Dear Friends of Sound!
Checking in with you surrounded by a flurry of notes emanating out of Pat’s solo break on “Third Wind.” How is that possible?
It’s possible because it’s Metheny and he’s da man!
Pat’s innovative guitar playing and his gorgeous compositions have had an enormous influence on me and my music. When I blasted out of high school I spent a sweltering summer in Boston and that’s when I first heard him play. I was blown away and followed him around town and eventually had the good fortune of taking a few lessons with him. It was one of the big moments of my musical life and I remain a true believer in the messages he’s sending out through the wind.
For this Thursday’s livestream concert we’re playing a collection of his music set to lyrics by Randy Phillips and sung by Leonard Patton. We’re traveling the airwaves with Pat’s ballads and burners plus an Ornette Coleman tangent and a tribute piece I wrote for Pat and his hometown “Lee’s Summit.”
I told Pat about this concert and he’s contributing a brand new hot off the press composition of his that’s never been heard or played before. With the pandemic’s grounding force Pat’s of course not on tour but instead is starting each day off with the guitar in hand, hunting for that magic tune.
Here, I’ll let him tell the story:
“Basically, I wake up every morning and write a tune – mostly knowing that my batting average basically follows that of an average Padres bench outfielder…around .217 or so….lol. So, I figure if I write a lot of stuff, I can get maybe 2 out of 10 that I will feel good about maybe surviving getting pounded on every night for 150 nights in a row or so. But, honestly, I never really know which ones will make it and which won’t – nor does it mean that the other 8 are bad tunes…just that I don’t think they have the robust thing that I shoot for.
So….how about this? Maybe I could send you a tune or two from “the pile” and you guys could do a version? No obligation…just a thought of a way I might contribute.”
We’re thrilled and honored to launch his new song into space and I’ve been working on it and it’s a beauty.
The band includes some of the best with Leonard Patton on vocals, John Opferkuch on piano, Mack Leighton on bass, Duncan Moore on drums, and me on guitar.
Here’s a poster and if you click on it’ll take you to YouTube where the livestream’s going down.
Our thanks to George Varga at the San Diego Union Tribune for helping spread the news of our ongoing livestream concert series. Keeping the revolution spinning!
(Click the article below to read it).
Also just out, my longtime guitar friend Alejandro Sancho has released a new collection of solo guitar interpretations of classic tango songs on a CD called Tangos II. Gorgeous music emanating from a really special fellow.
I first met Alejandro in Buenos Aires when I was there in the ’90’s playing and teaching. He and I became close friends and at one point he moved up to Del Mar to be close to and to study music with me. At another point in time him and his samba group traveled all the way from Argentina to record at SpragueLand. Since then Ale’s moved to Denmark and is married to Ellen and has a cool little kid named Felix. I see him and his family every time I travel to Denmark which has been a fair amount these last few years. What a good man!
And his music, his playing — gentle and precise with the mix of tango and his jazz influence thrown in. It’s beauty in aerated motion!
If this sounds good to you, venture here to bring some of Ale’s music into your life:
Play on good man!
That’s it good people and thanks for reading along. See you in the sky on Thursday night!
adios, Peter