Jazz guitarist, song-writer, and arranger extraordinaire, Pat Metheny, is one of my favorite living musicians. He was recently the guest on Marianne McPartland's legendary, "Piano Jazz" radio program on PBS. (You may object to PBS's politics, but you cannot fault their respect for jazz.)
Pat is an intelligent fellow who understands the deep things of jazz. He is completely committed to his art. Pat plays several tunes with his trio and one with Marianne, the great "Turn Around," by Ornette Coleman (a piece I have played publicly on drums a few times with my friend David Dillon on guitar, believe it or not). Enjoy this rich program.
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Yes, I like Pat quite a bit. My favorite jazz guitarist, however, is a fellow by the name of Dean Brown. Are you familiar with him? I'm fortunate (or blessed rather) to know him in person and he is just a wonderful intelligent and HUMBLE genius.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Dean Brown is more R&B, fusion rather than straight ahead jazz.
Consider Martan Taylor @ http://www.martintaylor.com/ or Ximo Tebar @ http://www.jazzspain.net/web/ximotebar/ximotebar.htm.
Ya, exactly - that R&B record is more of a retro thing that goes back to his roots. He is indeed mostly fusion oriented, yet he is very able in the area of straightahead, though he is not majoring in it. Check out his myspace - www.myspace.com/deanbrown and look at the song "Minor Blues". Pretty good smooth jazz for a vigorous fusion player, huh?
Pat is a humble genius too. He loves to rave over the qualities of his collegues and in every interview I've heard always knows to mention something special about the people he plays with.
I remember one incident - the one and only time I met Pat (sort of) - where I was sitting on the floor in one of the small concert rooms of the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Hague, the Netherlands, listening to, I believe, saxophone player Michael Zenon. Metheny had just finished a fantastic session with the Dutch Metropole Orchestra (see YouTube) and had given his best. My brother-in-law suddenly alerted me to someone sitting right next to us on the floor in the dark: Pat! He shook hands with us but immediately turned his attention to the band again. Amazing guy!
Piano jazz reminded me of Rob Mullins, one extremely talented jazz guy from the 80's around Denver, then he went to Japan for ???a while anyway. Anyone heard of him here?
Other fav's are , Peter Kater, Rippingtons & non-piano locals -Dotsero and Images, to name just a few.
Why in the world would anyone object to NPR's (not PBS's in this case) "politics?" Since when is "inform the citizens" a bad idea?
I find such jabs ironic. NPR is one of the few bastions on radio where the values of people like a professor at a conservative theological seminary get a fair shake. Teri Gross rebroadcast her 2005 interview with D. James Kennedy today. She rebroadcast her interview with Jerry Falwell at his death. Both men got a full shot at explaining their odd views. They don't even get that on Dallas Christian radio stations.
I suppose Ms. McPartland's "politics" bug you, too. You gotta worry about those women who stay faithfully married to one man. It's such a brutal rebuttal to wild claims made about jazz artists and NPR hosts.
Jerry Falwell was never one of my heroes.
NPR news is slanted to the left, to be sure, as is most of their programs, including "Fresh Air." I can live with that.
The remark at Marianne is just silly. No argument there, only sarcasm to no point.
I'm not seeing much humility here from Metheny (despite my agreements with him at some points on Kenny G's "jazz" chops).
http://www.jazzoasis.com/methenyonkennyg.htm
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