Pat Metheny: Speaks of Now

AAJ: Yeah, it’s pretty exciting to discover a player you didn’t know that makes you want to drop everything to find out more about them. Do you expect that there will be further trio tours with Grenadier and Stewart or Blade as well as with those you’ve recorded trio records with like Holland, Haynes and Haden, or others?
#5 PM: I am certain that there will be and I always look forward to those kinds of encounters. in all of the trio things I have been able to do over the years you will find some of my favorite musicians and people. the trio thing has been a constant for me since the beginning and i am pretty sure that it will always have a place in the mix of stuff that I try to do.
AAJ: What is your current philosophy on the recording process and preferences of software, hardware?
PM: Making records was never a real priority for me. only in the past 15 years or so have I felt comfortable with the process or the results. early on, at ECM, it was so difficult for the most part, and not that satisfying, although the results of those sessions have their moments, I guess. but these days I enjoy it more.
As far as software and hardware goes, there are many equally viable ways to get your musical ideas documented now, and each one of them can yield great results. I have done fully analog records and fully digital records and like both. This record was done without any tape, as most records are these days. That turns out to be an excellent way of working for me and this group in particular and I feel real comfortable with that. But, in the end, it is only the music that matters – how you do it is really not of that much interest to 99 percent of the people that hear it. I know in my own case as a listener, I don’t care if someone did whatever they did in an hour direct to 2 track or spent a week or a year in a studio going to digital 48 or whatever – as long as it speaks as music in a way that conveys the spirit and intention of the cats – they I usually like it.
AAJ: Was the writing or production done in your NYC studio?
PM: Yes, all the writing and arranging was done there. The actual recording took place at Right Track recording, right across Broadway on 48th street.
AAJ: I didn’t realize you also played piano. How long have you been playing and would you ever record it?
PM: I have been using the piano as a writing tool since I was a kid – it is so much easier than the guitar, especially for checking voicings, moving lines, etc. I can’t really say that I have any interest in recording on it, although I did play one track on a record once and have played it on various film scores. I have often played keyboard parts on things that have wound up on various records, but I am not a virtuoso or able to play much beyond just what I functionally hear while I am writing.
AAJ: We saw the trio when you came to Austin and it was one of the freest, most dynamic shows I’ve seen almost anyone do. And much larger than other trios sound. I’d done an interview with Eric Johnson that day where we’d both commented on looking forward to hearing the ‘Bright Size Life’ material revived. Do you feel more or a different kind of freedom when you play trio now and was it anything like playing those tunes with (Bob) Moses and Jaco?
PM: I remember that gig well and always really enjoy Austin. Yes, playing in a trio is quite unlike anything else, and I especially enjoyed the trio with Larry and Bill. I was really glad that we documented our time together in the live record that came out last year – I felt like we were lucky to actually capture some of what made that combination work so well on tape. I can’t say enough about how much I dig both Larry and Bill – not just as musicians, but as people.
As far as Moses and Jaco goes, that was really a whole other thing. That was such a special band, and the time when that band was active was a real interesting time for me, an interesting point in life. Jaco and I were both really interested in challenging the status quo of our instruments and jazz in general and Moses was already a master. We had a great chemistry together. We were both really on a mission – there was a lot of energy there.
AAJ: Absolutely. Hopefully live material from that group will appear at some point. As far as “Speaking of Now”, some might describe the music as somewhat “world” influenced – for lack of a better term – sensing more West African influence mixed with the group’s penchant for Brazilian sounds. Was it a conscious thing to incorporate certain aspects or sounds of particular cultures this time, or is it ever?
PM: First, like many musicians, I really dislike the attempt to quantify music by style in general. I just think that it basically fails in the face of the music in question more often than not. we live in a world where someone like Richard (Bona) grew up in a small village in Africa, I grew up in a little town in Missouri, Cuong Vu was born in Vietnam, Antonio in Mexico, etc. – yet, we all speak the same language of music, even a very specific and fairly difficult dialect of it, and I think we all do so with an individuality that goes beyond the ‘national boundaries’ of where we are from or even the ‘style’ of music that we are called onto play at a given point. Humanity is moving more and more into a zone where that kind of ‘demographic’ – one that addresses common goals rather that geographic locations – is the norm and has been for some time, and this is just the beginning. The glib and superficial term ‘world music’ is an insult to all of those people who happen to play music and weren’t born in the same place that the marketing guy who dreamed the term up happens to live – other than that it is meaningless.
#6AAJ: Yeah, and I’m sure that’s how it came about. It’s very vague. What part of the world are we talking about? All music is world music if it was created on the planet. Still, at this point, we are all aware of what is being referred to by that term, as we are by other marketing or artist codified terminology (Dub, Funk, Blues, Hip-Hop, Trance, Electronica, etc). For many, Jazz is a deceptive term as well. Obviously, it can mean a dozen different things to as many people (Dixie, Rag, Swing, Bop, Hard Bop, ‘Free’, Cool, Latin, Fusion – whatever). The terms merely exist so that consumers have at least a general idea what they might be buying – if they haven’t heard it – and for one-stops to bin product accordingly.
PM: By the same token, I would like to know what bands or musicians there are out there in the ‘world’ that play music that has the same specific qualities that we represent in the work we have been doing for the past 25 years with this band? Particularly in the areas of melody and harmony, I just don’t see much anywhere quite like it – even within the Jazz world, let alone from other areas – and that may be for better or worse I might add. Whenever we welcome someone into the band, they are not just encouraged to bring who they are to the bandstand, the required individuality that they bring to the table is a big part of what it takes to get this gig in the first place. But, because the compositional and improvisational demands of this band are so specific (and that is not a bad thing in my opinion, most of the bands that I admire most in history have had an aesthetic that was quite specific and usually quite demanding in the areas of being able to imply the sense of the universal within a dialectic framework that is clearly outlined either by the leader or better, by the way the music itself is designed to be played) the musicians who play in this band have to be able to envision a sound that fits in with what the tunes and the vibe demand first and foremost – but still be themselves. And if they happen to be from Pluto – cool.
AAJ: Of course. Would you say that each album has its own focus or theme or are they pretty much chronicling/mirroring the groups journey?
PM: Right from the start, a big part of what bandleading has been for me has been to direct and focus the groups attention to specific areas of investigation and exploration. this may be the formulation of certain questions, like how big can we make a quartet sound? How far can we develop things compositionally and still retain an improvisational balance with that development? Can we address ‘x’ and still retain our identity? And tons of specific musical issues having to do with the particular roles of the instruments within the rhythm section, the way the solos themselves unfold over time and a million little things.
But having said all that, the details and even the bulk content of the pieces have to primarily succeed as envelopes for emotion and storytelling. It is really easy for me to talk and talk about all the cool little things that I love about music in a kind of a technical way – but at the same time all of those things are minor in comparison to the more fundamental importance that lays beneath it all; which is the vibe of it, the feeling that we are able to achieve that gives it’s flavor and identity and the emotional impact that we are able to achieve through all the work that we put into making all of the elements come together to tell a story as best we can.