Images of Metheny by Jason Vieaux (review)

Jeffrey Noonan

American Music, Volume 31, Number 3, Fall 2013, pp. 373-374 (Review)

Published by University of Illinois Press

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/539465

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 Recording Reviews 373

came a particularly advantageous move for Europe and other bands in outdoor settings
where pianos could not be used or in affluent white homes where African Americans were
not allowed to touch pianos. White audiences enjoyed thoroughly the sheer novelty of the
effect. In fact, Black Manhattan features on its cover a publicity photograph from 1916 of
Europe leading his orchestra with several banjos placed in the foreground.
7. Music by Will Marion Cook, lyrics by Jesse Shipp, book by Paul Lawrence Dunbar,
and starring the comedic team of Bert Williams and George Walker; Thomas L. Riis, ed.,
The Music and Scripts of In Dahomey (Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1996).

Images of Metheny. Jason Vieaux, guitar. 2005. Azica Records, ACD-71233.

Guitarist Pat Metheny has thrilled adoring fans and inspired aspiring guitar-
ists for over thirty years now. His graceful, arcing melodies, floating over dense
harmonic pads from synthesized keyboards, or just open guitar strings, carry
listeners along. His fleet improvisations draw gasps of disbelief from budding
players, as he cites guitarists as disparate as Charlie Christian, Jimi Hendrix, Jim
Hall, and George Harrison while drawing on the musical vocabulary of John
Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Charlie Parker. At the same time, Metheny has
drawn the ire of critics who have found his compositions smacking of New Age
pap, his experiments with gadgetry self-indulgent, and his wide-ranging musi-
cal interests frustrating or obtuse. One gets the impression that Metheny himself
remains comfortably above the fray, following his muse of the moment as it leads
him to explore the intimate solo guitar, the forty-two-string Pikasso Guitar or his
new digital/mechanical “Orchestrion.” Never mind the setting, Metheny remains
his own man and his music remains wonderfully or frustratingly his own, replete
with heart-on-sleeve melodic formulas, moments of flying virtuosity (composed
and improvised), thick neo-Romantic harmonies, sparse single-line guitar licks,
straight-ahead drive, and rhapsodic wandering.
Metheny, a native of the US Midwest but a product of the country’s wildly
disparate musical culture, thrills and frustrates in part because he straddles so
many stylistic fences. He plays jazz with rock inflections long after fusion was
fashionable. He blends blues phrasing with surges of synthesized Romantic
strings. His titles take note of his Missouri roots but his heartbeat seems to
emanate from Rio. A sophisticated and virtuosic musician, Metheny seems ad-
dicted to the overproduced sweetness of pop music. He returns to the roots of
the acoustic guitar but cannot seem to leave well enough alone, and constantly
tinkers with its sound or construction.
The arrangements and performance featured on classical guitarist Jason
Vieaux’s 2005 solo recording, Images of Metheny, confirms the fact that Metheny
writes wonderful and evocative melodies which fit—or, more precisely belong
on—the guitar. The liner notes accompanying the recording consist principally
of a conversation between the performer and new music maven John Schaefer.
Early in the interview, in response to Schaefer’s questions, Vieaux confirms two
important points about this recording. First, although the recording features
arrangements of works by a jazz musician, it is clearly not a jazz recording.
Second, the focus of this recording is melody, the real mainstay of Pat Metheny’s
success as a composer.
Vieaux draws principally on Metheny tunes from the 1990s, arranging pieces
from the popular Secret Story (1992) as well as Still Life (1987) and Beyond the Mis-
souri Sky (1997), among others. Metheny’s tunes—especially his earlier works—
374 American Music, Fall 2013

unwind in a fairly consistent pattern—a loose, rhapsodic opening leads to a denser

or more rhythmically driven midsection, which gives way to a recapitulation of
the opening material. Of course, such predictability (or dependability) may well
be at the root of both Metheny’s popularity with his diehard fans and the distaste
some critics express for the same music. In performance, Metheny might break up
this predictability through improvisation or varying textures but his recordings
sometimes suffer from an element of sameness. Vieaux’s effort, especially since
he has neither improvisation nor a band to fall back on, suffers this same fate but
it can hardly be called his fault. His arrangements are meticulous and his play-
ing lovely. Vieaux ranks as one of this country’s finest classical guitarists and his
impeccable technique and penetrating musicality serve him well in this project.
While classical players have arranged and interpreted popular music for gen-
erations, the recent penchant for setting pop tunes might be traced to Christo-
pher O’Riley’s successful 2003 CD True Love Waits, arrangements for solo piano
of Radiohead songs. When compared to O’Riley’s efforts, Vieaux’s work with
Metheny’s music seems more a logical extension of Metheny’s oeuvre than a re-
interpretation, due in no small part to the fact that this music was conceived and
originally delivered on the guitar. Like O’Riley, Vieaux uses filigrees of arpeggia-
tion or a thrumming bass to stand in for a drum kit, bass line, or accompanying
ensemble, but unlike the pianist, Vieaux doesn’t have to account for the voice
of an emoting pop singer. Vieaux’s voice remains the same voice Metheny uses
and the classical player’s affection for and dedication to their shared instrument
and Metheny’s approach to it make these “translations” even more effective.
Vieaux falls into the unfortunate trap of trying to clean up some of Metheny’s
tunes in his “Five Songs in the Form of a Baroque Suite,” perhaps in an effort to
make the pieces more appealing to a classical audience. The contrived nature
of the title conveys some of the awkward affect of the arrangement. Despite the
best intentions, contemporary pop music fits neither the structural frame nor the
affective intent of high baroque binary dances. These particular arrangements try
too hard to be something they can’t and smack of other attempts to popularize
the classics (“Bach Meets the Moog”) or house-break pop tunes (“The Beatles by
Way of Bach”). Vieaux’s little Metheny suite is not bad or even embarrassing; it
is just not as successful as his more direct interpretations.
These more direct arrangements remind this listener of the work of Brazilian
guitarist/arranger Paulo Bellinati, whose work straddles the divide between
the jazz club and the conservatory. His reinterpretations of the works of Ga-
roto and Antonio Carlos Jobim honor the originals while offering listeners an-
other perspective and have been recognized as well-deserved endorsements of
the traditional and popular music of Brazil. Vieaux has done the same for Pat
Metheny, a musician who, like Garoto and Jobim before him, gives voice to the
music of his country. Vieaux’s interpretations and arrangements brim over with
sparkling virtuosity and sincere musical affection. Metheny himself has written
how flattered he is by Vieaux’s attention and how pleased he is with the results.
Metheny fans, like their hero, should welcome Vieaux’s work and artistry while
many classical guitarists will welcome a new repertoire when Vieaux’s promised
arrangements appear in print.
Jeffrey Noonan
Southeast Missouri State University