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Pocos albumes he escuchado como este.Todas las composiciones son excelentes ,ninguna sobra ,hay magia y esplendor en cada una de ellas.Solo superado por "Letter from home" de mismo Metheny ,y eso ya es mucho decir.Es un album que encanta por igual si usted es clasico ,roquero o latino.Ni lo piense ,comprelo.
i commute to work 1 1/2 hours each way and often listen to this cd over and over to and from work. each song is complex and multi-layered. i bought this on cassette when i was in college years ago. metheny, mays, and the entire group have created a masterpiece here. i used to say about this album that if i were allowed to take just one album with me on a deserted island for the rest of my life, this would be it. i'm a long-time metheny appreciator.
this is one of them. each song is like a combination of songs meshed together seemlessly to form a particular theme. there are some of his albums that i've not cared for and have donated to libraries. well, 18 years later, this is still an amazing album. highly highly recommended. then there are some that can be played over and over without ever getting old.
i hesitated to buy it on cd for fear that it wouldn't be as dynamic as it was when it was newly released.
It really just ups the ante as far as one's overall enjoyment of his music. After replacing this cd in my collection, I revisited one of the best contemporary jazz albums ever made, from one of the best jazz guitarists ever. If you took a sampling of 20 Pat Metheny fans, and asked them for their favorite PMG release, you'd quite possibly get 20 different answers. Turn it up.
Without sounding like a major "Stan", I'll tell you that SLT is a must purchase for music enthusiasts. It's also a great driving cd, which not a lot of jazz is. You will have a new appreciation for him and these songs, as virtually all of them (Minuano, So May It Secretly Begin, and the moving Last Train Home especially) are part of a PMG setlist. If you haven't seen this man live, do yourself a favor and catch him in concert.
"Still Life (Talking)" is probably my favorite of his Geffen releases. Armando Marcal heads up a trio of unheralded, yet very talented singers to underscore some of Pat's most well known pieces. I honestly had forgotten just how good this cd is. And the voices.
Depending on Pat's mood when composing, one could expect to hear anything from Brazillian overtures, to Far East undertones. I think that speaks to the "something for everyone" mantra that seems to mark Pat's work. The accompanying core of Mays, Wertico, and Rodby are what makes Pat's virtuosity smoke, but as always with a PMG release, the fringe players always add that extra flavor.
PMG accomplishes this like no other artists I know, along with 'The Bat, Part II' (from 'Offramp'). So, the other tunes on Still Life (Talking)' are entertaining, crowd-pleasing, mood-brightening, typically reflective pieces (and perhaps, too familiar) that PMG does so well. I much preferred Nana's other-worldly, exotic, haunted, soul-stirring vocalisations and percussion, making words and noises up for the musical moment in a way that Pedro never could. Judging from a few of these reviews, I don't think I'm the only PMG fan who feels this way. But nobody does haunting and touching like they do in the last six, or so, minutes of this album. People love music that speaks to them, and after this album, frankly, PMG didn't speak to me with their new material any more. It literally could have been part of the soundtrack to 'The Sixth Sense' in it's darkly moving, stately grace. Sure they do.
Pat Metheny is such an amazing musician in every respect that it's hard to pick his best moments at times. The duo of it, which segues into 'In Her Family', can only conjure up one image or feeling - overwhelming loss. Chilling is the word for it. Once the orchestra and cymbal swells at the bridge of 'Family' wash over you in hope, but return to the anguished, child-like melody of absolute crushing solitude, you can really only sit there in your chair, frozen in despair, for a few minutes. So, for me, after "Still life.", I fell away from the PMG on record, for the most part. Which means nothing when it comes to their live performances. While I was a huge fan at the height of this era, "Still Life (Talking)" was brilliant, but starting to take on a bit too much of the 'jazz lite' realm. That might be considered heresy by Pat's fans, but when I compare this album and the direction it started to take after the monumental "Offramp", and earlier genius like "As Falls Wichita"., it starts to disappoint me in that I often know where the song is going in a way that I didn't on "Offramp".
There are no more perfect endings to their albums. The title, to me, relates something very sad, like 'something' tragic runs 'in her family', like cancer, or suicide, or some other horrible affliction. 'Distance' leaves me speechless (which is saying a LOT). If you have lost a loved one, to death, as I have recently, (or on a much minor level, breaking up with a loved one), I defy anyone to listen to these two songs together alone, and not break down. 'Distance', could only come from the mind of Lyle Mays, for anyone who has ever heard his brilliant solo music.
They're as beautiful as any hymns I've heard. "Distance" is chilling, "In Her Family" is loss. What is it with these guys and the last songs on their CD's. Yeah, I know 'true' fans don't compare albums, blah, blah, blah. I don't know whose title it is (Pat's or Lyle's), or what the inspiration for the song was, but you almost don't need to know much, just look at the title and listen to the song, and it informs you in a way that lyrics perhaps could not have.
It's dark and haunting atonally, in a way that those words can't possibly begin to describe, and 'Distance' brings up heartbreaking vibes that I've never heard before. I lost it after Nana left (he was after all, only a 'guest' with PMG) and they brought on the chipper, only-too-happy Pedro, and his 'la-la-la's' and 'hooohh's' and hand-claps. Everyone should always see Pat and Lyle play together live, always, and forever.I wrote this because the two exceptions to this slight disappointment are "Distance" and "In Her Family", and I've not found a reviewer who has mentioned what genius they are.
If only these tunes could have been played by any other group then maybe they would have stood a chance of coming to life. Lyle's contribution alone is enough to suck the life out of even the firiest Salsa, Bossa Nova, or Samba.Three stars for good compositions but the lack of energy makes me say pass on this one. That's right. The group and its leader are all musicians of extraordinary talent and yet they continue to produce sonic vibes that are totally vacant of any signs of life. Just imagine the spaced out reverberated cosmic sound of the electronic keyboards on any New Age meditation CD and you'll get the idea. The problem consistantly lies with the groups obsession with quietudes. However, if you're like most folks that still get excited about experiencing life on this side of the River Styx then this is nothing more than glorified elevator music.Inspite of all I have said so far, this remains one of the groups livelier albums second only to "First Circle", which should give you a clear indicator as to how dead and boring the rest of their stuff is.It's a real shame because the compositions here have some real great potential.
While many PMG fans will claim that Lyle is some sort of keyboard genius, I attribute the majority New Age feel to this girly man on keyboards. And don't forget those electronic keyboards of Lyle Mayes.
All of which are top notch as far as progressive jazz is concerned. The problem lies in the groups overuse of REVERB, REVERB, REVERB.
For the life of me I can't understand why every PMG recording has to sound as if it were recorded in a public library. There seems to be a South American if not Brazilian feel to most of the compositions which I normally find a delightful combination when fused with jazz.
My advice to you is to go get some Rippingtons. They should rename this work "Still Flat Lining" for Pete's sake.That said, I love everything else about this work from the melodic lines, to the soloing and the harmonic progressions.
Well sirenity is fine if you're some kind of new age zombie that wants to meditate until you become one with the great void.
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