The Album Review Club - End of Round #9 Break (page 1904)

Bill Walker said:
Pat Metheny - From This Place. 2020

OK, a change of genre for this week. I'm not expecting to be high on the leader board with this :)
I was always a Rock fan as a young guy but started wanting something else when I got into my 50's. Feeling a bit bored with Rock, I tried classical and although I like it, it didn't give me the same thrill and excitement as Rock. Then I started reading about Jazz musicians, in particular the Sax genius John Coltrane and got very interested.
Maybe the Jazz leanings of one of my favourite bands, King Crimson had an influence also.
These guys lived a strange kind of life, most got addicted to drugs/Heroin and many died young. (Like John Coltrane).
They suffered racism in NY in the 50's (especially from cops) but they dedicated their lives to their art.

I bought "Kind Of Blue" a seminal Jazz album from 1959, John with Miles Davies, loved it and played it to death, then I got into Weather Report, etc etc.
Anyway long story short I'm a big fan of Jazz and it's given me a whole lot of pleasure over the last 15 or so years.
It's a very interesting subject to learn about and quite challenging, but there is beauty in the music these guys dedicate their lives too. And many of them are not rich in terms of money, it's hard to scrape a living as a Jazz musician.
I thought I would choose a more modern Jazz album rather that an old one in that it may be more accessible to Rock fans.

Like many types of music Jazz has evolved. It's not 3 guys with brass and a drummer (although it still can be). The genre has opened up into different versions (like Rock) This album is leaning towards Jazz fusion although Pat's style of playing smacks him firmly into Jazz.
He's been a top player for many years (he's now 67) and toured and recorded with people like Joni Mitchell. He's made a couple of albums with Bassist Jaco Pastorius before Jaco's demise, he's played with many top rated Jazz musicians and for the last few years he's had The Pat Metheny Band, same line up, his long-time drummer, Antonio Sanchez, Malaysian / Australian bassist Linda May Han Oh, and British pianist Gwilym Simcock. The Hollywood Studio Symphony is conducted by Joel McNeely. Also, special guest Meshell Ndegeocello (vocals), Gregoire Maret (harmonica), and Luis Conte (percussion)

These are all virtuoso standard musicians. This album was recorded live in a studio. The band were only given the written music when they entered the studio.
The real stars are players in the quartet. Simcock contributes a bunch of outstanding solos. Oh’s contributions are melodic and presented with a beautiful tone and accurate intonation. Sánchez is one of those drummers who approaches the kit as an orchestra unto itself, and is endlessly inventive.

Never one to take the easy or expected path, Pat Metheny goes for three firsts on From This Place: the first recording of the quartet he’s led since 2015, his first “with strings” album, and the band’s first encounter with the guitarist’s 10 new compositions. (The Hollywood Studio Symphony was dubbed in later.) It’s an album, in short, with multiple ambitions—so many that it can’t quite decide what it wants to be.
I'm not going to write about individual tracks as it would be too long.

I hope you will find something you like on this album. There is beautiful singing as well as playing.
Maybe it will open a Jazz door for you, or maybe not :)

The title track.




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That’s a super write up Bill. I have dabbled with Jazz from a pretty young age although I’m not quite sure what fits under a jazz label. My Dad was a huge fan of the classical jazz pianists like Oscar Peterson, Errol Garner and Art Tatum so I have listened to them a good bit. Is the composer Gershwin jazz or classical? I also have a pretty large Diana Krall collection and have seen her at the Albert Hall a couple of times. I suppose she would be classed as pretty commercial albeit she is a hell of a pianist. Like you, one of my favourite album of all time is ‘Kind of Blue’. I was even considering it as a future pick.
will look forward to listening to this.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
That’s a super write up Bill. I have dabbled with Jazz from a pretty young age although I’m not quite sure what fits under a jazz label. My Dad was a huge fan of the classical jazz pianists like Oscar Peterson, Errol Garner and Art Tatum so I have listened to them a good bit. Is the composer Gershwin jazz or classical? I also have a pretty large Diana Krall collection and have seen her at the Albert Hall a couple of times. I suppose she would be classed as pretty commercial albeit she is a hell of a pianist. Like you, one of my favourite album of all time is ‘Kind of Blue’. I was even considering it as a future pick.
will look forward to listening to this.
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Thanks mate..

Gershwin was a very talented composer, he did both.
Diana Krall is Jazz as far as I'm concerned. She is a great pianist.
 
No point in further listening.Not for me.Jazz will never be my thing.
I think it would be unfair of me to score as I had a feeling this would happen.
Cracking pick though,this is what this thread is all about.
 
I did buy a Pat Metheny album once; it's ok but never enticed me into digging further, which was a disappointment.

I'm not a jazz fan but I do have a few dozen fusion / jazz rock albums; not surprisingly, I like the rockier end or more aggressive end of the spectrum.

I've played From This Place three times now and my initial impression hasn't changed: it's high quality musical wallpaper, which is not a bad thing: you can put it on and have it playing away and get on with something else, occassionally noticing something impressive in the playing. Not much jumps out though as a distinctive or particularly memorable, which apparently was one of the attractions of PM until he got overly intricate, or something.

This album is clearly more accessible. At its best, it sounds like it should be the soundtrack to something; that's especially true of the best track, the opener, America Undefined and its dark dramatic heavily orchestrated last few minutes.

I might buy this album if I can ever find it at a low price and I may finally get round to investigating some of his other (probably earlier) releases but as it's not a must buy, 6/10 seems appropriate.
 
From This Place – Pat Metheny

“Cool. Jazz. Great”, said my wife as she walked in on me playing this. She was, of course, mimicking the Fast Show parody presenter played by John Thompson and already highlighted by Mancitydoogle.

I was looking forward to listening to this, but after three passes through the album, I’m leaving disappointed.

Pat Metheny features prominently on Bruce Hornsby’s 1995 album, Hot House. Whilst not Bruce’s best, this is typical of his excellent 90s output in which he writes brilliant songs, plays some memorable melodies and counter-melodies, and guests such as Metheny pop up to provide some colour on the guitar, piano or some other instrument of their choice.

Listening to From This Place, I felt like I was waiting far too long for the memorable bits to pop up, and to my ears, they are few and far between anyway. @OB1 has already nailed it for me when he says that it is good background music where you occasionally notice something impressive in the playing.

When we reviewed Hejira by Joni Mitchell, I mentioned something about “repetitive grooves” – the same can certainly be said for this album. The playing is technical wonderful, but a lot of the time, it’s just not that interesting. Unlike the Joni Mitchell album, which had two or three strong songs, I don’t think there’s anything on offer here that I could say that about – and the album’s running time itself is a lot longer.

I always say that I love to listen to instrumental parts in songs, but I’m generally talking about the two or three-minute passages at the end of a six- or seven-minute song. Whilst I can see the attraction of this album for somebody like @Bill Walker, and I can imagine him hunched over his guitar trying to join in playing note-for-note, I don’t get the same out of it.

Don’t get me wrong, I applaud the skill on show, and I’d much rather listen to this than some punk trash, but I’m afraid it’s not for me. 6/10.

EDIT: Just checked and Pat Metheny also played on Hornsby's Harbor Lights album as well.
 
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All,

A quick straw poll: as this is the last album of round #3, and I’m off to Spain this weekend, I was thinking of having a 2-week break before we kick off the next round.

However, if people want to go straight onto round #4, it will be my next nomination running over 2 weeks.

What we do will be based on any feedback in the next 24 hours.

Thanks.
 
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