily. In the trio context at least, Metheny has spoiled us with decades of unrelenting originality, and it would be a shame to see him stuck in a rut at a time when jazz needs every original voice it can get.