Pat Metheny’s Imaginary Day: Magnificent Metheny Music!

Pat Metheny’s Imaginary Day: Magnificent Metheny Music!

By Jim Zaworski

I purchased this CD brand new way back when it was released, in 1997. Then, I lost it. Then I wondered if I had ever bought it before. Last week, I found it again, still sealed and laying where it had fallen. Behind my shelf unit on which my stereo system and all the CD’s reside! Well, I had to open up this unexpected “gift”, and give it a listen. Well, let me tell you (!); I wasn’t disappointed. Pat Metheny is one of my favorite guitar players, and also one of my favorite musicians and composers of music too. Metheny’s music is best classed as jazz oriented firstly and fore mostly, but he has got the wonderful element of “fusion” music going on all at once as well. Elements of classical music, Latin, jazz, rock, pop, the blues, and “world music” all enter into the mix of “fusion”, and Metheny’s music is no exception. I also had rented the DVD of “Imaginary Day Live”, so I wanted to hear the studio version. This was cool because I usually watch concert videos or attend concerts after I hear the latest studio music, and am relatively familiar with the material before jumping into a concert. Of course with Metheny, I’ve been a fan of his since the 1980s, and with artists of his ilk, I buy sound unheard (which is how I bought this CD in 1997, it just took 7 years to listen to it!). What follows is a table of information on this CD, followed by a review of what I consider to be its highlights.

Information on Pat Metheny’s “Imaginary Day”.

Record Label: Warner Brothers
Copyright Date: 1997
Listening Format: Music CD
Track List:
1. Imaginary Day
2. Follow Me
3. Into the Dream
4. A Story Within a Story
5. The Heat of the Day
6. Across the Sky
7. The Roots of Coincidence
8. Too Soon Tomorrow
9. The Awakening

Personnel:
Pat Metheny: acoustic, electric and synthesized guitars
Lyle Mays: acoustic piano and keyboards
Steve Rodby: Acoustic and Electric Bass
Paul Wertico: drums
Mark Ledford: Vocals, trumpet, flugelhorn, bass trumpet
David Blamires: vocals, mellophone, baritone acoustic guitar, electric guitar, violin, recorder and trumpet
Mino Cinelu: percussion
David Samuels: Percussion
Glean Velez: percussion
Don Alias: percussion

Producer: Pat Metheny
Co-produced by: Lyle Mays and Steve Rodby


Review/Highlights.

“Imaginary Day”. By Metheny and Mays. Running Time: 10 minutes and 11 seconds.

This, the title track, is an excellent piece of music that starts the CD off. As with 99% of Metheny’s music, it’s an instrumental track. The music begins with a bang! Pat plays his acoustic guitar on the high end as an immediate counterpoint. The dramatic beginning continues along with alternate flutes, synthesizers, drums and Pat’s acoustic guitar. Then, the unmistakable stand up acoustic bass of Steve Rodby hums in, with Wertico’s cymbal work and percussion work backing. Pat plays his acoustic guitar, which is most likely synthesized to sound like a sitar from India. His playing is simple, yet complex at the same time, with harmonics being struck. There is another guitar player backing him on this one, I think the “baritone acoustic guitar” of David Blamires perhaps. This track at the midway point changes from this rather introspective music, with the change being initiated by the same kind of introduction that initiates the song. The change now is to a faster tempo, a jazz tempo. Drummer Wertico initiates a nice jazzy beat, and there is a nice back and forth between the keyboards/synthesizers of Lyle Mays and the various trumpets and wind instruments of the additional musicians of the group, as well as the constantly changing and ever present different percussion instrumentation. Pat then comes in rather masterfully on his electric/synthesized guitar, playing some typical Metheny counterpoints on his guitar, and one can almost see his face distort, as he bends the strings (as he is apt to do in concert). Pat solos for about three minutes, getting more intense and profound as the solo progresses. It’s a full 10 minutes plus for this song, but it’s worth it. It’s also one of my favorites on this CD.

“Follow Me”. By Metheny and Mays. Running time: 5 minutes and 56 seconds.

”Follow Me” is one of my favorite tracks on this CD, and it is probably the coolest jazz tune on this particular CD. Immediately, there is a nice feel about this tune. A toe tapping beat with bass guitar and acoustic guitars playing the syncopated beginning, with Pat coming in right away with some really nice harmonic work on his guitar. Shakers, percussion and drums are playing the whole time. Then Pat gets to the heart of the track, with a very insightful and nice main theme on his acoustic guitar, which also sounds Sitar-like in sound. There are two backing vocalists who harmonize with the guitar at strategic times during the tune. Pat first initiated this to his music back in the early 1980s, I believe, having toured South America, and adding some of the distinctiveness of Brazilian music to his own. You hear Lyle Mays piano work a littler better on this one, as he harmonizes in the background with Pat’s harmonics. This is what I would call a “perfect song”, except for a sudden change that Pat brings into the middle of it, with his “trumpet synthesized guitar sound”, which kind of screams at you for 45 seconds. I like it and don’t like at the same time. I just don’t think it fits into this track, but would be more appropriate in some other tune. But, whatever, it’s over and done with and we are back to the main theme and to the end quickly afterwards. Still, “Follow Me” is one of my favorite tracks on Imaginary Day.

“Into the Dream”. By Pat Metheny
Running time: 2 minutes and 27 seconds.

Pat plays an outrageously odd guitar here: the 42 string “Pikasso Guitar”. This is an acoustic guitar solo, and Pat plays this weird guitar, a double-necked guitar with “sympathetic” strings going all over the body of the guitar. He plays “two hand tap” method like Michael Hedges, and also finger picking style all at once. This guitar has sounds that go as low as a bass guitar, and as high as a harp. On the video of “Imaginary Day Live”, Pat opens the concert with this track. I was impressed with how he manages to keep it all going in the live version, but the studio version sounds much better than the live one. Again, it’s a brilliant piece of music on a really interesting guitar.

“A Story Within a Story”. By Metheny and Mays. Running time: 8 minutes and 1 second.

This is classic Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays. These two have been playing together for over twenty years, and one gets the feel of a close musical collaboration between them, like Rogers and Hammerstein, or Lennon and McCartney. Pat plays electric guitar in this one, a Les Paul Special I believe and Mays plays grand piano as his foil. It’s a classic Metheny/Mays tune in its soft feel, sophistication, and jazzy atmosphere about it. It’s another one that I like a lot. There’s even a trumpet solo in the middle, complete with mute plunger ala Miles Davis style. Jazz, pure and simple. Yet complex and ever-changing; a lot like love.

“The Roots of Coincidence”. By Metheny and Mays. Running time: 7 minutes and 48 seconds.

This one is totally uncharacteristic of Pat Metheny! This one at the outset is not a jazz piece at all, but at first glance, a dark techno piece! The pre-programmed keyboard synthesizer sequence is met with a vicious Metheny electric guitar, a total contrast to his “nice” style that he usually plays. Still, it’s a cool change and really makes this CD one of the most diverse Metheny CD’s in recent years. Mays even plays the electric guitar in the crazed middle part. Somehow it works out and is a favorite of mine, even though I don’t like techno music.

“The Awakening” by Metheny and Mays. 9 minutes 28 seconds.

This is a great tune to end this CD. It sort of wraps up all of the music that came before in the previous 8 tracks of this CD, and brings it to a wonderful conclusion through this climactic song. The feel is that of culmination and reflection, and drama. “The Awakening” is a brilliant and dramatic piece of instrumental music that builds and builds throughout. I think I like this one the best of all on this CD. The synthesized guitar and keyboard synthesizers really seem to give a lot of meaning and poignance to the ambience of the track. You get a feel of a person opening his eyes to finally see the world around him, for the first time. There is a beautiful piano solo in the middle by Lyle Mays, with some of the most tender and attentive piano playing I have ever heard him do. With the touch of three or four notes, he conveys so much meaning (around the 4 minute to 5 minute mark). It’s really incredible. I never thought much of Mays before, as my keyboard favorites are Chick Corea, Oscar Peterson, Rick Wakeman, Dave Brubeck, Keith Emerson, and their ilk. Pat also has a nice go of it too in this track. The 9 minutes and 28 seconds also go by quickly. It’s a great Metheny tune, to be sure.

All in all, “Imaginary Day” is a must have CD for the Pat Metheny fan. It’s also a great addition to any music lovers’ library. It may not be the best introduction to Metheny’s music, but it will do in a pinch, as it displays the range of this musician and composer. “Imaginary Day” just makes me want to go out and buy more Metheny!

Related epinions I've written on Pat Metheny:

http://www.epinions.com/content_28842167940