I have been a fan of Pat Metheny since the early 90s. My son very thoughtfully gave me tickets to see him at the Barbican Centre in London.
From the outset, it was clear everyone else in the audience was as excited as me!
Within a couple of opening bars, people were clapping and cheering to hear their favourite songs.
In case you are not familiar with Pat: he has won 20 Grammy awards over the past 40 years. He is now 71 and tours constantly, playing music from over 40 studio and live albums. He has collaborated widely with all the top jazz artists of the last generation. He is credited with constantly pushing the boundaries of the jazz guitar genre. From soaring guitar synthesiser melodies and solos to classical guitar and a unique style of semi-acoustic. His music covers a very wide range from traditional Spanish-style guitar to fluid jazz fusion, complex rhythms to avant-garde free jazz.
He played my favourites and tracks off his new album with four others. He declared with excitement about the recent inclusion of the bass player and percussionist that with this additional instrumentation he can play some of this back catalogue.
“First Circle” is a very special example of a track with poly-rhythms and crescendos of solos.
I think five encores say it all: The audience loves Pat, and Pat loves to play. One the best gigs I have been to in many years.
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