Amazon.com Our job is to be deeply in the moment, says Pat Metheny. Day Trip, the first release from Metheny's current trio lineup, featuring bassist Christian McBride and drummer Antonio Sanchez, vividly depicts the group at one particularly inspired moment. As Metheny explains, We did it the old-school way. We'd been touring for about four or five years at different times and then went in and recorded, rather than making a record and touring behind it. We worked like gangbusters and finished in a day, so the title Day Trip fit. Besides, this is kind of a trip band; they take you on a journey. The Day Trip sessions were recorded at Manhattan’s Right Track studio in late October 2005 and sequenced into a ten-song set earlier this year. The album is being released in conjunction with a national tour the trio will embark upon in February 2008. Metheny already reconvened the group this fall for an enthusiastically received series of small market dates at colleges and theatres; the trio ended its preliminary run with four concerts in South Africa. Reviews from the daily U.S. press along the way have been a compendium of superlatives. The Buffalo News declared, Metheny is sharing his musical soul with the two finest musicians of their generation. The Times Union of Albany concurred: Christian McBride on stand-up bass and drummer Antonio Sanchez wove their way into Metheny’s music... and played with a telepathic virtuosity. And the Louisville Courier Journal summed up the nightly reaction to the trio’s sets: It was a collaborative tour de force that earned a standing ovation. Christian is an amazing musician and Antonio is the drummer of this generation, says Metheny. 35 year-old bassist McBride had played alongside Roy Hargrove, Freddie Hubbard and others, before stepping up to lead his own group; 36 year-old drummer Sanchez is a member of The Pat Metheny Group. On Day Trip, Metheny offers plenty of excitement in his solos and the trio cranks up the funk on "The Red One", (a version of which was previously released on Metheny’s collaboration with John Scofield "I Can See Your House From Here"). However they generally eschew flash for a more easy-going groove; McBride calls it a softer, more traditional sound. Perhaps most eloquent among these tracks is the elegiac, folk-like melody of "Is This America?" (Katrina 2005). 2007 was an exceptional year for Metheny.
Pat Metheny Photos
More from Pat Metheny
Secret Story 2CD Special Edition
Metheny Mehldau Quartet
Letter from Home [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
Still Life (Talking) [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
Pat Metheny Group-The Way Up-Live [Regions 1 & 4] (2006)
Offramp
Pat Metheny Group
The Road to You: Recorded Live in Europe [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] [LIVE]
As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls
We Live Here [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
Imaginary Day
Bright Size Life
New Chautauqua
Pat Metheny Group-We Live Here (2001)
American Garage
Pat Metheny Group-Speaking of Now Live (2003)
Trio Live [LIVE]
One Quiet Night
Speaking of Now
First Circle
Customer Reviews
Another great one - Reviewed on 2008-10-04
Buy this one now. We'll all be enjoying it for years to come. I find the drummer especially good, as well.
Day Trip: Dynamic Post-Bop Perfection - Reviewed on 2008-09-03
This is amongst Pat Metheny's finest releases to date. To begin with, this trio is amazing, and I would go as far as to say that it's my favorite Metheny trio.
Antonio Sanchez's drumming perfectly contemplates Metheny's fluid, beautiful, and deeply articulate post-bop phrasing with such artful cleverness. He plays quietly, hanging in the background to allow Metheny to have his say, while making perfect elaborations with heavy cymbal use, but also not being afraid to speak up when the time is right, and exploding into drumming reminiscent of hard-bop Art Blakey.
Bassist Christian McBride is solid and is the glue that holds this magnificent trio together. He stays low and constant underneath Metheny's speedy and precise phrasing, while also keeping perfect rhythm with Antonio's abstract and artful drumming. Also speaks up when the time is right, though those moments are a bit sparse on this album, given the nature of the music and overall pace of Metheny and Antonio together.
Metheny is at his finest in this album. Upon a first listen I was unable to get into the new tone that Metheny had adopted, being a die-hard fan of Bright Size Life, I was lost without the cutting and sharp treble tone of Bright Size Life. Nevertheless, I continued to listen and found this album to be just as good, if not better. Metheny's tone has evolved quite a bit over the years and it's perfect for what he's playing and whose he's playing with on this album. His phrasing has become beyond exceptional and the soft lyrical quality of his phrases have become incredibly sophisticated to a profound point of articulation that leaves the listener speechless.
Not to mention the deep passion and emotion that lurks and is revealed through this album is dynamic, gorgeous, and revelatory. Day trip will always be one of my favorite Jazz albums of all time. If you are ever considering buying this album then I would suggest that you stop even "considering" it, and just buy it and give it a listen. And listen a few times. There's so much depth buried in the passions of this album that you will discover and feel more and more each time you listen through it.
The best guitar player. - Reviewed on 2008-06-18
Yes Pat is the best guitar player in the world,he is a great master,composer,arranger a GREAT Musician.I saw him live at the Puerto Rico Heineken Jazz fest this june'08 with the band,McBride on bass,and Sanchez on drums,the whole crowd were out of words after his performance.The best record No Doubt.
Rightfully popular - Reviewed on 2008-06-15
Pat Metheny convened another well-regarded trio in Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez for touring and two CD's. This is the first one, "Tokyo Day Trip Live EP" is an addendum of sorts. This CD starts off mild-mannered (it's overall fairly mild-mannered), but that doesn't mean there isn't great playing or improvisation. "Let's Move" takes Pat's lyrical guitar playing to a faster tempo. "Is This America?" is a soft acoustic guitar song. I like it, though since it's a tribute to New Orleans I hoped it would be better. "When We Were Free" has a catchy melody, and Pat uses a more overdriven guitar tone and then his guitar synth - it's one of the better songs. "Dreaming Trees", like most songs with "dreaming" in the title, is a nice acoustic song. "The Red One" is familiar from the Metheny-Scofield album "I Can See Your House From Here". Pat's one-guitar version is entirely credible, the mark of a well-written song. "Day Trip" ends the CD with a bunch of very good, and happy, notes. I think any Pat Metheny fans would like, and any fans of mainstream jazz guitar. There are some people (like me) who aren't fans of the "marshmallow Pat" but like the "serious jazz Pat". If you're in that category, you'll like this one.
Day Trip - Reviewed on 2008-06-03
8 customers found this review helpful, 2 did not.
I'm going to have to say I was disappointed with this album for a number of different reasons. I'll start by saying that it is not by any stretch a bad album, per-se. Metheny does have some serious chops and his new trio-mates, Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez, are both excellent musicians that I have liked for a while in their own rights. Those concessions aside I have to say that I feel like Metheny is stuck in a rut musically speaking. I think its such a shame that Metheny sounds just like last time here. Not that Metheny sounded bad the last time around, just that I was hoping for something different or new to come with the new trio. If there is any exploration here it is tepid at best. At first when I began listening to this album, it struck me as pretty good standard Metheny affair. I found I could not stomach an entire albums worth of it though and began to zone out during Metheny's solo's. The album became for me a vehicle of the two other trio members who are both in fine form here. Still, however, a disappointment.
« RSS Feeds
