It is not as mediatic as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns N’ Roses, not even Manuel Carrasco or Alejandro Sanz, to name some of the stars who have walked through the Seville capital in recent days, and yet deserves to be rated one star more than anyone elsewith so many decades of success and inexhaustible work behind them, a healthy obsession with experimenting and continually transmitting new emotions, and agility and clairvoyance when interpreting that does not lose a single gram of its esteemed weight or by the passage of time that in his case seems to have slowed down in every way. Pat Metheny returned to Seville, and it was in one of the most anticipated appointments of how many we have been able to enjoy in the city, after the continuous cancellations that it suffered due to the effect of the pandemic. The unmitigated genius guitarist born in Missouri and tanned in Kansas, returned to the city after the very experimental concert he gave us eleven years ago in this same scenario. It was then in the framework of the cycle Great Performersand did it now where he replaced it, Appointment in Maestranzain a clear allusion to those eighties concerts that were held on the site now occupied by this temple of music and dance.
He came on stage on time, something to be very grateful for that not all of the music greats are used to fulfilling. And she did it in the dark, highlighting her enviable and characteristic long hair and a still youthful demeanor for someone close to seventy, accompanied by her spectacular Pikasso guitarwhich sounds the same like a sitar as a bass or a classical guitar, thanks to those forty-two strings that he handles like a seasoned conjurer. And out of nowhere appeared, as if by magic, their two very young companions, Chris Fishman surrounded by a fortress of keyboards and tables, and Joe Dyson shaking the battery as if his life depended on it. They are part of the latest project in which the musician has embarked, Side-Eye New Yorkwhich precisely gives the title to their latest album and from which they paradoxically extracted the theme It Starts When We Dissapear: This is a program through which it provides the much-needed alternative to young musicians who are starting their career. The quality of the ensemble was unquestionable throughout the concert, alternating Metheny’s acoustic solos with the most spectacular versions of the artist’s repertoire, touring titles that were transcendental in their time, many of them from that golden period that he forged together with Lyle Mays, mainly in the eighties and early nineties. There was also room for experimentation, with strident and atonal sounds that evidenced the highly eclectic nature of the proposal. All its facets together, as if it were an encyclopedia.
Better Days Ahead Y Dream of the Returnof the mythical Letter from Homesounded in new and neat versions, allowing the guitarist to show off in all his registers, with those deafening overtones that characterize his touch when he picks up the bass, and those characteristic crescendi that leave us speechless until we achieve the joint catharsis from an audience that is increasingly dedicated and enthusiastic about his apparently simple proposal. Tracks from the album were also recovered Still-Life (Talking)What Minuano (Six Eight) either So May It Secretly BeginIn addition to the excellent always and forever of Secret Story, always with the complicity of two artists so young and accomplished at the same time, who also had their space to show off their virtuoso skills alone. And so on until surprise uncoveredthat Orchestrion that has accompanied him in his appearances for almost a decade and that the artist controls in a as magical as magnetic, not quite sure how. From there arise sounds full of fantasy and rhythm, pure sounds of xyloxone, bongos or vibraphone that Metheny prefers not to synthesize in a single keyboard and enjoy naturally, generating a series of sensations that, together with discreet but very effective light and color effects. they got a show blessed by psychedelia and good taste.
In the generous tips we were able to enjoy his solo touch, reeling off chained themes among which we could appreciate that This Is Not America what he composed for the movie the falcon game and interpreted in his day David Bowie, or the success of Lennon and MacCartney And I Love Herfrom his cover album What’s It All About (referring to the Burt Bacharach classic Alfie). We miss some excerpt of his music for David Trueba’s film Living is easy with closed eyesinexplicably unpublished, at least officially, despite winning a Goya in 2013. And among the last whims of the concert, the three of them gave us a version of the famous Are You Going with Me? absolutely overwhelming with the complicity of extraordinary acoustics. In top form and giving the best of himselfThis is how Metheny endured, supported by his young musicians, for two and a half hours uninterruptedly, during which time at least the public remained oblivious to the counting of votes for the regional elections.
PAT METHENY *****
Appointment in Maestranza. pat methenyguitars.Chris Fishmankeyboards and piano; Joe Dysondrums.Teatro de la Maestranza, Thursday, June 19, 2022
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