Review - Pat Metheny @ Barbican

The bill included not only Pat Metheny, but also Chris Potter on tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, Ben Williams on bass, and Antonio Sanchez - and this review, despite its best interests, cannot offer enough insight that will testimony to the brilliance of these modern icons of jazz, each monumental pioneers in their own right with a multitude of works to their names. Every now and then, I had to jolt myself into reality to actually believe what I'm so fortunate enough to be seeing happening right before my eyes and ears.

The concert began with a couple of solo numbers from Pat Metheny, who effortlessly submerges your ears in a glorious ocean of crystal-clear, sonic bliss, with melodies that are simple yet powerful, and sophisticated harmonies that draw you in even deeper. Percussive effects on the instrument is used to great effect, as is the subtle fret noises that enhance every nuance. 

The third number introduced the rest of the band, with Chris Potter's soaring, free and majestic bass clarinet tones. Having seen (and played with) him on a couple of occasions before, Chris Potter is impressive as ever in mid-flight, unweilding a barrage of melodious, intuitive heights, combining incredibly crafted journeys across the instrument with lighting fast intuition and response, and whose peaks and dips transport you to another plane of existence. His tenor saxophone dances around and across the beat, through elegant leaps and arpeggiated runs, shifting and gliding through ever-morphing layers of harmonic shape, with the slickness and finesse of an electric eel, yet with subtle, gentle measures of sentimentality and grace. On both instruments, he is master; moving freely from feathery low notes to spellbinding altissimo, always striving for new heights. The transplantation of motivic material in different registers and keys displays an incredibly sensitive awareness of harmonic space, and a great ear.

Pat Metheny uses a range of different timbres, effects and synth leads to great effect, creating an array of sensations and colours. His melodic lines develop organically from moments of space and flickering ribbons, gradually building into stately climaxes and wild, thrashing cacophonies of rippling consciousness. The changes in pace were instantaneous, immediate and controlled. 

The programme itself had a nice, defined shape that was cleverly structured, engaging and by no means monotonous; instead, giving the audience plenty of meat to chew on (or cheese, if you're vegetarian like me, but not in the musical sense - not that it is a bad thing!). Much of the music played has two levels, simultaneously juxtaposed; with arcing, profound melodies flying over a vista of solid groove-based material. The mood is deeply spiritual; sometimes, strident and voyeuristic, at other times, wild frenzied and reeling into folk idioms, film theme scores and contemporary popular music across the decades - this is just part of the pool that the music both envelopes and transcends. The level of improvisation and depth pushes the imagination as far as it can go, setting new standards with what can be done with these instruments and their technical frontiers. A technique that I noticed several times throughout the evening was the sudden transition from languishing, non-'tonal' or dissonant material into an elated 'tonal' or consonant repeated refrain, creating a 'brightening' effect that serves to heighten the momentum and take the music into another realm, knocking you to your senses.

Evidence of their individual musical skill was exploited to the maximum in the second part of the performance, where each of the other musicians, Chris Potter ('All The Things You Are'), Ben Williams ('Turnaround' - Ornette Coleman) and Antonio Sanchez, took turns to improvise a musical dialogue with Pat Metheny. The result was sobering enough to forget that you were listening to two completely different instruments - guitar and saxophone / bass / drums); the music almost coalesced into one instrument or musical line / thread. Put these musicians together, back in the quartet at the end, and the combination is electrifying. These musicians are pushing the frontiers, transcending the technical means of their instruments and meeting somewhere in the middle, up above, engaging in a common plan of musical discourse, such that you forget which instruments they are playing. Together, they create a progressive music that speaks many of its own languages, and that sails beyond what can be considered 'normal' into the charting of its own destiny.