Pat Metheny Thrives Via Impeccably Paced ‘Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV)'(ALBUM REVIEW)

There’s a palpable air of familiarity wafting from the music on Pat Metheny’s Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV). Those readily recognizable elements are no doubt enough to retain longtime fans of the multi-Grammy Award-winning musician and are probably also sufficient to pique the curiosity of more casual followers of the guitarist/composer over the course of his roughly half-century career. Either way, the connection(s) aid Metheny in fulfilling his ‘Side-Eye’ concept, which is two-fold: challenging himself in both playing and composing in fresh contexts and simultaneously giving some exposure to young(er) musicians he’s encountered in his travels around the globe.

Notwithstanding its somewhat circuitous logic en route to recording in one of the global bastions of jazz,  New York City, excerpts from two shows on 9.11.19 and 9.12.19 at Sony Music Hall, comprise  Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV).  A natural extension of the restless creativity that’s earmarked Pat’s endeavors over the years, this collaboration the fourth in a series of such peer-to-peer partnerships and it gains additional novelty by dint of its three-man lineup: featuring Metheny on various guitars and bass, plus sophisticated axes of choice, with keyboardist James Francies and drummer Markus Gilmore, it is the bandleader’s first such foray with such an instrumental configuration since his early days in Kansas City(other trios have included only bass and drums). 

To say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts is at once a high compliment and considerable understatement. For one thing, the pacing of this release is impeccable: acting as the closing of the eight-selection sequence the familiar sounds of the guitar synthesizer plus orchestrions dominate “Zenith,” the intermittently frantic and second-longest cut here. The louder and more coarse textures of “Lodger” hearkens to Metheny’s 2013 recording of John Zorn’s TAP and this threesome sounds it’s most traditional (as an organ combo) on “Timeline,” a piece the famed Missouri native composed for a Michael Brecker album. 

As with the near fourteen-minute opening, “It Starts When We Disappear,” it is not altogether unlike the more skeletal arrangements for the Pat Metheny Group proper. But this track also calls to mind the first incarnation of The Unity Band as well as Metheny’s 1981 collaboration with the late keyboardist/composer Lyle Mays, As Wichita Falls, So Falls Wichita Falls. Still, with more than half this roughly sixty minutes comprised of such new music beside the vintage likes of  “Bright Size Life,” the title tune of Pat’s first solo LP, (from which also comes the softly evocative “Sirabhorn”), nothing here can rightfully be termed derivative much less the mere recycling of past ideas. 

As with Francies’ acoustic piano accentuated through Dyson’s ride cymbal work on “Turnaround,” all the musicianship evinces the personalities of the individuals involved.  Metheny’s is obviously the most recognizable here, but besides rendering Side-Eye accessible, it also serves to focus short and long-term attention on the gifted likes of Francies and Dyson, both of whom, without ever sounding too busy, sounds like more than just a single musician, at various junctures like the latter-named piece. Their prominence is notable too as evidence of the bandleader’s own humility and generosity of spirit because, as on any one of the relatively shorter numbers, there are proportionately as many counter-melodies and poly-rhythms as the longer tracks.

Pat Metheny has always loved to collaborate with as wide a variety of musicians as possible, from Gary Burton, to Ornette Coleman to Joni Mitchell, so Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV) is, again, a natural and comparably diverse extension of his ongoing ambition(s). Satisfying as it is as (re)new(ed) Metheny music, this album will also whet the appetites of his aficionados and jazz lovers in general for future installments in the series.