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SUBJECT:	Pat Metheny Tunes with "hooks" Back to Subjects
violao62 Jun 11 2022 at 12:25 PM	Hi all Ive just joined here so forgive me this has been asked before.I followed Pat Methenys career thru the 80s and early 90s but then kind of went down a different path musically.I like most his cds from about Offramp thru to Secret Story.They seem to me to contain really memorable ’songs’ with what you could call ’hooks’ - you know memorable melodies like James or Last Train Home and just about the whole of Still Life Talking. .I am curious as to what happened after 1993 to Pat’s composing - maybe i’m wrong but it seemed to become less ’hooky’ after that period. I’d love to be proved wrong -- can any of you point me to later memorable compositions like the aforementioned? cheers Stuart
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MarcNebo Jun 19 2022 at 11:07 AM	Pat got hooked on Jazz when he was eleven years old and at fifteen he was working with Kansas City jazz musicians. He was in Gary Burton’s band when he was nineteen years old and recorded three records with Gary before starting his own band. Before that he was on a jazz pianist Paul Bley’s record. From his first to most recent records he has used Jazz musicians (long list of Jazz legends. I have been following his career since 1976 and I have seen many phases to it. He had a Brazilian influenced phase for about five years, but I always looked at it a Jazz. There are so many sub-genres of Jazz from the beginning to 2022, but the one constant is Jazz is about improvising on the spot. I believe every record that Pat makes has at least one "hook" (except Zero Tolerance For Silence). Since The Way Up, Pat’s compositions have gotten more complex and more Jazz than Jazz based. There are still a lot more Pat records you need to hear.
violao62 Jun 17 2022 at 4:07 PM	Thanks for your interesting replies folks.I think my main problem maybe that i’m not as much into jazz as most Pat Metheny fans.Sure i love the guitar solos but honestly i never thought of Still Life Talking and Letter From Home as primarily ’jazz’ albums.They are definitely heavily influenced by jazz but i don’t think if you played those 2 cds to any jazz lover aged in their 70s or 80s they would say it was jazz music.My main thing is Brazilian music actually and Pat definitely helped me discover guys lie Milton Nascimento,Ivan Lins and for me a true genius Guinga .I did check out The Way Up and quite liked the energy behind it but to me it didn’t really contain memorable melodies ,maybe because it wasn’t meant to.We Live Here again i quite liked the groove based material but i don’t think there is any track on it as beautiful and hooky as Have You Heard from Letter From Home.Of course its all subjective and maybe i need to persevere with The Way Up.I actually listened to Imaginary Day and really liked some of the tracks on that particularly the ’rock’ tracks -- really refreshing and imo its ashame Pat didnt carry on with that stuff -- i also loved his solo on Bruce Hornsby’s Harbor Lights -- again it has a rock edge to it which is great.Anyway thanks again for your recommendations.
MarcNebo Jun 14 2022 at 9:46 PM	bsl8081 : I agree with you 100percent on your Post. After The Way Up, Pat has been mostly the sole composer and arranger of all his records. Then Pat assembles these bands with incredible established Jazz musicians and excellent little known musicians on his radar (James Francies, Gwilym Simcock, and Giulio Carmassi). Pat first did two records with Brad Mehldau and his trio, one with the Unity Band, two with the Unity Group, From This Place quartet and now Side-Eye. Larry Grenadier, Ben Williams and Linda May Han Oh are excellent bassists, Chris Potter is one of my favorite tenor saxophonists and reed players and Marcus Gilmore, Jeff Ballard and Antonio Sanchez are excellent drummers. Antonio may be Pat’s BDF (Best Drummer Forever).
bsl8081 Jun 14 2022 at 1:28 AM	I love all the old stuff too, but to me personally, the composition and musicianship seems to get better and better.
MarcNebo Jun 12 2022 at 2:21 PM	I think every Pat Metheny Group record has at least one "hook" some like We Live Here have many hooks. Start with Letter From Home and the song Beat 70 and go forward through Pat’s Discography. Especially check out We Live Here, which has many memorable "hooks". The Way Up may have a "hook(s), but is a sixty minute record with four movements. I think in recent years ( post The Way Up) Pat has been the sole composer his compositions have become more complex and jazzier. Also check out his various trio records, especially Day Trip. Welcome back to the American Garage and hope you are here to stay violao62.
naut Jun 12 2022 at 1:28 AM	Welcome aboard, violao62! imnsho, all of We Live Here (pick a track) and all of Speaking of Now are rich with hooks and memorable melodies. Some of my faves include "Here to Stay," "To the End of the World," "Red Sky," "Stranger in Town" on WLH and "Proof," "The Gathering Sky," "A Place in the World" (gorgeous Bona outro) and "Afternoon," from SoN. Of course, there are many other fine tunes from Pat & co., but those are a few that come to mind at the moment.
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