Fresh on the heels of his excellent full-length trio album "Day Trip" from earlier this year, Pat Metheny releases a live EP entitled "Tokyo Day Trip". While this is being seen as a companion piece to the full-length disc, "Tokyo Day Trip" definitely can stand on its own as a separate album. Also, while this is being called an EP, it clocks in at nearly 41-minutes total so this is essentially an LP-length CD.Like "Day Trip", its "Tokyo" counterpart consists of all Metheny originals. The opening piece "Tromso" is a quiet meditative piece which brings Metheny's years on the ECM label to mind (as also stated by another Amazon reviewer). His electric sitar is up-front and center here. Bassist Christian McBride provides a solid accompaniment to Metheny with his bowed leads heard in the beginning while drummer Antonio Sanchez further enhances the space with his gentle cymbal and orchestra bell work.The pace picks up with the nearly 12-minute burner "Travelling Fast". All three musicians have their moment to shine here. Metheny sets the pace by stating the theme and launching into a fiery guitar lead. McBride follows with an astonishing bass solo with interjections from Sanchez who in turn takes over with his own aggressive drum solo. Metheny and McBride also bring in some spice during Sanchez's solo by throwing in bits and pieces of melody to keep the momentum going. Finally, Metheny takes the spotlight once again with a jaw-dropping guitar solo which leads to the entire band fading into silence.Following this, we are once more brought back into quiet territory with the mellow acoustic "Indori". Pat Metheny has written many acoustic guitar pieces over the years and this one ranks among his very best. Perfect music for a candlelight dinner.But before you get settled comfortably, here comes the jolting fusion-rocker "Back Arm and Blackcharge". Here, Metheny suddenly turns into John McLaughlin with a frantic fast-charged Mahavishnu-like riff. He then goes wild with an abundant blistering guitar lead before handing the spotlight over the Christian McBride. Things look as though they may settle down during McBride's bass solo but soon enough Metheny comes back in and the band is blowing on all four cylinders like a heavy metal power trio. Definitely a change of pace from the rest of the tracks on the album.Considering the relentless energy heard on the previous track, the album's closing track "The Night Becomes You" almost feels like an afterthought. The piece once again launches Metheny back into acoustic territory with an emotionally beautiful ballad. Pat is the only soloist here displaying his acoustic guitar playing at its very best with solid accompaniment from McBride and Sanchez. Sanchez's unintrusive cymbal work is also a highlight here.If you enjoyed "Day Trip", you'll definitely find plenty to digest with "Tokyo Day Trip". As mentioned above, I tend not to view this CD as an EP but rather a full-length album because of its LP-length size. The first two tracks could easlily be labeled as Side One while the remaining three could be Side Two. Now matter how you view it, "Tokyo Day Trip" is another stellar release from Pat Metheny and contains some awesome music. Pat, Christian and Antonio were definitely on a musical high when they performed these tracks and this is just a sample of that interplay as put on display during a few glorious gigs in Tokyo.The rock fusion piece just doesn't belong with the rest of the album,which is straight ahead cool, eminently solid Metheny jazz.. Otherwise, 5 stars to the guys.If you already know the Studio recording "Day Trip" it is still worthwhile listening to the life performance. Highly recommendable for everyone who likes jazz phrases, variations and interpretations.Personally I use the CD a lot in the car on long distance travels. It is really calming me down and cheering me up.JRThis five-set EP is presumably released as a companion piece to the trio's Day Trip album released earlier this year. Nonesuch could've easily released both sets at the same time, perhaps as a double album or something, but I guess the more money that can be made out of us punters, the better for business. Not that I'm complaining. Recorded in front of a live audience in Tokyo the trio - Pat Metheny, Christian McBride & Antonio Sanchez - are at their most formidable here with Metheny on guitar, electric sitar, baritone and acoustic guitars; McBride on acoustic bass and Sanchez on drums and orchestra bells. Each tune showcases the amazing skills of the three musicians, especially Sanchez who comes alive in a way that he sadly didn't on Migration, his own recent album. "Tromsø" is one of those spacey, atmospheric numbers that Metheny became famous for back in his ECM days; "Traveling Fast" is as the title suggests, an upbeat, almost frenetic number and closer to Metheny's present day staple. "Inori" is an acoustic ballad, and as beautiful as one might expect; "Back Arm & Blackcharge" is a noisy, rock-influenced number that I care for the least out of the five tunes and finally, we return to that wonderful acoustic sound for the album closer "The Night Becomes You".All songs are written by Metheny and the set is produced by him and co-produced by Steve Rodby.As I said at the top, it would probably have been kinder to the fans to release this and "Day Trip" as one double set, especially in these testing economic times - but do I feel ripped off? Not even slightly. There's some beautiful, totally unmissable music on here.This is a great companion piece to the studio release of Day Trip. Musically it's all over the map; two acoustic ballads (Inori, Night Becomes You), screaming rock fusion (Back Arm), one very esoteric ECM sort of tune (Tromsb), and one glorious straight ahead jazz piece which to me is the highlight of the entire album (Traveling Fast). If you like Metheny in a trio format then you probably loved Day Trip and I'm guessing you'll love this. His musical companions are both monster musicians themselves, so you've got the best of all worlds here. The four star rating is only because the two acoustic ballads, while terrific, is one too many for me. I would have preferred more straight ahead jazz instead. These three can seriously play....ballads have a tendency to mute that somewhat.No matter. This is very inexpensive and it beats the hell out of lossy mp3 downloads. Make the purchase and enjoy.
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