What are you listening to? (VOL VI)

On black

On black

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:
One of his lesser known Group albums.

I haven't heard this one. How would you rank Pat's work? i.e. which are your favourites? Interestingly, I had 'We Live Here' for years gathering dust in my rack, having found it relatively uninspiring at first. I played it again the other day and thoroughly enjoyed it. Weird, but I guess it's just a measure of how our tastes change (mature?) over time.

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:
Probably my favorite Jazz piece that I own.






Dean..

I sometimes wonder whether this is really jazz? It gets called jazz but I am not so sure it is.

I would call it Jazz because I couldn't fit it into any other category really, though I'm not that familiar with all that is Jazz so my observation might be wrong.



Dean..

Now I definitely know what genre of music this is, its Cold Wave/New Wave/New Beat/Electro Funk/Synth Pop/Goth/Industrial ...... Oh! sod it, its got analogue synthesisers on it.






Dean...

From a fellow inmate north of the border, grateful thanks.

Joe

In Search of Amelia Earhart - Plainsong


.

Darren Hayes "This Delicate Thing We've Made"
disc 1

quote:

Originally posted by DIB:


In Search of Amelia Earhart - Plainsong


.

Haven't played this one in a while.

quote:

Originally posted by Clive Blackman:

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:
One of his lesser known Group albums.

I haven't heard this one. How would you rank Pat's work? i.e. which are your favourites? Interestingly, I had 'We Live Here' for years gathering dust in my rack, having found it relatively uninspiring at first. I played it again the other day and thoroughly enjoyed it. Weird, but I guess it's just a measure of how our tastes change (mature?) over time.

Clive,

It’s a good question as the man has done so many excellent albums and lots of different styles. As I said earlier Still Life (Talking) was the beginning of Pat and Jazz for me so that would be my favourite (along with one at the bottom of this writeup).

The list below shows my faves

Still Life (Talking) – my first PMG album
As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls – beautiful atmospheric duet album with Lyle Mays
Travels – the Group captured live on top form in their ECM days
First Circle – Pat’s favourite Group album and apart from the first track it is beautiful
Offramp – a breakthrough album for Metheny with some real classic tracks
80/81 – some real jazz and some real classic tunes with a great line up
Song X (when in the right mood) – with Ornette Coleman – buy the 20th Anniversary edition with all the extras which are as good as the original tracks
Secret Story – very orchestral. A favourite of the wife.
Trio Live – superb live Trio album.
We Live Here – just an album that we used to play a lot in the good old days before kids – good memories
Rejoicing – lovely acoustic guitar with Haden/Higgins
The Road To You – live in Europe and the version of First Circle on here is my favourite Metheny track

The Quartet album I played has some very fine moments but is not as consistent for me as some of his other albums. I like We Live Here – his most poppy outing but it is always very summery to me.

The list leaves a lot of good and classic albums out such as Bright Size Life, Watercolours, PMG, One Quiet Night, New Chautauqua, The Way Up, Quartet, Letter From Home , Speaking of Now, Tokyo Day Trip and Imaginary Day – all of these albums are excellent and on another day could be up there for me.

But my favourite album of his is an ECM compilation that is only available second hand now called Works. It somehow just works so well and is very melodic and right with the choice of tracks and gets played a lot.



PS – also worth checking out Upojenie with Anna Maria Jopek for a nice Polish vocal take on Metheny’s work and Pat plays along on the album.

I think I misunderestimated (!) this album when it came out, but it's sounding mighty fine right now.

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:
Probably my favorite Jazz piece that I own.






Dean..

I sometimes wonder whether this is really jazz? It gets called jazz but I am not so sure it is.

Snap out of it Adrian, you're starting to sound like Mike Eschman!

quote:

Originally posted by droodzilla:


I think I misunderestimated (!) this album when it came out, but it's sounding mighty fine right now.

I have done as well - did not grab me at first. But having seen them together live the other week doing some duo stuff as well as quartet, it was brilliant. I need to give the album another listen.

quote:

Originally posted by droodzilla:

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:
Probably my favorite Jazz piece that I own.






Dean..

I sometimes wonder whether this is really jazz? It gets called jazz but I am not so sure it is.

Snap out of it Adrian, you're starting to sound like Mike Eschman!

quote:

ewemon,

I was guessing that you probably had a play list set on random on your iPod.

You definitely covering a lot of musical ground. I am just the opposite; letting everything play through and even in the car I quite often listen to a disc twice before I switch over. It is my way to relax and familiarize myself better with the music.

Regards,
Haim

My approach too, Haim - though sometimes it's a matter of being too comfortable (or lazy) to change the CD!

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

The list below shows my faves

Still Life (Talking) – my first PMG album
As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls – beautiful atmospheric duet album with Lyle Mays
Travels – the Group captured live on top form in their ECM days
First Circle – Pat’s favourite Group album and apart from the first track it is beautiful
Offramp – a breakthrough album for Metheny with some real classic tracks
80/81 – some real jazz and some real classic tunes with a great line up
Song X (when in the right mood) – with Ornette Coleman – buy the 20th Anniversary edition with all the extras which are as good as the original tracks
Secret Story – very orchestral. A favourite of the wife.
Trio Live – superb live Trio album.
We Live Here – just an album that we used to play a lot in the good old days before kids – good memories
Rejoicing – lovely acoustic guitar with Haden/Higgins
The Road To You – live in Europe and the version of First Circle on here is my favourite Metheny track

The Quartet album I played has some very fine moments but is not as consistent for me as some of his other albums. I like We Live Here – his most poppy outing but it is always very summery to me.

The list leaves a lot of good and classic albums out such as Bright Size Life, Watercolours, PMG, One Quiet Night, New Chautauqua, The Way Up, Quartet, Letter From Home , Speaking of Now, Tokyo Day Trip and Imaginary Day – all of these albums are excellent and on another day could be up there for me.

But my favourite album of his is an ECM compilation that is only available second hand now called Works. It somehow just works so well and is very melodic and right with the choice of tracks and gets played a lot.



PS – also worth checking out Upojenie with Anna Maria Jopek for a nice Polish vocal take on Metheny’s work and Pat plays along on the album.

Thanks, Lontano. As I said earlier in this thread, 'Offramp' remains one of my favourites, possibly one of my top 50 Jazz albums of any style, but like 'Still Life (Talking)' for you, it was the first PM album I purchased. I think I'd seen him performing 'Are You Going With Me?' on the OGWT and was knocked out by it. I was also intrigued by the sounds he conjoured from the Roland guitar synth which he used on that and the title track. I saw him on the Offramp tour at Hammersmith and was hooked. I have many of the early PM albums, mostly on ECM vinyl, but I think he went a bit poppy some time after that and at that time I drifted away. So, thanks for the recommendations. Incidentally, I have had 'The Way Up' sitting in my Amazon basket for a while. I might just have to complete the transaction!

Thanks, CB

quote:

Originally posted by droodzilla:

quote:

ewemon,

I was guessing that you probably had a play list set on random on your iPod.

You definitely covering a lot of musical ground. I am just the opposite; letting everything play through and even in the car I quite often listen to a disc twice before I switch over. It is my way to relax and familiarize myself better with the music.

Regards,
Haim

My approach too, Haim - though sometimes it's a matter of being too comfortable (or lazy) to change the CD!

Nigel,

Two things. First, I am a bit slow and it takes me a while for the music to sink in and I definitely need multiple listenings to evaluate it. A good example is the recent Bollani ECM disc which bored me to begin with and then I ended liking it a lot. Second, I feel that I am purchasing too much new music without playing the older stuff often enough, so probably out of guilt, when I bring up something ancient which I have not listened to for a while, I play it more than once.