Pat Metheny returned to Buenos Aires with a clever retrospective that left the audience in a state of complete happiness. It was almost three hours of a dazzling concert.

Metheny proposed a balanced retrospective of his vast career in which he combined brilliant compositions with other famous reunited in an aesthetic that does not recognize epochs, but rather a strongly melodic spiritmain attribute of his compositions, almost on the same level as his virtuosity.

The Gran Rex audience received the standing guitarist an ovation postponed in the two-year period that the artist needed to be able to return to Buenos Aires after the suspension of his concert due to the pandemic in March 2020.

He opened the concert alone with his Pikasso guitar, a hybrid of guitar, zither and lyre, with 42 strings and two neckscreated by the Canadian luthier Linda Manzer, and which introduces the public into a sort of daydream through which it travels paths that seem to choose at random with an instrument that allows almost anything.

He lays down his Pikasso and begins the real concert surrounded by his band: Gwilym Simcock at the piano, Linda May Han Oh to the double bass e Antonio Sanchez on drums and the first stop on this journey through its history is Life size life (1976), a powerful melodic piece that has many foreshadowing.

In fact, the idea of ​​the group during the concert was build a powerful atmospherefrom both melodica and Metheny’s improvisations, which had an inspired night.

He took the music as far as he could with his platinum tone and that prairie vibe that was as personal as it was realized. A show of sometimes overflowing and sometimes enclosed energy on which she has built a rich variety of sophisticated melodies. Better days ahead (1989) is the sign of his love for Brazilian music.

The group from the first moment sounded compact and with an earned ease the nearly 300 concerts they did together. There is a smooth integration that doesn’t need glances or signals. Now there is no doubt Metheny’s relationship with Sánchez, whom he feels is his natural interlocutor and with which he developed some of the most intense moments of the concert.

Metheny’s goal is to create a musical environment in which that musicians are pushed, as he says, to a place where they don’t feel comfortablethat’s why finding the right musicians is essential and here, without a doubt, he found them.

Simcock brings a share of freshness with his solos ranging from simple to complex measure to measure, although he has at times had to stop playing in the face of Metheny’s exuberant harmonizing ability.

Malaysian double bass player Han Oh has a pragmatically ubiquitous style, combining delicate lyricism with a monolithic sense of timing that provided a sure footing.

His solos were handcrafted pieces. Sánchez is one of the great drummers on the scene, with a solo-proof creativity (at last night’s concert he did at least four and all different) and with which the guitarist had already played. The feeling this society gives is one of ideal understanding.

An example was Question and answer (2008) with a monumental solo show by Sánchez showing a surprising variety of ideas and traits; his intensity in developing ideas is in line with Metheny’s offensive style, which swapped his guitar for a Roland G303 synthesized with custom vibrato which transforms the instrument into an orchestra.

The dialogue between them is of an improvised agility that puts the audience in a state of euphoria that explodes with the final chords.

Another key moment was when the duo Metheny and Sánchez called and responded with creative rock riffs. Sometimes they were reminiscent of Hendrix-Mitchell, in Monterey Pop, but the guitarist’s rock ideas have an unconventional, enviable originality.

Tribute to Ennio Morricone

The acoustic moments of the concert were a constant. A space in which we find Metheny as a superlative harmonizer that brings the audience closer to a serene intimacy.

With the double bass player Man Oh he made a duo that he opened with Love themefrom Paradise cinemaa tribute and at the same time almost a fantasy in a concert of such power.

Beyond the melodic beauty of Ennio Morricone’s composition on Pat’s guitar, the double bass player showed a beautiful lyrical ease in tune with the theme. A moment when the Great Rex entered a state of healthy reverie.

The concert went through several moments in which Metheny showed his talent and that narrative genius that he develops with memorable melodies and with that open-air atmosphere of its native Midwest.

His ability to seamlessly bring together elements from different genres and his long, epic solos make for powerful and personal aesthetic statements.

Another and …? there were five

Undoubtedly, the audience’s support and love for Metheny was evident at the end of the concert. There were five encores and he had to go on stage three times to reciprocate so much love.

He combined acoustic moments, sitting in the center of the stage, with others, where the group imposed a strong response to so much fervor and an ending with Song for Bilbao (if after so many entries and exits I remember well), with solos included that left the feeling of an artist who, with that perpetual smile, does not hold back his genius.

CJL