the way up live

lost count of the times i have watched this one
the dvd of the concert of the album of the same name
i've been a pat metheny fan for a long time
starting in the early 80's with his 80/81 album
over the years he seems to have developed 3 quite separate performing ensembles
solo, trios with assorted musicians, and the pat metheny group
which has at it's core himself, lyle mays (keyboards) and steve rodby (bass)
and joined by a floating lineup of various other musicians
i used to think his previous albums and dvds were excellent
and he could not get any better - but he has
he and lyle mays apparantly locked themselves away
and wrote the album from start to finish
with the intention of producing a single piece
a culmination of their 25 years plus work
something that could be recorded
and not necessarily ever played live
i bought the album soon after release
played it relentlessly and was totally satisfied
i took him for his word when he said it wouldn't be played live
so when i stumbled on the dvd in a shop a while back
a smile was immediately placed firmly on my dial
the purchase was made and since then on a good night
the dvd is dropped in the player
the projector fired up
the red wine opened
and all else is forgotten
while the group performs the piece faultlessly
it's not a light piece of music
not something to have playing in the background
it demands attention and even concentration
to my untrained ears and eyes there is a lot going on
like a symphony orchestra in full flight
all 7 musicians working as manically as you would ever see
but it also has melody and patches of serenity
where an acoustic guitar may be used to calm us all down
but before we know it things start cranking up again
and we're off again watching in awe as the group
plays so brilliantly they make it look, well, enjoyable
i don't want to go on about it (lies, damn lies)
but to me it seems such an accomplished work
i'm surprised about how little it is known or sells
not like in his home country of the u s of a
where the album set up sell-out tours
received grammy nominations
and led the group to be invited to play at festivals
in front of hundreds of thousands of people
still i shouldn't complain
if they ever make it to this part of the world
chances are they won't be playing in any entertainment centre
my feeling is however is that if i am ever going to see them live
i'm going to have to start a travel plan
that will cross paths somewhere, sometime with the group
which reminds me of a sad story for me
went to adelaide last year as always for womadelaide
flew down on the thursday morning
picked up the local paper over a cup of coffee
to find a review of the concert from the previous night
as part of the adelaide arts festival
yup - pat metheny did a one-off show
and i flew to the city the day after
luckily i had womad to get over it
the way up by the pat metheny group
an essential part of the esne snoner live concert collection