How ACE is this album!!

It is very ace.

Oh god, yes. One of my all-time favorite albums, ever. Any genre.

Absolutely wonderful - part of what feels like a trilogy to me of "First Circle", "Still Life Talking" and "Letter From Home". "Still Life Talking" is still a source of inspiration for me, particularly the opening track "Minuano (Six Eight)".

Best,
Ken
www.kennavarro.com

It is up there no doubt.....AND I got to see it live too!!!!

Paul

"Still Life (Talking)" is one of the first albums I got for my jazz collection. I got it in the summer of '99, a couple of weeks before my high school graduation. I got that and the Dave Grusin's "Priceless Jazz" compilation album. The boulder continued to roll from there.

for me i think it is an excellent album, that crosses excellent accessible melodies with some undoubtly quite straight ahead jazz sensibilities. and i like that.

This album, my dad bought probably around the time of it's release, '87 i think, I was probably six at the time. It's one of those albums that melted into my brain wihtout me realising at the time, and now muchos years later, i find it to be one of the best albums in the world ever. I used to protest that i hated PMG when i was younger, until about the age of 15, when i stopped and it was like an epiphone (sp?)

The intro to Minuano is a beautiful and slightly hauting melody. The voice really lifts the whole album for me. Was that Mark Ledford or the other guy? Is this song in 6/8? is that what the name means?

There are some artists performing on Metheny's path. I suggest for example Brian Hughes, Ken Navarro and Ray Lyon.

I will review Ray's new album "Beginning To See".
His tune "Keep Going" is the answer to "Are You Going With Me?" Ray first called this tune "Pat On The Back" before he changed the title.

Check http://cdbaby.com/cd/lyon3/from/hbh

and "Keep Going".

It would seem to me PMG, the band, is pretty much defunct.

It's been 3 years since The Way Up and Pat appears to be going full steam ahead with Trio and side projects. Since The Way Up he has released 2 projects with Brad Mehldau, one with Antonio Sanchez and he has another "trio" project coming out in February with a probably tour to follow. I was really surprised by the SECOND consecutive release with Mehldah (and I'll bet Lyle Mays was too). Plus the fact that PMG core members Steve Rodby and Lyle Mays websites haven't had updates in years...

I'm not trying to stir anything up or say PMG will never record again but it appears not even close to being on the radar anytime in the future. I hope I am wrong.

I feel sure that PMG will record again. But probably not until 2009. "The Way Up" is a tough act to follow and it will take awhile to compose the new music for the next one. In the meantime, Pat continues to get better and better, particularly as a guitarist & improviser. The 2 CDs with Mehldau and his quartet were very good. I have heard excerpts from the upcoming new trio CD and it sounds excellent as well.

Antiguabil - yes, the title means six-eight and the piece is in 6/8 time or 3/4 time, depending on how you feel it. When they play this song in concert, they skip the beautiful long intro entirely. (too difficult to pull of live?) There were 2 great singers in the band at that time - Mark Ledford (who recently passed) and David Blamires. I'm not sure which one is the main singer at the beginning of the long intro, however much of that section features both of them singing in unison as well.

Similar to my story, except I was ten and was exposed to it via the Weather Channel (my brother was obsessed with weather at age 4 and it was on all the time) and the Waaaave, that my dad always had on in the car on our weekends.

Somewhere in storage i have a tape of one of those concerts they used to play over the radio on weekend nights, sponsored by some audio company-- it's during the tour for Letter From Home and basically consists of those two albums. I played to death when I was a kid. (the other portion of the program was Shadowfax circa Songs for a Nuclear Village!)

I too had no idea how much that album would affect me-- to this day I get teary at some of the songs. No reason why, either!

Ah man, Shadowfax! I have one of their songs on Jazziz annual sampler from like 88 or so, "We used to laugh" i adore that song. in fact i even listened to it last night! bizarre.
I played that jazziz sampler to death as a kid... my first introduction to the ripps, acoustic alchemy, richard elliot, and many many more, every song on that cd was killer. must find it out...

I prefer the PMG live. I am anxious to hear the new trio CD. I think I will go watch the two tunes I have on DVD. Peace.

One of the most satisfying moments came several years ago when I was playing Still Life (Talking) at work. A co-worker, sitting about 20 feet away where the music was barely audible, called out, "Is that Last Train Home I hear?" Not only someone other than me who appreciates jazz but who actually recognized a song that wasn't by Kenny G or one of the BET cadre (Gerald Albright, Najee).
Minuano (Six-Eight) is probably my favorite PMG son ever, with It's Just Talk a close second.

I was well into my 30s and got it in the mail because I was doing a brunch show.

That tour was the first time I saw PMG live, and the first concert I attended in Jacksonville. I got the poster autographed after the show and still have that one framed and on the living room wall. Kurt Elling does beautiful things to Minuano
on his Man In The Air CD.

Whatever happened to PERRI.....the vocal trio that did great treatments of PMG tunes...."Jaco" being the most memorable....

They even toured with PMG and did a three song mini set on the "First Circle" tour.....WHICH by the way is also a tasty recording!!!

Paul

Ohhhhh... Perri! I loved them. Now, their stuff is out of print or on import.

Didn't they start out singing backup for Anita Baker? Wow, it's been so long since I've heard them.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by diduhearthat:
[QB]I feel sure that PMG will record again. But probably not until 2009.[QB][QUOTE]

Ken, I hope you are right. I suppose as long as Pat, Lyle Mays and Steve Rodby are at the core, it would be considered a Pat Metheny Group project.

In a "Where are they now" vain...I wonder what Lyle Mays has been doing. I probably wonder about him more than any other musician. To my knowledge all other PMG members of the past 10-15 years are still actively recording at some capacity but Lyle has seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth...and such a talent. Last I heard he still resides in Wisconsin and is a fairly private and family oriented person which is fine as nothing in the world is more important than your relationship with your spouse and family.

Yes....having Lyle Mays inactive for such long stretches of time is almost a crime....he is one of my very favorite keyboardists....heck fave musicians!

Is the fact that PMG take so much more money to record and tour a consideration ...do you think that like many, many contemporary jazz groups who used to tour and record every year....off the top of my head....Ritenour, Luc Ponty, Mangione, Weisberg, Carlton, Yellowjackets, Di Meola, Stanley Jordan etc....they USED to be around every year....now maybe only Spyro Gyra, Fourplay and the Ripps.

Paul