Pat Metheny / Ron Carter / Joe Dyson gig,
Tokyo Blue Note, January 23, 2024
Report by Martin Connolly
First of two sessions, from 6pm to about 7.10. The joint was packed. We had to take seats with no table, which had been specially laid on for the overflow of audience members. We lucked out, though, because those seats directly faced the stage, the best possible position to be unless you had a closer seat.
Pat Metheny left-side on Ibanez fat-bodied arch top (his 175). Ron Carter in the centre on his well-worn trusty upright bass. Joe Dyson on the right at his full drum kit. No mic anywhere to be seen.
The instruments had graced the stage for the full hour before the music started. Ron’s bass down on its side. On the left-side of the stage stood Pat’s other guitar. Unfortunately he didn’t play it in that first session. A sleek brown solid body electric, it looked like the guitar-synth he used to play back in the day, minus the attached box. A guitar technician checked the guitars before the gig. I've since learnt he was a bloke called Andre Cholmondeley, who does a fantastic rundown of Pat's kit on Ultimate Guitar's site: CLICK HERE
And, I have also since learnt that this was his guitar-synth, the Roland GR-303, and, amazingly, the very same one I saw him play back in 1990, in the North Sea Jazz Festival. Indeed, I photographed him playing that same guitar (see my recent book). I admire artists who keep and keep playing their old axes.
Pat Metheny left-side on Ibanez fat-bodied arch top (his 175). Ron Carter in the centre on his well-worn trusty upright bass. Joe Dyson on the right at his full drum kit. No mic anywhere to be seen.
The instruments had graced the stage for the full hour before the music started. Ron’s bass down on its side. On the left-side of the stage stood Pat’s other guitar. Unfortunately he didn’t play it in that first session. A sleek brown solid body electric, it looked like the guitar-synth he used to play back in the day, minus the attached box. A guitar technician checked the guitars before the gig. I've since learnt he was a bloke called Andre Cholmondeley, who does a fantastic rundown of Pat's kit on Ultimate Guitar's site: CLICK HERE
And, I have also since learnt that this was his guitar-synth, the Roland GR-303, and, amazingly, the very same one I saw him play back in 1990, in the North Sea Jazz Festival. Indeed, I photographed him playing that same guitar (see my recent book). I admire artists who keep and keep playing their old axes.
There was a great atmosphere in the enclosed downstairs world of Tokyo Blue Note. A feeling of great anticipation. It's a great venue, very plush and sophisticated (and a bit pricey! Incredibly, this gig cost the same as it cost to see Billy Joel who was playing the very next evening at Tokyo Dome. It used to be about 10,000 yen to see an artist here. This was over 16,000 !).
The players walked down the aisle through the tables to the stage and with no intro or messing around got straight down to business. Was it Autumn Leaves? It may have been. Generally, it was a programme of standards, designed, I think, to capitalize on, and show homage to, the great Ron Carter. He’s 86 years old and the most recorded bass player in jazz history.
There were some tunes I couldn’t recognize, possibly Pat’s own compositions that I don’t know, but the majority of songs were standards or near enough. (My knowledge of standards, or their titles certainly, is patchy at best.) (One was rather not quite standard and a bit slow, dreamy and melancholic for my taste.) All Blues was one I recognized, maybe the second song they played. It of course can be termed ‘modal’ (from Miles's Kind of Blue) and hence a great vehicle for the kind of exploratory soloing the guitarist has to offer.
Pat’s playing was excellent in that he navigated through all the essential elements of such structured songs, but also threw in a lot of the kind of intense and fusion-leaning (or sui generis Pat Methenyesque) soloing he’s famous for. I hit upon the term 'backward soloing'* to capture the weird inverted course his solos would take (*Pat Pending). The audience could experience a beautiful meld of the traditional and the off-ramp style of Pat the original composer/player. Yes, Pat has composed many songs in his career, but he composes startling solos every time he gets through the bones of a song and into the tune. Pat’s intensity of old was on show.
Ron was not only a great player here, he also dominated the aesthetics of the stage. This tall black elegant gent, dressed in a grey pinstripe suit with a flowery tie and handkerchief adorning his top left pocket. Ron is a living embodiment of jazz, with a career that started in the early 1960s with the (Second Great) Miles Quintet (filling the shoes of Paul Chambers, no less). Pertinently, Ron is famous for his duet play with guitarist Jim Hall. He had planned to play Tokyo Blue Note with Jim in 2014, but Jim Hall passed away a very few months before that. On that occasion, his seat was filled by Larry Coryell, however, and Jim’s student Peter Berenstein, played with Ron instead. It was an evening of tribute and love and some of the very best music I’ve ever heard live in my life. (See my report on this site here.) I believe Pat, Ron and Joe played Bag’s Groove towards the end of the set. I recall that being played on the same stage eight years ago. It was a tune Ron loved to play with Jim. (Note, of course, that Pat was a great admirer of Jim Hall and they even released an album of duets.)
Ron played one solo stint. It was a lovely folk tune, 'You are my Sunshine (My only Sunshine)'. It was not a display of lightning fast complex ground-breaking jazz. It was a display of a genius who has done all that shit before and now just wants to enjoy 'singing' a little tune, out of sheer delight and joy. And that's what it was, sheer delight and joy to see Ron play, and play around. He rubbed the body of the bass playfully and percussively a few times. He threw in a bit of Bach. He smiled. He wowed his audience with his humour and elegance. Everyone loved him.
(I might just add- my all time fave Ron Carter moment on disc is his ‘battle’ (!) with Alphonso Johnson on electric bass, during the epic song ‘Love for Sale’ on Chet Baker’s incredible You Can’t Go Home Again. Talk about exciting?! Sparks fly!!! Ron’s contribution to that landmark album is great indeed.)
I had never heard of Joe Dyson, but I won’t forget him. He was the youngster of the set, but not that you would think so to see him in action. Joe doesn’t hog the limelight. He doesn’t overplay. He watches and he listens and he facilitates the players he’s with. He was so cool and so collected. It was like Joe was in charge, but without any ego. He created the groove Ron and Pat swam in.
There were some tunes I couldn’t recognize, possibly Pat’s own compositions that I don’t know, but the majority of songs were standards or near enough. (My knowledge of standards, or their titles certainly, is patchy at best.) (One was rather not quite standard and a bit slow, dreamy and melancholic for my taste.) All Blues was one I recognized, maybe the second song they played. It of course can be termed ‘modal’ (from Miles's Kind of Blue) and hence a great vehicle for the kind of exploratory soloing the guitarist has to offer.
Pat’s playing was excellent in that he navigated through all the essential elements of such structured songs, but also threw in a lot of the kind of intense and fusion-leaning (or sui generis Pat Methenyesque) soloing he’s famous for. I hit upon the term 'backward soloing'* to capture the weird inverted course his solos would take (*Pat Pending). The audience could experience a beautiful meld of the traditional and the off-ramp style of Pat the original composer/player. Yes, Pat has composed many songs in his career, but he composes startling solos every time he gets through the bones of a song and into the tune. Pat’s intensity of old was on show.
Ron was not only a great player here, he also dominated the aesthetics of the stage. This tall black elegant gent, dressed in a grey pinstripe suit with a flowery tie and handkerchief adorning his top left pocket. Ron is a living embodiment of jazz, with a career that started in the early 1960s with the (Second Great) Miles Quintet (filling the shoes of Paul Chambers, no less). Pertinently, Ron is famous for his duet play with guitarist Jim Hall. He had planned to play Tokyo Blue Note with Jim in 2014, but Jim Hall passed away a very few months before that. On that occasion, his seat was filled by Larry Coryell, however, and Jim’s student Peter Berenstein, played with Ron instead. It was an evening of tribute and love and some of the very best music I’ve ever heard live in my life. (See my report on this site here.) I believe Pat, Ron and Joe played Bag’s Groove towards the end of the set. I recall that being played on the same stage eight years ago. It was a tune Ron loved to play with Jim. (Note, of course, that Pat was a great admirer of Jim Hall and they even released an album of duets.)
Ron played one solo stint. It was a lovely folk tune, 'You are my Sunshine (My only Sunshine)'. It was not a display of lightning fast complex ground-breaking jazz. It was a display of a genius who has done all that shit before and now just wants to enjoy 'singing' a little tune, out of sheer delight and joy. And that's what it was, sheer delight and joy to see Ron play, and play around. He rubbed the body of the bass playfully and percussively a few times. He threw in a bit of Bach. He smiled. He wowed his audience with his humour and elegance. Everyone loved him.
(I might just add- my all time fave Ron Carter moment on disc is his ‘battle’ (!) with Alphonso Johnson on electric bass, during the epic song ‘Love for Sale’ on Chet Baker’s incredible You Can’t Go Home Again. Talk about exciting?! Sparks fly!!! Ron’s contribution to that landmark album is great indeed.)
I had never heard of Joe Dyson, but I won’t forget him. He was the youngster of the set, but not that you would think so to see him in action. Joe doesn’t hog the limelight. He doesn’t overplay. He watches and he listens and he facilitates the players he’s with. He was so cool and so collected. It was like Joe was in charge, but without any ego. He created the groove Ron and Pat swam in.
Other stuff to note:
Pat had his head down throughout the set. He also kept to the same sitting position, only turning his body round a good 45 degrees about ten minutes before the end. It was something to notice, and probably a relief for some viewers who may not have been able to see his face at all during the time up until then. Oh, and abundant hair at the age of 69 is a wonderful thing, but it likely obscured his face for many. I'm just jealous.
The trio communicated by sound alone, or at least Pat and Ron did. Pat never made eye contact with either and Ron seemed happy enough to focus in on the aural vibes, never needing to glance at what Pat was doing. His eyes were often closed, as though lost in the music. Only Joe was all eyes, like he was the quiet manager type.
On this, the first day of the Pat/Ron show, the display outside Blue Note had Pat's name on top. Apparently, Pat found out about this and asked them to put Ron's name on top. It shows the level of respect Pat has for Ron. And, yes, Blue Note very quickly changed it!
The trio communicated by sound alone, or at least Pat and Ron did. Pat never made eye contact with either and Ron seemed happy enough to focus in on the aural vibes, never needing to glance at what Pat was doing. His eyes were often closed, as though lost in the music. Only Joe was all eyes, like he was the quiet manager type.
On this, the first day of the Pat/Ron show, the display outside Blue Note had Pat's name on top. Apparently, Pat found out about this and asked them to put Ron's name on top. It shows the level of respect Pat has for Ron. And, yes, Blue Note very quickly changed it!
I've been a kind of on-off Pat Metheny fan all my life, loving some stuff, and not so some other stuff. I love his playing on Joni Mitchell's Shadows & Light, his first album, Bright Size Life, with Jaco on bass, his 80/81, various tracks here and there, like 'James' 'Lonely Woman', his album with John Scofield, You Can See My House From Here, and his great guitar work on Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint. These would form the core of my own particular love for Pat Metheny. Just these cited works form an incredible body of work, an absolutely solid and beautiful and original contribution to jazz, to music, even to one's sense of beauty. But he has created so much more, too. I did not follow later iterations of his music so much, or, in many cases, at all, but my brother Jim did. Jim had always loved Pat's music, maybe above all other musicians, which is saying quite a lot, as we grew up in thrall to the music of John McLaughlin.
Jim, also, back in the 1980s when he became a part-time jazz journalist for Ireland's only jazz magazine, JazzNews International, got to meet Pat, interview him and put him on the cover of that magazine. It was like a dream come true for Jim. I write about this in my recent book, plus I feature a few photos of Pat, playing with Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland, in the Parallel Realities band. In recent years, Jim would often send me CDs of Pat's music and keep asking me to play them and talk to him about them. I respected Jim very much. I named this website after Jim. But he didn't need to encourage me to like Pat Metheny, because I already did. I just wasn't a core fan, ready to follow Pat into all the territories he wanted to dive into. Jim was.
Such a pity Jim ain't around anymore. He would have loved to have heard all about this concert. He passed away in 2022. My book, Kind of Green, documents his activities as a jazz journalist. He loved Pat Metheny so much.
Jim, also, back in the 1980s when he became a part-time jazz journalist for Ireland's only jazz magazine, JazzNews International, got to meet Pat, interview him and put him on the cover of that magazine. It was like a dream come true for Jim. I write about this in my recent book, plus I feature a few photos of Pat, playing with Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland, in the Parallel Realities band. In recent years, Jim would often send me CDs of Pat's music and keep asking me to play them and talk to him about them. I respected Jim very much. I named this website after Jim. But he didn't need to encourage me to like Pat Metheny, because I already did. I just wasn't a core fan, ready to follow Pat into all the territories he wanted to dive into. Jim was.
Such a pity Jim ain't around anymore. He would have loved to have heard all about this concert. He passed away in 2022. My book, Kind of Green, documents his activities as a jazz journalist. He loved Pat Metheny so much.
Having learnt a little about Pat recently I can say this: Pat Metheny is absolutely dedicated to music. It is everything to him. He lives and breathes it. He has never done any drugs or even tasted alcohol, apparently due to his devotion to music and not wishing to be diverted in his quest. He spends hours practicing and playing and touring and composing and even taking notes post-performances. You could see it when he was on stage. His head was down, but he was looking at the fretboard, or his eyes would be closed, not needing to see where his fingers flew. He'd play beautiful chords with his open fingers, then retrieve his pick from his mouth in order to dive into a bit of attacking note-picking. His ears hear every tiny warp and waft of sound from the other players. And when he plays he plays with his heart and soul.
I felt that this experience, of seeing legends like Pat and Ron, beautifully assisted by Joe, will become a thing of the past soon enough. I don't want to say jazz will ever die. It won't. Just the jazz I grew up with will, or the geniuses who play it as if they have the whole world in their delicate and sensitive and dexterous hands. This music was a rare thing of beauty and peace in a world full of stupidity and violence.
Thank you Pat and Ron and Joe.
See Blue Note Tokyo for Live Report, with official photos, text in Japanese only: CLICK HERE
I felt that this experience, of seeing legends like Pat and Ron, beautifully assisted by Joe, will become a thing of the past soon enough. I don't want to say jazz will ever die. It won't. Just the jazz I grew up with will, or the geniuses who play it as if they have the whole world in their delicate and sensitive and dexterous hands. This music was a rare thing of beauty and peace in a world full of stupidity and violence.
Thank you Pat and Ron and Joe.
See Blue Note Tokyo for Live Report, with official photos, text in Japanese only: CLICK HERE
Pat does his Dream Box Solo stint from 1.30 tue. - 2.4 sun.
Schedule:
1.30 tue., 1.31 wed., 2.1 thu., 2.2 fri.
[1st]Open5:00pm Start6:00pm [2nd]Open7:45pm Start8:30pm
2.3 sat., 2.4 sun.
[1st]Open3:30pm Start4:30pm [2nd]Open6:30pm Start7:30pm
Schedule:
1.30 tue., 1.31 wed., 2.1 thu., 2.2 fri.
[1st]Open5:00pm Start6:00pm [2nd]Open7:45pm Start8:30pm
2.3 sat., 2.4 sun.
[1st]Open3:30pm Start4:30pm [2nd]Open6:30pm Start7:30pm