Into the Metheny-verse: an awe-inspiring solo set at Barbican kicks off EFG London Jazz Festival in style

As a long time Pat Metheny listener and observer, the concept of an entire evening of solo guitar held a certain amount of trepidation: could the maestro meet expectations, would it mean sacrificing that expansive Metheny-verse for something a little underwhelming? His latest albums, Dream Box and Moondial, are decidedly low-key, “hardcore mellow” as Pat himself has described them, yet, as with everything he does, they hold many subtle depths after close and repeated listens. Yet, this ‘Evening with…’ style show unfolded with the same pacing and contrasts Pat has explored over his extraordinary career, and some 53 albums, so any nerves as to the quality of this solo outing proved misplaced.

The opening medley of songs surfed briefly through telling numbers – ‘This Is Not America’ (his cooly prophetic Bowie collaboration) – and ‘Better Days Ahead’ (the bouncy Brazilian original from Letter From Home) all given a bittersweet relevance in light of the divisive US election result – and set the intimate mood for the night. It’s worth noting that for all his guitar hero status, Metheny’s touch on the guitar wrings emotion from every note or chord, a tactile attack that’s always pushing things forward, and this is to the fore in this stripped back setting – adding a rawness you’d not find in a typical classical recital.

He talked a lot too. And this is where a new window into Metheny’s presentational world opened up as well. “My connection to the instrument is exactly typical of somebody my age (70) which is I saw The Beatles on TV…” – to appreciative audience laughter – “… on the Ed Sullivan show. Well I was just in awe of that, while my parents shivered in terror in the background!” To more laughter. “It was the first time the guitar had made an appearance in our house, as an element of the culture that might even indicate everything that would happen and go wrong – and it did and they were correct.” He went on to explain that in contrast to his brother Mike and his dad, who were excellent trumpet players, he was “really bad” on the instrument. Buying a guitar with his own money a couple of years later and then hearing Miles Davis’ album Four And More was his lightbulb moment and he said, “forget about The Beatles, what’s that?”

Finding his way from garage band jams to getting good enough to play on the Kansas City jazz scene that had few guitarists all aided his early development. It also dawned on him that the guitar is an instrument that can be almost anything in music – and that combined with his obvious lifelong love on the instrument provided a really powerful undercurrent this evening.

That ability to shapeshift his six strings across sub-genres within jazz has of course seen Metheny work with everyone from Ornette Coleman, Derek Bailey and Joni Mitchell to Michael Brecker, Dave Holland and Brad Mehldau. And yet it was his deep personal connection with bassist Charlie Haden that resulted in one of Pat’s outstanding all-acoustic releases, Beyond The Missouri Sky, that was celebrated tonight as well – as he dived into a section featuring ‘Waltz for Ruth’, ‘Our Spanish Love Song’, ‘Cinema Paradiso Love Theme’, ‘Two For the Road’ and ‘He's Gone Away’.

The altered tunings of his Baritone guitar were up next – as was a medley of songs from the mesmerising Moondial album – the instrument’s extra low bass strings creating a much bigger sound, with Metheny’s characteristic counterpoint still intact despite its unusual pitches. But, contrast is king in Pat’s musical universe, so with mellowness explored he grabbed an electric hollow body guitar to scratch and scrape anew his ‘Zero Tolerance for Silence’ that pummelled the venue’s speakers with some stereo trickery from the mixing desk. As a calming palate cleanser, he then moved to his 42-string Pikasso Guitar for a reverberating near-orchestral piece, with booming bass notes plotting imagined chords under waves of shimmering strings and oriental pentatonic melodies.  

Gloves off and plugged in to yet another guitar, Metheny then began some subtle live looping – laying down a walking bass line that morphed into a blues – the circling sequence allowing Pat to blow freely on top, now in guitar solo mode. But this was merely a warm up for a mind-boggling take on ‘Sueño con México’ from 1979's New Chautauqua – this time played by his Orchestrion which was revealed at the back of the stage. The midi-driven percussion instruments all chattering and chiming to make a one man band that filled the stage – a bass guitar on a stand was played and looped, yet another guitar on a stand layered on top – and a vibraphone solo triggered at the same time as Pat played the notes on his customised archtop.

Bringing things back down to earth with a simple acoustic encore of Jimmy Webb’s deeply affecting ‘Wichita Linesman’ was a gentle reminder that for all his showmanship and musical brilliance, there’s a heartfelt authenticity behind everything Metheny plays.  

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This gig is part of the Barbican's EFG London Jazz Festival programme which also includes concerts from Charles Tolliver, Tim Garland, Cassie Kinoshi and many more - for the full line up visit www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/contemporary-music