Pat Metheny @ Unity Village

I'm trying to think when the last time was I was so thoroughly satisfied by a concert. Once we got there, that is.

I met my bro at Wendy's and put the tickets and my goofy hat on the seat of my car while I went in and grabbed what passed for dinner, and got in my brother's car and started eating and talking and we were almost to Unity Village when I realized the tickets were in my car back at Wendy's.



So we went back, and I was panicking. But we were making good time, I was told. We got there with seconds to spare before what turned out to be the opening act went on. Lee's Summit High School marching band doing some Metheny arrangements. My worries about being tardy had been misplaced. The preamble was nice enough, but we weren't in any danger of missing the main event.

I know, I don't get out much, but for a frame of reference, I've been to some pretty good concerts. When I do get out, it tends to be for the likes of Jim Hall, Pat Martino, etc.



Or Ani DiFranco, not a jazz act, but probably my favorite neo-folkie. And she has an affirmative action for out of work jazz musicians.

But tonight, I think I'd have to go back to seeing Pat Martino with the organ trio featuring Joey DeFrancesco back when Live at Yoshi's was up for a Grammy or two. Or, slightly more recent and far less artsy, Hayseed Dixie at Davy's.

Did I really just compare Hayseed Dixie to the Pat Metheny Trio?

Okay, yes, and here's why: Hayseed Dixie does their schtick with a reckless abandon and artistry you can't help get caught up in. I mean, really, you haven't partied until you've heard War Pigs played on banjo, mandolin and such like in a room full of people who are singing along 'Oh Lord yeah!'



But back to this evening. This concert was truly sublime. The only way it could be better is if it was still going.

Pat Metheny played solo at first. Baritone guitar for a number I think was off of One Quiet Night, then a nylon string number, then that crazy harp guitar... You could give me that instrument and I'd have fun with it, but I don't think I have the imagination to use it the way Pat does. Honestly, on recordings, I'm not as nuts about this material, ditto for the baritone guitar stuff, but live, Pat's mood-casting ability makes me think of Miles, Bill Evans, those rare musicians, rare even among greats, who can just hypnotize you.

When it's contemplative music, Pat will make your ass contemplate. It's music that on one level ought to make you sleepy, relax you into jelly, but he has his ways of paying tension forward and creating tempo out of what seems to be the absence of tempo.

And when he goes uptempo, as he did plenty when the trio was on stage, it's a mainline amphetamine experience. He builds things to where they can't go further and then takes them further. And that's long before he gets to the synthesizer guitar and scares the old folks into calling an early evening (yes, this really happened, a few white heads fled like Pat had turned suicide bomber).

This trio is maybe my favorite of Pat's to date, and that's saying something. The debut album, Bright Size Life, of course, has Jaco and is a perfect thing in its way. In fact, when the trio did Unity Village tonight, I about couldn't get out of the way back machine. Of course, being the show was in Unity Village, they were obligated to play that tune.

The trio with Charlie Haden (Rejoicing) was great, the trio with Dave Holland (Question and Answer), too. See also the trio featuring Larry Grenadier, but Grenadier is too much of a minimalist for Pat's trios in my humble opinion. He fits better with the likes of Steve Cardenas, another minimalist. Christian McBride is on some levels the best fit on bass since Jaco.



Flashy players can get annoying, but McBride (don't you love that name?), like Metheny, can be flashy but has a sense of when to reign it in. Playing that fast passage is impressive, but knowing when to play it to best effect and when to lay back is virtuosity. When I've heard serious players talk about players they like playing with, they don't talk about fast fingers, they talk about big ears.

Anyway, they frowned on photography so I only have one noisy pic of the band including Mike, who sat in the last few tunes, and a shot of the marching band playing an arrangement of some of Pat's music, and the stage after the fact. But luckily for you, I found a YouTube bit of the very same trio I just saw playing one of the tunes I heard them play.