Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Pat Metheny Group: The Way Up

268

Pat Metheny Group: The Way Up

By

View read count
Pat Metheny Group: The Way Up


City traffic noises briefly lead into an inviting, fast introduction. Such is the opening of the Pat Metheny Group's most recent release.



Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays, the original Group's brain trust, have created a 68-minute suite that encapsulates a number of stylistic devices introduced throughout the history of their collaboration. Steve Rodby continues to lay the grounding with his acoustic and electric bass, as well as cello. Trumpeter Cuong Vu and drummer Antonio Sanchez continue where they left off after their debut with the group on its last release. The trumpeter also provides a vocal component without being as pronounced as on Speaking Of Now (Warner, 2002). Harmonica player Grégoire Maret is the newcomer on this recording.



On The Way Up, the Pat Metheny Group starts off on familiar terrain and elaborates musical ideas in different directions by leveraging the talent of the whole group. For example, on "Part One" a fast segment is followed by a release that sounds similar to a piece from Quartet (Geffen, 1996). Within the same part, one can even hear brief references to Steve Reich, reminding the listener of the composer's Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint (Nonesuch, 1990), recorded with the Kronos Quartet and Pat Metheny. True appreciation requires careful listening, perhaps a few times, in order to fully digest and process this whole piece.



The advantage of creating a suite like this is that it allows the musicians to explore their musical ideas without deviating from structure. In fact, this recording does not enter completely different terrain. Fans will not express the same surprise as when they first heard a Cambodian choir on Secret Story (Geffen, 1990). Nevertheless, one will enjoy a rich panoply of sounds and moods within the same extended piece.



Due to the ambitious endeavor of incorporating this whole musical kaleidoscope with Pat Metheny's signature, one sometimes wishes that a favorite snippet could have a more extended part in the suite.



"Part Three" ends as the Opening started, with a light background sound of traffic. For one brief moment, Maret's harmonica mimics the sound of an ambulance in a perfectly seamless way.



For upcoming world tour dates, visit the Pat Metheny Group online.

Track Listing

Opening, Part One, Part Two, Part Three.

Personnel

Pat Metheny
guitar

Pat Metheny: acoustic, electric, synth and slide guitars; Lyle Mays: acoustic piano, keyboards; Steve Rodby: acoustic and electric bass, cello; Cuong Vu: trumpet, voice; Gregoire Maret: harmonica; Antonio Sanchez: drums; Richard Bona: percussion, voice; David Samuels: percussion.

Album information

Title: The Way Up | Year Released: 2005 | Record Label: Nonesuch Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT



Pat Metheny Concerts

Sep 9 Tue
Pat Metheny
Teatro Solis
Montevideo, Uruguay
Sep 11 Thu
Pat Metheny
Teatro Gran Rex
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Sep 12 Fri
Pat Metheny
Teatro Gran Rex
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Sep 18 Thu
Sep 20 Sat
Pat Metheny
Teatro Diana
Guadalajara, Mexico
Sep 22 Mon
Pat Metheny
Sala Nezahualcoyotl
Ciudad de México, Mexico
Oct 1 Wed
Pat Metheny
The Kate
Old Saybrook, CT
Oct 2 Thu
Pat Metheny
The Kate
Old Saybrook, CT

Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.