JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
Rating: 
This is the recording Pat Metheny has been building towards his whole career.
NOW I understand what Pat was aiming at all these years. He’s been trying to pull off a true fusion of world music, folk, bebop, and minimalism. That requires incredible chops, composing ability, and taste.
Pat’s chops have been good enough to play virtually anything he wanted at least since 1989’s Question and Answer. He’s been writing strong tunes at least since his 1991 collaboration with John Scofield, I Can See Your House From Here.
But past Pat Metheny Group recordings have uniformly been marred by an excess of sentimentalism and a lack of taste, especially in the vocal arrangements. The ability to write a compelling suite of compositions was really the last barrier Pat faced. And boy has he overcome it!
The Way Up is really 69 minutes of through-composed music with room built in for soloing. It is both intellectually rigorous and incredibly moving.
Up until now, I’ve begrudged Pat’s incredible financial success with his main group because there have been so many other bands that have left him in the dust artistically but haven’t been supported by the public. But it’s time to eat crow. The Way Up is nothing less than transcendent.
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Related posts:
- 80/81 - Pat Metheny
- Question And Answer - Pat Metheny
- As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls - Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays
- Pilgrimage - Michael Brecker
- I Can See Your House From Here - John Scofield/Pat Metheny
