Jazz Articles about Pat Metheny

About Pat Metheny

Multiple Reviews

The Unity Sessions / Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny

by Geno Thackara
May 7, 2016

Pat Metheny The Unity Sessions Nonesuch Records 2016 What's in a name? First there was the Unity Band in 2012; after several years of collaborations, solo work and small ensembles, the ever-restless Pat Metheny decided it was time for a steady quartet of his own again. The following year it was expanded to a quintet with a dozen more instruments added to the sonic palette, spurring the name switch to Unity Group. Eventually, they ...

Album Review

Pat Metheny: The Unity Sessions

Read "The Unity Sessions" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
May 7, 2016

Guitarist/composer Pat Metheny felt the urge to make a more traditional record with a horn plus rhythm section when he assembled what became the Unity Band in 2012. Everyone was having such a great time that they went on to make the KIN album as the Unity Group (Nonesuch, 2014), with the quartet augmented by utility player Giulio Carmassi. Metheny has customarily documented his bands with a live concert film, but this time he made The Unity Sessions in a ...

What is Jazz?

Jazz and Moral Theory: Swinging the Right Way

by Douglas Groothuis
December 7, 2015

Morality matters to all of us. We protest when we are robbed or defrauded. We praise heroes and heroines. We condemn moral monsters. We laud a Mother Teresa and condemn a Ted Bundy. We recognize good and bad habits. We rebuke those who do evil; we praise those who do good. We attempt to honor our conscience and call others to do so. Morality matters to music as well. Consider piracy, contractual obligations, fair compensation for work, plagiarizing ...

Live Review

2015 Detroit Jazz Festival

by C. Andrew Hovan
September 19, 2015

Detroit Jazz Festival Hart Plaza Detroit, Michigan September 4-7, 2015 As the world's largest free jazz festival, Detroit's annual Labor Day offering provides a rewarding, but daunting task for anyone set to hunker down in the Motor City all Labor Day weekend. This year about 60 performances were in the offing spread over four stages during the course of the four-day event. It is obviously just not possible to experience it all. The sooner one ...

Film Review

The Unity Sessions

by Mario Calvitti
September 15, 2015

Pat Metheny The Unity Sessions Eagle Vision 2015 Il progetto della Unity Band è nato nel 2012 per soddisfare il desiderio di Pat Metheny di inserire un sassofonista nel suo gruppo, cosa che non succedeva dai tempi di 80/81 quando i sassofonisti erano addirittura due, Michael Brecker e Dewey Redman. La scelta del partner era caduta su Chris Potter, sicuramente uno dei migliori solisti emersi negli ultimi anni, mentre la sezione ritmica vedeva a ...

Film Review

Pat Metheny: The Unity Sessions

by John Kelman
September 11, 2015

Pat Metheny Unity Group The Unity Sessions Eagle Eye Media 2015 With the release of the The Orchestrion Project (Eagle Eye Media, 2012) DVD/Blu Ray video and associated The Orchestrion Project (Nonesuch, 2013) two-CD set released just over three months later, Pat Metheny changed his approach to the live recordings that have followed almost every major release/tour beginning with Imaginary Day (Warner Bros., 1997) and Imaginary Day Live (Eagle Vision, 2001). Instead of ...

Extended Analysis

Eberhard Weber: Hommage à Eberhard Weber

by John Kelman
September 4, 2015

Despite being waylaid from playing the instrument that defined his approach to both performance and composition by a severe 2007 stroke, Eberhard Weber has managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible feat of continuing to make recordings that revolve around his instantly recognizable, custom-made electro-acoustic instrument: 2013's Resumé and 2015's appropriately titled Encore, both on ECM Records, the label that's been home to the bassist, composer and occasional bandleader since Colours of Chloë (1974), his award-winning leader debut. Now, it's true ...