After nearly 40 recordings under his own name, this is the first Pat Metheny album where there is not a single Metheny composition represented. But far from being a “covers" album, this a personal view of ten classic songs, some very well known, some less so, filtered through the harmonic and melodic ideology of a modern master with a most individual approach.
“Each tune has a real meaning to me musically. Of course, I am aware of the lyrics, but my focus is really on the actual notes and harmonies that make these pieces interesting to me as a musician. It is mostly about the way the chords move or the kind of feeling that I loved about the melody. But in some cases, the totality of songs themselves are so deeply mixed into the culture at large and affected how I wound up being the musician that I ultimately have become so deeply that it is hard for me to really unravel what the meaning of it all actually is. It is fairly abstract to me, and when I listen to these performances back, there are a lot of different dimensions at work there. I am not even sure I can trace all of them."
“Each tune has a real meaning to me musically. Of course, I am aware of the lyrics, but my focus is really on the actual notes and harmonies that make these pieces interesting to me as a musician. It is mostly about the way the chords move or the kind of feeling that I loved about the melody. But in some cases, the totality of songs themselves are so deeply mixed into the culture at large and affected how I wound up being the musician that I ultimately have become so deeply that it is hard for me to really unravel what the meaning of it all actually is. It is fairly abstract to me, and when I listen to these performances back, there are a lot of different dimensions at work there. I am not even sure I can trace all of them."
