Sunday, September 13, 2009

PMG Rules!


My husband and I loved Pat Metheny Group. But it was quite some years ago. As we move on with life, we begin liking other kinds of music: impresionnist, contemporary music, chamber orchestra, and loads of others. Jazz comes by once in a while in our music-listening list, and not always PMG.
Yet somehow life turns us around to cherish what we have left behind. It happened as follows: Octavian was introducing different kinds of music to our 2-year-old son, Dharma. He gave him Nat King Cole evergreen songs, Akira Jimbo drum sessions, Mozart Baby Classic records, and Pat Metheny Group albums to listen to. It turns out that our toddler loves the last one more than others.
So we begin giving him Pat Metheny Group videos to watch and search for other - more recent - videos on PMG to add to his music-learning. And to our astonishment, we too start to understand the brilliance we overlooked behind the work of this jazz band. The originality, creativity and fine-touch this group offers their audience is truly remarkable!
There have been changes throughout the years, no doubt. They now have Richard Bona on percussion instead of Armando Marcal, Chuong Vu on trumpet to replace David Blamires and Mark Ledford, and Antonio Sanchez in replacement for Paul Wertico on drums. Aside from these replacements, Pat Metheny (guitar), Lyle Mays (keyboard) and Steve Rodby (bass) maintain their positions since the earliest formation of the group.
But the touch and crystal-like fineness of PMG remains the same throughout decades, despite alteration of personnels. This alone is something worthy of praise, not to mention the even richer quality of their music.
Two-thumbs up for Pat Metheny and his group! They deserve standing ovation in every concert they perform!

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