Description
There’s a palpable air of familiarity wafting from the music on Pat Metheny’s Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV). Those readily recognizable elements are no doubt enough to retain longtime fans of the multi-Grammy Award-winning musician and are probably also sufficient to pique the curiosity of more casual followers of the guitarist/composer over the course of his roughly half-century career. Either way, the connection(s) aid Metheny in fulfilling his ‘Side-Eye’ concept, which is two-fold: challenging himself in both playing and composing in fresh contexts and simultaneously giving some exposure to young(er) musicians he’s encountered in his travels around the globe.
A natural extension of the restless creativity that’s earmarked Pat’s endeavors over the years, this collaboration is the fourth in a series of such peer-to-peer partnerships and it gains additional novelty by dint of its three-man lineup: featuring Metheny on various guitars and bass, plus sophisticated axes of choice, with keyboardist James Francies and drummer Markus Gilmore, it is the bandleader’s first such foray with such an instrumental configuration since his early days in Kansas City(other trios have included only bass and drums).
