ccxliv. METHENY, Pat: Open

ccxliv. METHENY, Pat (1954-       )

Open (1980)
PM, guitar
Charlie Haden, bass
Dewey Redman, tenor saxophone
Jack DeJohnette, drums
(14:26)

from: 80/81.

After huge commercial and critical success after five albums with the Pat Metheny Group, PM had no particular reason to go out and to do this kind of adventurous -- potentially non-commercial -- outing, other than wanting to stretch himself musically and play ...

And stretch and play he did.

This is adventurous stuff, you only need to glance at the cats on the cover to see that. DeJohnette by himself is an amazing adventure.

This long open tune gives everyone a chance to stretch out their chops. The whole band vibrates with intensity and Pat needs no coaxing to become an ensemble player -- it's his date, after all, and he could have fronted the thing more obviously if he had so desired -- but he is a total team player.

**

The last few minutes were apparently something PM wrote out for the band to finish up on. The rest is just a group improvising like mad, creating some of the best ECM music from the time.

A million stars.