[Review] Pat Metheny Group: American Garage (1979)
The second Group effort is a perfect place to park your mind for 30 minutes.
Kronomyth 5.0: Metheny tertiary-butyl.
If you enjoyed the first Pat Metheny Group effort—and, really, what horrible troll didn’t?— more treasures await your discovery in American Garage. The heavy metal band pictured on the back cover is a red herring. The group is far more sentimental than they look; imagine Mannheim Steamroller schooled in Berklee jazz. Although I wouldn’t call them a prog band, the unexpected twists and turns, adventurous spirit and superlative musicianship share a kindred spirit with progressive jazz-rock. The difference is that Lyle Mays and Pat Metheny make very approachable music that isn’t afraid to drive in the middle of the road to get where it’s going.
These days, as I watch the decline of civilization from my ergonomic swivel chair, I’m struck afresh that music and art are the only honest languages left to mankind. Words have become weaponized, compromised, politicized, and supersized to feed our insatiable appetite for rhetoric. Music shares perspectives but it doesn’t seek to change our minds. I don’t, for example, think that jazz musicians are intent on converting heavy metal fans to their cause or advancing jazz as the “right” form of creative expression. If the music strikes a chord with you, the striving for human connection and communication is achieved. If it doesn’t, there’s that round knob on the radio. (Steps down from small wooden crate and shuffles back into the crowd.)
Now, back to the good part… The opening (Cross the) Heartland is my favorite track on the album, with Metheny and Mays playing perfectly off one another. Much of the Group’s music could be heard as variations on the American dream, where alabaster cities gleam above the fruited plain. Airstream and The Search lay on the nostalgia a bit thick, but both have their redeeming qualities, especially when “The Search” goes off in pursuit of proggier terrain. The title track is a brilliant polymorph that starts out as a rock & roll song, embraces American gospel, and continues shape-shifting until the very end. The Epic doesn’t quite deliver on its portentous title. In fact, it’s a remarkably smooth journey that passes much faster than its 13-minute track time would indicate.
There is a lot to love about the music of Pat Metheny: the warmth, the soothing tones, the sheer genius that emanates from his unsheared head and those magic fingers that cajole living spirits from the strings like some modern-day Orpheus. American Garage is a wonderful place to rest for a short spell, and living proof that jazz was neither dead nor in need of a strong deodorant.
Original elpee version
A1. (Cross the) Heartland (6:49)
A2. Airstream (6:14)
A3. The Search (4:45)
B1. American Garage (4:08)
B2. The Epic (12:55)
Selections composed by Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays.
The Players
Pat Metheny (6 & 12-string guitars), Mark Egan (bass), Dan Gottlieb (drums), Lyle Mays (piano, Oberheim, autoharp, organ). Produced by Pat Metheny; executive producer: Manfred Eicher; engineered by Kent Nebergall.
The Pictures
Cover photo by Joel Meyerowitz. Photo by Rob Van Petten. Design by Basil Pao.
The Plastic
Released on elpee and cassette on November 1, 1979 in the US (ECM, ECM-1-/ECM M5E 1155) and Japan (ECM, PAP-9180). Reached #53 on the US charts and #1 on the US Jazz charts.
- Re-issued on compact disc in December 1985 in the US (ECM, ECM 1155 / 827 134-2).
- Re-released on compact disc in May 1994 in the US (ECM, ECM 1155 / 78118-21155-2).
- Re-issued on 24k gold compact disc in 2002 in Japan (ECM, ECM, 1155/UCCE-9031).
