artdeco73's Full Review: One Quiet Night by Pat Metheny
For a musician, few pleasures compare to that of acquiring a new instrument. The desire to lock yourself in and spend hours playing in an effort to discover what the new instrument can do and in hope that it will provide a new dose of inspiration can be overwhelming. The desire to record yourself playing is likewise understandable, and that is exactly what Pat Metheny had done back in November of 2001, shortly after adding a new baritone guitar to his collection [*]. Almost two years later, we have the results on One Quiet Night (Warner Bros., 2003), and unfortunately they are problematic. In an environment of discovery and experimentation such as this, the tactile and physical experience of playing that has loads of significance to the musician himself frequently does not translate into a musical experience for the listener. Even Metheny’s enormous talent and prodigious technique fail to save the day.
To be fair, One Quiet Night has its moments. “Time Goes On” is classic Metheny – melody, movement, momentum. The cover of “My Song” works well, retaining the essence of Keith Jarrett’s original. Same goes for Norah Jones’ “Don’t Know Why” (recorded long after the original session to fill out the record). The title track, along with “Peace Memory” and to a lesser degree “I Will Find the Way,” while less incisive, feature some attractive chord combinations, and Metheny’s sensitive playing creates a distinct mood of reflection. “Last Train Home” is kind of fun in a vaguely bluegrassy sort of way. The balance of the record, however, not to put too fine a point on it, struck this listener as simply boring. There is no movement or development of any kind to most of the tunes. The worst offenders, “Song for the Boys” and “Over on 4th Street” are what sounds like mindless strumming. The rest of the material, while marginally more thoughtful, still does nothing to hold the listener’s interest. A few numbers, like “Another Chance,” start out with some promise, but quickly disintegrate into repetitively chasing their own tail.
In a desire to give Metheny as much credit as possible, I am tempted to lay the blame on his record company. By his own admission in the liner notes, this project started out as a purely personal undertaking. While he is careful to remain neutral in what he writes, it is not difficult for jaded fans of creative music to make the leap and conclude that it is at least likely that Warner Brothers released the music in an attempt to sell another CD to Metheny’s famously rabid fans. In that light, One Quiet Night is recommended only to musicians seriously studying Metheny’s style. For the rest of us, this is at best decent background music.
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[*] A baritone guitar is very similar to a regular guitar, only slightly larger and having a 28” scale (vs. around 25” in a regular instrument). On this record, Metheny tunes it to A D G C E A, with 3rd and 4th strings tuned an octave higher than normal (so-called “Nashville” tuning), and uses bass guitar strings for 5th and 6th.
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Personnel: Pat Metheny, acoustic baritone guitar.
Tracks: One Quiet Night; Song for the Boys; Don’t Know Why; Another Chance; Time Goes On; My Song; Peace Memory; Ferry Cross the Mersey; Over on 4th Street; I Will Find the Way; North to South, East to West; Last Train Home.
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