CD - Pat Metheny - Side Eye III+

1 CD

Right from the first bar of “In On It” it’s clear we’re listening to Pat Metheny, and an album with clear affinities to the Pat Metheny Group. No wonder it’s the opening track and was chosen as the first single from the album. That sound, it’s unmistakable: the soaring guitar lyricism, the sense of joy, the jazz/rock/Brazilian flavours, and nearly always lots going on: especially on this album, which features a trio augmented (hence the plus sign) by fifteen additional musicians.

It’s the second recording of Metheny’s Side-Eye, a project designed to showcase an evolving selection of new jazz talent. The first was 2021’s live recording Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV) featuring Metheny with James Francies on keyboards and Marcus Gilmore on drums: a performance that sounded like far more than a trio, thanks in part to Metheny’s “Orchestrion” technology (where he uses his guitar to trigger other instruments) and the uncanny ability of Francies to play authentic sounding bass lines while simultaneously playing piano, Hammond organ or synths.

This time round it’s a studio recording and the trio is Metheny with Chris Fishman on keyboards and Joe Dyson on drums – plus Daryl Johns (bass), Brandee Younger (harp), Luis Conte (percussion), and a vocal ensemble led by Mark Kibble, a tenor singer in the Grammy-winning a cappella gospel sextet Take 6.