For the first half of this track, the Pat Metheny group blurs the line between composition and improvisation, a trait I admire in any jazz group. The signature guitar figures in the early section always give me the feeling that Pat is gearing up to punctuate the chord pairs that follow. It’s a tension/release kind of presentation that Metheny has always used to great effect — and here I’m thinking of the chords that are “launched” in a similar manner during Phase Dance…a terse little melody and then boom with the chordal exclamation point.
There’s a long bridge section that follows with Pat musing on some beautifully spacious arpeggios while Lyle draws out a lone synth line. This then goes into a passage that runs to the conclusion, and that can be described as “Phase Dance Revisited.” Part of me thinks this would have worked as an album closer, drawing together the album themes in a way that “Lone Jack” does not. On the other hand, why mess with perfection?
And yes, there’s the spinning vinyl again, with “April Joy” kicking off just before the three minute mark. I’ve also added a live version from Berlin, with Pat engaging in extreme “guitar face.”
Up next: Lone Jack
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An excellent early Pat tune, primarily used in the live setting to let Mark Egan cut loose on some excellent fretless soloing. From a batch of early writing for him (dates back to ’72, I believe), this one was recorded by Hubert Laws prior to the PMG.
I’ve never felt much for the studio version of this one. This is a live tune. Additionally, the ‘Phase Dance Revisited’ outro/vamp is one of the very, very few items in the entire Metheny recorded book that is pure garbage to me. It reeks of A&R coercion. Something just makes me think they (the band) had little to do with tacking on this 4 or 5 minutes of unnecessary fluff.
To the best of my knowledge, they NEVER did this part live, either (please correct me if I am wrong).
Having said that….Novemeber 21, 1979. At the Bottom Line in NYC. The PMG had a radio broadcast of their show(s) that day. High quality tapes widely circulate. The ‘April Joy’ of that set has my favorite Pat solo of all time (yes, of all time). I consider it one of, if not the finest, guitar solo of all time. I have listened to it dozens of times, and it never fails to knock the shit right out of me. He doesn’t miss a note. He’s on or slightly ahead of the beat for the whole thing. Every PM leap, jump, and slur is perfect. Pure Zen. You get the feeling that all he had to do was conceive it at that moment, and it happened. Not a single clam. He sets out to circle the moon in the roughly two minute span, and nails the landing.