Pat Metheny at The Centre in Vancouver
Everything he played on the Side-Eye III+ tour with Chris Fishman, Joe Dyson, Jermaine Paul, & Leonard Patton
Pat Metheny played The Centre downtown this past Monday, April 27th, with Chris Fishman on piano, organ, and synths and Joe Dyson on drums. These two regular members of the guitarist's Side-Eye trio were also joined by bassist Jermaine Paul and by Leonard Patton, who contributed percussion plus the distinctive vocals you hear in the expansive air of so many Metheny tracks.
The band minus Metheny himself took the stage by walking out from the house doors through the aisles, playing marching band drums, then getting into a brief minor-key tune I didn't identify. Then, the legend of American music popped into view and immediately got the applause you'd expect.
From there, the Infidels Jazz co-presentation ran for over two interrupted hours to a full house, surely including many fans who have seen Metheny several times. It was a stop on a lengthy tour supporting the new album Side Eye III+. Back in January, I previewed it for you:
Will Chernoff
In that story I mentioned some of my favourite Metheny records. Now knowing the extent to which this show's sound evoked the Pat Metheny Group, I wish I also pointed to the three Group records I know best, all on ECM: the debut, Pat Metheny Group (1978); Offramp (1982), with its addition of Naná Vasconcelos in the Patton/vocalist role and its introduction of the tune "James"; and First Circle (1984), with Pedro Aznar in that fifth-man role.
The band played tunes from all three of those records, but first, they played the new record's high-energy opener, a tune that befits a dramatic cut to blackout lighting after its guitar solo: "In On It".
They didn't play "James", which is the touchstone Metheny tune for me. (I spent countless hours in high school with this 2003 performance featuring Michael Brecker, Christian McBride, and Antonio Sánchez.) But they did play a faster-than-usual version of the title track from Metheny's 1976 solo debut, "Bright Size Life". And they later rendered the Ornette Coleman cover combo at the end of that record, "Round Trip / Broadway Blues", as a noisy guitar-drums duet.
After "Bright Size Life" was the jazz waltz in minor from Side-Eye III+, "Don't Look Down". The show featured three more tracks from the new record after that. "Make A New World" and "So Far, So Good" were both numbers for balladry, with the former having a melodic hook that reminded me of that Billie Eilish song from Barbie. As these tunes swelled and diminished, Patton's percussion was key: his layering of the shaker atop Dyson's cymbals was the band's rhythmic signature.
Then after Metheny got on the mic for the first time and thanked everyone around him, they played my favourite of the new ones: the loping, gospel-influenced "Urban and Western", with Paul switching from upright to electric bass.
Metheny previously made an album called Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV), recorded live in 2019, with James Francies on keys and Marcus Gilmore on drums. He brought three cuts from that album to the stage: the Michael Brecker blues "Timeline", which Metheny had also recorded on Brecker's 1999 album Time Is Of The Essence; "Zenith Blue", the ripping set-ender featuring Metheny's alternate electric guitar and its synthy overdrive; and "Better Days Ahead", originally introduced on the 1993 Group album Letter from Home.
They played "The Red One", which Metheny recorded on I Can See Your House From Here with John Scofield, Steve Swallow, and Bill Stewart.
The tune that got the biggest applause other than "Bright Size Life", right from the clapping in 11/8 time, was "The First Circle" from the 1984 Group album of that name.
Also from that album, "Mas Alla (Beyond)" was the beginning of some features that broke up the full band performances: Patton sang the lead vocal in Spanish.
Metheny and Fishman played a faster-tempo duo version of "Phase Dance" from the self-titled Group debut.
The encores were a solo acoustic guitar version of "Last Train Home" from the Group's 1987 album Still Life (Talking), then "Are You Going With Me?" from Offramp, and finally "Song for Bilbao". I was intrigued to find this 2002 live version of "Song for Bilbao" with a lineup including Richard Bona, whom I heard at last year's jazzfest. Sure, there was no Cuong Vu on trumpet this week nor did Paul play a bass solo and scat along to it, but this video's energy matches what lingered in my step as I walked out of the house.
With only two Metheny shows now under my belt, I'd be lucky to continue hearing him again for many years to come. His singular language is so riffy and blues-based that even when he's way too loud in the mix, as he was on electric for the first couple numbers, everything still makes sense. He hasn't lost an ounce of the charisma and creativity that he's shown consistently for over 50 years, whether playing Ornette tunes with the Ornette rhythm section or co-leading the Group with Lyle Mays.
"I'm already working on Side-Eye IV+," Metheny said in his main talking interlude, suggesting a post-tour record with the the four musicians around him. I figure that this Side-Eye band is the closest I'll get to hearing the Group. Fishman is a different personality than Mays, but his mastery across four or more keyboards circling him on stage gave Metheny a strong improvisational foil. Paul was the consummate pro bassist and brought groove and dexterity to a couple well-deserved spotlight solos on upright. Dyson's never-ending churn of cymbals, and the drum-and-bass power he delivered in sections of peak intensity, were outstanding.
The real magic of this show and of the Group, though, is that fifth man. Patton made it shine: who would've thought that with just those oohs, some shakers, and a couple pieces of auxiliary percussion, you'd have secret sauce to animate decades' worth of music from a beloved band.
