Scooter Chronicles

Pat Metheny Group - “Imaginary Day”

Tracks:

1. Imaginary Day
2. Follow Me
3. Into the Dream
4. A Story Within the Story
5. The Heat of the Day
6. Across the Sky
7. The Roots of Coincidence
8. Too Soon Tomorrow
9. The Awakening

I introduced myself to Pat Metheny. I was getting into jazz around 1990, and found out that the Warren Public Libraries had CD’s that patrons could take out. I figured it was a great way to listen to music before you buy it. So I headed over to the branch on 13 Mile between Mound and Ryan and along with other artists, took out a few of his albums.

The main members of PMG at the time (from left): Pat Metheny (guitars and synths), Lyle Mays (keyboards and piano), Paul Wertico (drums), and Steve Rodby (acoustic and electric bass).

Other musicians involved in the recording of this album include Mark Ledford (vocals, trumpet, flugelhorn, and bass trumpet), David Blamires (vocals, mellophone, baritone acoustic guitar, electric guitar, violin, recorder, and trumpet), Mino Cinelu (percussion), David Samuels (percussion), Glen Velez (percussion), and Don Alias (percussion).

The first track I heard on this album was “Follow Me” on public radio in Louisville, Kentucky. It was fantastic! It helped that at the time I was listening to a lot of contemporary jazz. Once I had some free time (I was rather busy down there) I bought the album. To this day (though his latest “The Way Up” is as good) I feel that this is PMG’s best album.

The first two songs are good enough to buy the album for alone. The title track is another amazing tune. The half of the song Pat plays a fretless acoustic guitar. Then he switches to electric for the second half, giving the song an even strong sound. Wonderful arrangement, dynamics, and production. And as I said, “Follow Me” is an excellent song that Pat uses open harmonics and has a great guitar-synth solo. (Gotta be careful listening to Metheny …… a lot of solos sound like keyboards, but are guitar-synth.)

Pat’s acoustic work on this album just really seems to stick out compared to his previous and subsequent work, at least to me. “The Heat of the Day” is a great example of that. It also has another great guitar-synth solo. Pat’s playing sounds very fluid even though he is really attacking the notes. They are fast and furious at times, yet he makes it sound effortless.

“The Roots of Coincidence” is a very interesting tune for PMG, since the first half sounds like a electronic/dance version of something they would do. It ends in a very soft, ambient way. The vocal work on this album is much like PMG’s work from the late 80’s through the 90’s. It is wordless and all similar from album to album, yet still sounds fresh on each, as it does on here “Imaginary Day”.

There are many of you that have probably heard PMG’s work without owning any of their albums or even being a fan of jazz. If you have watched the “Local Forecast” on the Weather Channel, chances are that you have heard a song or two. Of course that may not make you rush out to buy any either, but if you like jazz and have not listened to any Metheny, then shame on you. You should go get this album.