Pat Metheny: The ECM Years, 1975-1984

by Mervyn Cooke

The guitarist and composer Pat Metheny ranks among the most popular and innovative jazz musicians of all time. In Pat Metheny: The ECM Years, 1975-1984, Mervyn Cooke offers the first in-depth account of Metheny's early creative period, during which he recorded eleven stunningly varied albums for the pioneering European record label ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music). This impressive body of recordings encompasses both straight-ahead jazz playing with virtuosic small ensembles and the increasingly complex textures and structures of the Pat Metheny Group, a hugely successful band also notable for its creative exploration of advanced music technologies which were state-of-the-art at the time.

Metheny's music in all its shapes and forms broke major new ground in its refusal to subscribe to either of the stylistic poles of bebop and jazz-rock fusion which prevailed in the late 1970s. Through a series of detailed analyses based on a substantial body of new transcriptions from the recordings, this study reveals the close interrelationship of improvisation and pre-composition which lies at the very heart of the music. Furthermore, these analyses vividly demonstrate how Metheny's music is often conditioned by a strongly linear narrative model: both its story-telling characteristics and atmospheric suggestiveness have sometimes been compared to those of film music, a genre in which the guitarist also became active during this early period.

The melodic memorability for which Metheny's compositions and improvisations have long been world-renowned is shown to be just one important element in an unusually rich and flexible musical language that embraces influences as diverse as bebop, free jazz, rock, pop, country & western, Brazilian music, classical music, minimalism, and the avant-garde. These elements are melded into a uniquely distinctive soundworld which, above all, directly reflects Metheny's passionate belief in the need to refashion jazz in ways which can allow it to speak powerfully to each new generation of youthful listeners.

Genres: Music, Jazz, Nonfiction

328 pages, Paperback

Published July 3, 2017

Reviews

[Randall Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Pat quotes: “If I played ‘All the Things You Are’, or standards, or bossa novas or something, I always ended up sounding more conventional than I wanted to sound, so I thought if I wrote music that set up this other vibe, maybe it could help.” “I still think in terms of trumpet most of the time. I think in terms of how one would tongue a phrase in the back of my mind.” Pat stresses the importance of “breath” in improvising (like Wes did). Pat said guitarists often get caught in patterns and didn’t hear everything they were going to play whereas wind players had to because “you actually have to breathe the note out.” Lyle Mays had to remove all Bebop elements from his playing while working with Pat. If fact, it is said Richard Nixon had to see Deep Throat three times to get it down Pat. Pat said, “If I wanted to play my main guitar at the volume we were playing at, I had to clear up that upper mid-range area. The sound of my Gibson 175 is kind of mid-rangey and I had to clear up that mid-range area. The solution was to make the time come more from the cymbals than from the bass drum and a heavy backbeat. Our basic thrust was to get away from the backbeat – have it sort of implied, and have it loose the way Elvin Jones and Tony Williams are loose – while playing even 8th-note music.” Pat wanted to play on changes rather than single chord vamps while using cymbal-based straight eighths to be neither too jazz nor too rock. “The cymbals and the guitar are setting the top level of the dynamic range, so I want those cymbals to sound fantastic. It was necessary to find guys who are capable of playing high level bebop but are never going to do it. When I play in the group I rarely play chords; if I do, its only one or two notes that can sit in with what the piano’s doing. I rarely bend strings, so if Mark is playing fretless it gives it a little more mystery, which I like.” Lyle tuned his autoharp to an open D chord after removing wood chord bars for Phase Dance. Lyle’s Oberheim FVS-1 (modular four-voice) is used by Lyle for most of his melody bits until the Prophet 5 arrived on the scene. The Oberheim was the choice for pads and what Pat called “cello-like functions”. Table 4.1 in this book has a terrific musical/time analysis of As Falls Witchita. A great resource for fans of Pat, Lyle or ECM – this book is way better than the Pat Metheny Interviews by Richard Niles.

[Steve Gerdes · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a guitarist, and Pat Metheny fan since the mid 80's, this book was really special to me. Such a great insight into the man and his music.

[Sam Plumb · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

I’ve been sick for 2 days so I cozied up and read this while listening to as much Pat Metheny as I could get my ears on.

Superbly researched and chock full of quotes and anecdotes that give valuable context to the first decade of PM’s recording career. Highly recommend for people who are just completely obsessed with PM like I am.

[Serge Pierro · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of this nature has been long overdue. It's hard to believe that such an important innovator/composer of contemporary jazz has not had at least one book written about him… until now. Mervyn Cooke has assembled a brilliant look at the music of Pat Metheny during the ECM years and does a great job in breaking down each of the albums during this period.

One of the highlights of the book is that there are numerous musical examples written out in musical notation. Especially of note, is the analysis of both the live and studio versions of "Are You Going With Me?", both written so that you can compare bar by bar what Metheny played over each chord change… amazing!

Even though Pat Metheny is one of my main influences on guitar (Allan Holdsworth being the other), I was still able to learn a great deal by the information contained within.

And although the book is Metheny-centric, I was happy to see that there was coverage of ECM records themselves, as they have proven over the years to be just as innovative as Metheny's music.

Perhaps it's time for Mr. Cooke to consider another volume covering the material from 1985 to present!

This is an absolute must read for fans of Pat Metheny!

[Scott Radway · Rating 4 out of 5]

While some of the music theory sections went more in-depth than I personally needed, I thought the story aspect of his personal musical development was interesting and well-told.

I often have conflicted feelings about how Metheny describes his own music (or at least his musical intentions) versus how the music comes across to me as a listener -- he talks frequently about dynamics and intensity, both the band and him individually, and yet I've always found his guitar tone SO mellow that I don't always feel the intensity he seems to be going for as a composer, even when he drifts into uncommon tonalities. I also prefer his trio works over the Group albums -- while reading the book it made me interested to revisit those Group albums with a fresh ear, but in many cases I still walked away feeling underwhelmed by them. The details about their creation were still interesting, regardless, even if the music doesn't always hold my attention.

[JDK1962 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was great: hearing Metheny's New Chautauqua while walking through a record store in 1979 is what really began my journey down the jazz rabbit hole, and I'm very familiar with his output during this era. As I'm currently studying jazz guitar, I think I'll be coming back to this book when (in several years) I hope to finally be competent enough to try and tackle some of these tunes: most of the book is in-depth musical examples (especially solos), so it's a good resource to have in addition to Metheny's lead sheets.

I'm not sure how much this book will appeal to those who are not musicians. It's not a history: non-musical material tends to mainly focus on the context necessary to understand the album's line-up and intent. Plus there's a bit on cover art and design.

[Patrick Hanlon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A richly detailed and satisfying read for a Metheny fan. The book offers a great look at the formative years of Metheny's career as a sideman and eventually a leader throughout is tenure at ECM Records. It is well-researched and well-informed thanks to interviews with Metheny's colleagues and Metheny himself. There are glances ahead to the rest of his career and clear lines drawn to many of his influences.

[Thomas Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very in-depth on PM/PMG's musical composition, notation, and theory, which I am sure hits home to Metheny followers competent in those disciplines.

But, the book does have lots of treasures for those, like me, who are not musicians but are nonetheless huge PM/PMG fans. Since buying "American Garage" in 1980, and then buying one by one the then back-catalog, then each new release, the music of PM/PMG--through all the iterations-- has always entranced me. I've been lucky enough to have seen Pat or the group perform at least 6 or 7 times. Truly lucky.

Highly recommend.

[David Brimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far more technical than literary, this still serves as a good dissection of Metheny’s early recordings. Not really for the non-musical, as the vast majority of the book is devoted to theoretical dissections of Metheny’s compositions and solos (including MANY charts). If you are a trained musician and have a basis in jazz theory, this book will tickle your fancy!

[Serdar Karabati · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Domingo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pat Metheny ECM Years

Excelente libro para entender la evolución musical del Metheny Group y de Pat como instrumentista y líder de la banda

[Greg Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

A much needed book in which the author, Mervyn Cooke, takes a unique look at how Metheny approached music from his early years with Gary Burton to his years as a leader or sideman. Cooke also looks at what Metheny is doing outside his ECM years but helps all of us understand the ECM process- a rather wide ranging attempt given the strong output of many artists.

I have enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to any ECM enthusiast or Metheny fan. I no longer am puzzled by "As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls"