PAT METHENY — Dream Box (review)

PAT METHENY — Dream Box album cover Album · 2023 · Post-Fusion Contemporary Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
FunkFreak75
It's been a while since I've heard a Pat Metheny album that was entirely him doing solo guitar. (Orchestration doesn't count.) 1979's New Chatauqua (my first Metheny purchase back in 1980)) may be the only one I can think of (as well as the one album that I know that this album most reminds me of--besides the duets with Charlie Haden), though many of his albums contained solo pieces (as do his concerts), not many contain only him. Whereas the music of Pat's youth was much more diversified in dynamics and temperament, this one seems to be quite contemplative--reminding much more of the solo piano works of the late great BILL EVANS (which also makes this album quite reminiscent of the GREAT tribute album John McLaughlin did of Bill Evans songs on his 1993 album, "Time Remembered"). There are plenty of familiar melodies delivered in little riffs within the perfectly rendered guitar-generated songs. It always amazes me how quiet Pat's playing: both from his fingerboard work and his flatpicking. Also, I realize that none of these songs is rendered through one single track--that Pat often includes layers of support guitars and bass beneath his lead instrument, so I don't want to give the wrong impression with my categorization of this album as works of "solo guitar" play.

A very difficult album to rate (as are the individual songs which, again like John McLaughlin's 1993 "Time Remembered" album, all serve to evoke a flow of one contemplative, retrospective and introspective collection of songs) I find it difficult to now give this gorgeous, nostalgic album from one of the all-time masters of the melodic guitar anything less than five stars. Still, this is not New Age or smooth jazz so much as the privilege of sitting in the same room (space) with one of the great guitar masters. At the same time, there a few standout songs. The pop familiarity ("Spooky" and "Am I the Same Girl " come to mind) of 5. "Never Was Love" (5:57) is unmistakable and completely disarming. 6. "I Dream Too Easily" (5:08) sounds as if it is about to be blessed with a vocal by 1990s DIANA KRALL. 9. "Clouds Can't Change The Sky" (7:15) opens like a Cole Porter song before slowing down and spacing out for one of Pat's deeply emotional solo pieces--one that would have been rendered trebly more beautiful by Jeremy Lubbock's wonderful walls of sound from the London Orchestra or Toots Thielemans' harmonica for the Grammy Award winning 1992 album Secret Story album. And, of course, there is the album's opener, 1. "The Waves Are Not the Ocean" (7:14) whose introspective beauty sets the stage for all that is to follow.

Beauty. Something that is ever appreciated, never expected, always precious and satisfying.

Another masterpiece from one of jazz AND prog's true geniuses.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Sunset Park Post Bop
TOBIAS MEINHART
Buy this album from MMA partners
Rudi Mahall, Florian Stoffner, Michael Griener : Die Exorzistin Avant-Garde Jazz
RUDI MAHALL
Buy this album from MMA partners
Ernesto Rodrigues, Nuno Torres & Guilherme Rodrigues : Whispers in the Moonlight - In seven movements Jazz Related Improv/Composition
ERNESTO RODRIGUES
Buy this album from MMA partners
Ernesto Rodrigues, Carlos Santos & Miguel Mira : The knowledge that our time is limited can inspire us Jazz Related Improv/Composition
ERNESTO RODRIGUES
Buy this album from MMA partners
Carlos Zíngaro, Carlos Bechegas, Ernesto Rodrigues : Spleen Jazz Related Improv/Composition
CARLOS ZINGARO
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

FASCINATING RHYTHM - The Amazing Keystone Big Band feat. Neima Naouri
THE AMAZING KEYSTONE BIG BAND
snobb· 23 hours ago
Alicante
RENAUD GARCIA-FONS
js· 1 day ago
She's Forty with Me
WILTON CRAWLEY
js· 1 day ago
Tall Tillie's Too Tight
WILTON CRAWLEY
js· 1 day ago
Rhoda Scott Ladies and Gentlemen - special guest : David Linx
RHODA SCOTT
snobb· 1 day ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed