
Pat Metheny photo by Jimmy Katz
Moore Theatre
Tuesday March 4, 7:30pm
Pat Metheny has myriad fans, and for every one of them there is likely a Pat Metheny they cleave to. Many swear by his Pat Metheny Group that has been one of the most popular and commercially successful jazz outfits of modern times. Others prefer the small-group phenom who demonstrates prodigious chops and imagination whatever the style or mood.
It’s the latter whom we will have an opportunity to hear early this month, when Metheny appears with his Unity Band, a quintet whose members all display the kind of huge technical and artistic capability it pays to possess when on any stage with a Pat Metheny.
Because the guitarist is, simply put, a monster musician. And, as fine as you may consider the performance and composition aspects of his famed larger Pat Metheny Group, it’s in combos like the Unity Band that he has the space to expand into his unparalleled capabilities.
There, he channels into transcendent streams that become torrents of breathtaking music. In Seattle, we’ve had our opportunities to witness him in this mode. And you can hear that Pat Metheny on some small-group recordings, too, including a monumental 1989 trio date, Question and Answer, with drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Dave Holland.
There is significance in Metheny’s long associations with musicians of that caliber — in their Metheny-like merger of imagination and technical capabilities. Holland, for example, has stated plainly that when he forms his bands, he settles for nothing less than extraordinary technical capabilities. That is what led Metheny to recruit saxophonist Chris Potter, a standout in Holland’s own band circles. In the Unity Band, he has become the first saxophonist Metheny has included in his lineups in more than 30 years — since he had Michael Brecker and Dewey Redman for his 80/81 recording.
The results have been stellar. Metheny calls Potter a “bottomless pit of ideas” who “can just go on and on, deeper and deeper, and all with that amazing sound. He is one of the greatest musicians I have ever been around”.
Speaking of a past Unity Band tour, Metheny has said: “The Unity Band project was life-changing for me. I have led many groups of talented musicians, but what went down with that band on a night after night basis was inspiring in a way that was really unlike anything else. When we did our last gig, as we walked off the stage all I could think about was that I didn’t want it to end, and I knew it was the same for Chris, Antonio and Ben too.”
Drum titan Antonio Sanchez and bassist Ben Williams, a winner of the Thelonious Monk Competition, both are perfect for Metheny’s technical demands, too. And the leader has now found a fifth, equally impressive member. He explains: “His name is Giulio Carmassi. He comes from Italy and I guess you could say that he is a ‘multi-instrumentalist,’ but that barely scratches the surface of what he does. He is an excellent piano and keyboard player, plays fantastic woodwinds and brass, guitars, bass, drums and sings like an angel. He told me he was inspired by seeing one of my bands perform in Italy when he was young and often thought about having the multi-instrumentalist seat on one of my projects.”
So, he’s in. And Metheny further extends the quintet’s range by using his own extended, programmed, wizard-powered guitar-controlled audio technologies that provided the palette for his Orchestrion solo-bigband project. In addition, Metheny adds, Ben Williams is equally adept on acoustic and electric basses, Antonio Sanchez really can play anything, and Chris Potter not only is a top-flight saxophone soloist but “also happens to be a killer piano player and very good guitarist.”
Metheny likes the results, and if you listen to any of several clips on the usual online platforms, you’ll surely hear plenty that you like, too. He says that after thinking about ways he might rediscover “the kind of lush and harmonically dense music with lots more written material that has always been a big part of my larger groups and projects,” he one night “woke up with the tantalizing idea of really taking the Unity concept all the way and forming a platform for the first time that could cover the entire spectrum of things that I have done as a bandleader over the years under one roof. With this lineup, everything from Bright Size Life to Secret Story to all of my Group stuff to Song X could be within range — and more.”
Tickets ($45-$62.50, plus fees) are on sale via 877-784-4849 and www.stgpresents.org