Jazz breaking news: Pat Metheny To Release Solo Album

Titled What’s It All About the album is Metheny’s first since Orchestrion his “robot orchestra” record released at the beginning of last year. Metheny from time to time releases side project solo acoustic records dating back to New Chautauqua in 1979. This time he tackles an album of classic songs, the title taking its cue from ‘Alfie’ popularised in jazz by Sonny Rollins.

Recorded in his New York city home Metheny says in publicity material that he “wanted to record some of the music that was on my radar before I ever wrote a note of my own, or in a few cases, even before I played an instrument. I was born in 1954 and all of these songs were in the Top 40 during my childhood and early teen years. It was a period when harmony and melody were still important and viable elements in popular music. Every one of these tunes has something going on that is just hip on a musical level, no matter how you cut it. They have all stuck with me over the years.”

Mostly playing the baritone guitar, the instrument Metheny used on One Quiet Night, tracks are ‘The Sound of Silence’ (Paul Simon), ‘Cherish’ (Terry Kirkman), ‘Alfie’ (Burt Bacharach & Hal David), ‘Pipeline’ (Bob Spickard & Brian Carman), ‘Garota de Ipanema’ (Antonio Carlos Jobim & Vinicius de Moraes), ‘Rainy Days and Mondays’ (Roger S. Nichols & Paul H. Williams), ‘That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be’ (Carly Simon & Jacob Brackman), ‘Slow Hot Wind’ (Henry Mancini & Normal Gimbel), ‘Betcha by Golly, Wow’ (Thomas Bell & Linda Creed) and ‘And I Love Her’ (John Lennon & Paul McCartney).

– Stephen Graham