Yesterday evening I was listening to NPR and heard a review of the latest album from the Pat Metheny Group. I was a huge PMG fan many years ago, but my interest has waned as their sound became more formulaic and predictable. To his credit, Metheny continually tries to infuse the groups music with new life through the addition of new personnel, and their latest effort takes this same approach with the inclusion of chromatic jazz artist Gregoire Maret.
For anyone who attended the SPAH 2003 convention in Dallas, Maret was one of the featured performers, and put on an outstanding show, in my opinion. Admittedly, it took me some time to warm up to what he was doing, which was a pretty far departure from even the more traditional jazz chromatic work of Mike Turk. But by the end of his set I had come to understand and appreciate what he was doing.
You can listen to Tom Moon's review of "The Way Up" by the Pat Metheny Group (featuring Gregoire Maret) at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4525823
-tim
Tim Moyer Working Man's Harps http://www.workingmansharps.com/