COMPOSERS: Pat Metheny
LABELS: Nonesuch
PERFORMER: Pat Metheny (gt)
CATALOGUE NO: ECM 273 6987
Pat Metheny’s substantial fanbase is divided between those that adore him for his sweet, sentimental way and others that admire his technical virtuosity. Laymen and players alike will love this personal solo album from their personable hero. The set, recorded at night in his New York apartment, comprises ten pop songs in the charts during his formative years.
Using a sonorous baritone guitar with heavy bass strings, he lovingly caresses tunes such as Bacharach’s ‘Alfie’ and Paul Simon’s ‘The Sound Of Silence’, revelling in their delicious melodic and harmonic invention. Don’t be put off by the non-jazz set list. Metheny transforms what on face value could be a somewhat soporific outing into an absorbing exploration. Musos will want to know that Metheny uses unconventional tuning learned from an old teacher back home in Missouri. Non-musos will simply sit back and soak up the lovingly rendered nostalgia trip. Garry Booth