Better Days Ahead: Solo Guitar Takes on Pat Metheny (Ghostlight)
John Pizzarelli
Released April 2021
JazzTimes Top 40 Jazz Albums of 2021
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About:
World-renowned jazz guitarist, singer and recent Grammy Award-winning producer John Pizzarelli takes on the songs of Pat Metheny in his new album
“Better Days Ahead”. Having loved the recordings of the Pat Metheny Group since his teenage years, Pizzarelli welcomed the challenge of diving deep into Metheny’s cannon of dense, moving material and deconstructing Pat Metheny’s group arrangements on his seven-string guitar. “To say it was flattering to have John address these tunes is an understatement. I had no idea that it was all leading to this excellent solo guitar recording of my tunes” says Metheny.
Track Listing:
1. Better Days Ahead (Pat Metheny) 03:44
2. Spring Ain’t Here (Pat Metheny) 04:39
3. April Wind/Phase Dance (Lyle Mays / Pat Metheny) 08:17
4. September Fifteenth (Lyle Mays / Pat Metheny) 05:18
5. James (Pat Metheny) 04:19
6. Antonia (Pat Metheny) 05:51
7. (It’s Just) Talk (Pat Metheny) 04:50
8. Letter From Home (Pat Metheny) 02:26
9. If I Could (Lyle Mays / Pat Metheny) 05:58
10. Last Train Home (Pat Metheny) 04:09
11. From This Place (Pat Metheny) 02:49
12. The Bat (Pat Metheny) 03:08
13. Farmer’s Trust (Pat Metheny) 02:15
Personnel:
John Pizzarelli: guitar
Produced by John Pizzarelli & Rick Haydon
Mixing: Rick Haydon
Mastering: Bill Moss
Package Design: Stephanie Layton
Original Illustration Artwork: Jessica Molaskey
Review:
Only two things are required to enjoy this recording: a love
of beautiful compositions, and an affection for inspired playing. If you are a
fan of Pat Metheny or John Pizzarelli, “Better Days
Ahead” will be rewarding in ways not accessible to a more casual or less
informed listener. On the other hand, if you have spent an evening listening to
classical, and especially, to Spanish guitar, or if you think you do not like
jazz, you owe it to yourself to listen to this superb recording.
The story behind the album’s production is yet another dreadful tale from the
pandemic—such beauty from so much ugliness. Pizzarelli tells the story behind
this recording so well in the trailer that it bears some attention: it was at
once a tribute, a self-affirmation, therapy, and a memorial. His father, Bucky
Pizzarelli, died from Covid soon after the start of the pandemic. Within a
week, his mother had passed as well. They had been together 60 years. It is
just difficult to imagine the pain Pizzarelli endured. Why Pizzarelli turned to
the music of Pat Metheny at that fraught moment only he can really say.
Certainly, many of us turned to memories of objects, people and thoughts well
into the past to sustain us. Pizzarelli, in retreat in upstate New York, went
back to the work of Metheny, which he had admired since he had taken up the
guitar.
And small wonder. “Better Days Ahead” could not be more different
from Metheny’s 1989 version: it is intensely melodic rather than rhythmic,
although which you might prefer is a matter of taste. It says something about
both Metheny’s compositional genius as well as about Pizzarelli’s harmonic
sensibilities. They may both end abruptly on the same chord, but the path
Pizzarelli and Metheny choose to get there makes all the difference in the
world. The same with “James,” Metheny’s tribute to James Taylor.
Pizzarelli admits to having wrestled with it some, but the result is striking.
On the other hand, it is hard to imagine that hard-core fans of Metheny
and Lyle Mays are going to feel comfortable with Pizzarelli’s version
of “It’s Just Talk.” The original strikes a different note entirely,
and for many people, has strong emotional associations. You simply have to
approach this recording with an open mind and open ears.
As a side note, the cover art, by Jessica Molaskey, is both arresting and
singularly appropriate too. Is this recording a thoughtful self-reflection? Ask
not for whom the bell tolls, and so forth? You decide.
Richard J. Salvucci (All About Jazz)
