This two-disc release documents performances from the 2000 world tour of the
Pat Metheny Trio, featuring
Larry Grenadier on bass and
Bill Stewart on drums. Like the trio's spectacular studio release earlier the same year, the live album draws on material that spans
Metheny's career. The opener, in fact, is "Bright Size Life," the first track from
Metheny's 1976 debut album of the same name. That this song was first played by the late supremo of the electric bass,
Jaco Pastorius, gives
Grenadier's acoustic bass interpretation a certain historical import. Another surprise is "Unity Village," which
Metheny played as a solo piece on
Bright Size Life; here it's heard with the full trio. Quite remarkably,
Metheny manages to integrate all his various manifestations from over the years in this one simple group. One minute he's a pastoral melodicist ("The Bat," "Night Turns Into Day"), the next a post-bop sharpshooter ("All the Things You Are," "Giant Steps," "Soul Cowboy"), then an avant-noise experimentalist ("Faith Healer"), then a quirky multi-instrumentalist ("Counting Texas," for fretless 12-string guitar, and "Into the Dream," for 42-string guitar). Many of the tunes have appeared on
Metheny albums past, but they're all thoroughly reinvented here. On that note, if you don't go for the mainstream sound of
the Pat Metheny Group, you owe yourself a listen to "James" and "So May It Secretly Begin," two
PMG staples that
Metheny puts through the wringer, giving them new life as vehicles for burning trio improvisation. Paradoxically then,
Trio Live can almost be thought of as a
Metheny retrospective, even as it represents a bold step forward. The guitarist's stature is bolstered enormously by
Grenadier and
Stewart, who work a great deal but are still fresh, new faces on the jazz scene. And as for
Metheny's playing, it seems to improve exponentially by the decade. ~ David R. Adler