Results for "Nonesuch Publicity"

by Ian Patterson
April 9, 2014

Nine years after the Pat Metheny Group crowned its mammoth The Way Up (Nonesuch, 2005) tour before 100,000 people at the Montreal Jazz Festival, it seems increasingly unlikely that Metheny will reconvene his main vehicle, not now with a vibrant new group pushing him compositionally and slaying audiences. Or does it? In a 2012 interview with ...

Mehliana - Taming The Dragon

by John Kelman
March 12, 2014

First impressions shouldn't necessarily be the lasting ones. Despite, according to the press sheet, having played together for several years, über-pianist Brad Mehldau and drummer Mark Guiliana only began touring as Mehliana in 2013, and one of the heavily electronic duo's early performances at the 40th Vossa Jazz Festival in Voss, Norway was, sadly, eminently forgettable. ...

Pat Metheny Unity Group: Kin (←→)

by John Kelman
January 28, 2014

Strangely enough, the release of Kin () may be the one that most polarizes longtime fans of guitarist Pat Metheny. There are those who feel that, beginning with 2005's last recording with his then-longstanding Pat Metheny Group, that he'd become too complex, too chops-heavy and too distanced from the accessible music of recordings like Travels (ECM, ...

Joshua Redman: Walking Shadows

by Nenad Georgievski
July 1, 2013

Saxophonist Joshua Redman combines some really attractive virtues: deep jazz knowledge and formidable technique on his instrument. Combine this with a balanced but slightly assertive style that is a prime example of fluency and inventiveness, and you have a musician of such intelligence and energy, who is so adaptable, that he easily finds a way to ...

Pat Metheny: Tap - John Zorn's Book of Angels | Vol. 20

by Nenad Georgievski
June 1, 2013

Literary, anything and everything can and will happen in composer John Zorn's constantly evolving musical world. Within that world, surprise and exploration are an important ingredients, as much as the cross-styling or the plethora of approaches for the different kinds of collaborative compositions he has created for the players involved. This surprising crossed paths of Zorn ...

Tap - John Zorn's Book of Angels | Vol. 20

by John Kelman
May 15, 2013

It's difficult to know what is most surprising about Tap: John Zorn's Book of Angels | Vol. 20. It's the first collaboration between guitarist Pat Metheny and saxophonist/composer/Tzadik label head John Zorn, two musicians who, at least on the surface, couldn't be more different. Of course, those who look beyond Metheny's more listener-friendly Pat Metheny Group ...

Pat Metheny: The Orchestrion Project

by John Kelman
February 5, 2013

With The Orchestrion Project (Eagle Eye Media, 2012), Pat Metheny provided a detailed visual look into the workings of the guitarist's complex, custom-built conglomeration of instruments--triggered by pneumatics, solenoids and computer programs--that took this orchestral successor to the player piano (the first known version being the panharmonicon, in 1805) not just into a new century, but ...

Brad Mehldau Trio: Where Do You Start

by John Kelman
September 11, 2012

Hot on the heels of Brad Mehldau's Ode (Nonesuch, 2012)--the pianist's first all-original set with his current trio--comes Where Do You Start, culled from the same recording sessions but, with the exception of one Mehldau tune, all cover material. This isn't the first time Mehldau has split a particularly fruitful session down the same compositional line: ...

Antonio Sanchez: Doing It All

by Ian Patterson
August 22, 2012

Antonio Sanchez has been guitarist Pat Metheny's first-choice drummer for the past decade. The tremendous finesse, propulsion and extensive vocabulary that Sanchez possesses have illuminated not only Metheny's recordings, but those of heavyweights such as vibraphonist Gary Burton, saxophonist Michael Brecker, and pianists Chick Corea and Danilo Perez. In recent years, Sanchez has been much in ...

Chris Potter: The Personal Stamp

by R.J. DeLuke
August 21, 2012

Chris Potter is one of the most visible saxophonists on the scene in recent years. There are reasons for that. Not only does he have incredible chops, inner drive, intensity and the impulse to always be creative--as if that's not enough--he can fit into any musical situation and find a way to contribute. Coming ...