去年から心待ちにしてたくせに発売日過ぎても忘れてたこれ、早速購入。
彼の言葉を借りると、
From This Place is one of the records I have been waiting to make my whole life. It is a kind of musical culmination, reflecting a wide range of expressions that have interested me over the years, scaled across a large canvas, presented in a way that offers the kind of opportunities for communication that can only be earned with a group of musicians who have spent hundreds of nights together on the bandstand.
Pat Metheny : News: NEW ALBUM 'FROM THIS PLACE' AVAILABLE NOW
今までの集大成的位置づけらしい。勝手知ったるメンバーででしか実現できない、彼の音楽人生の纏めのようなもの。読んでて面白かったのが、
Mr. Carter explained to me that Miles had a philosophy that he applied to that particular line-up. He wanted that band to develop a code through playing that familiar music night after night together that could then later be applied to the creation of a new way of playing together in the studio. A common language that would combine the familiarity that the players had with each other through playing those older tunes with the freshness of what new compositions might offer in the studio, creating the best of both worlds.
ロン・カーターに、マイルス・バンドはなんでおんなじセットをライブでやるのか？と聞いたところ、ベンチマーク的なセットを新しいメンバーでやることで発見があり、それを次のアルバムに活かす、ということなんだそう。言ってみれば温故知新。なるほどな。で、今回のアルバムはそれにヒントを得たんだそう。
A light bulb went off over my head.
I had been wanting to record this new band but had made so many guitar/piano/bass/drums quartet records along the way that I found myself searching for a setting to look at what I might do with this group that could be different.
So, why not write a bunch of new music to be presented fresh for the first time in the studio to this band I knew so well? No rehearsals. Let's just go in with a pile of music I would compose just for this crew - an entirely different book from what we had been playing live - and see what happens. The Miles quintet approach.
勝手知ったるメンバー、新曲をスタジオ一発録音でやってみよう、というアイディア。「マイルスアプローチ」と書いてあるけどちと違う気もするが😄、新しい発見を追求、という点ではあっている。
んで、ダウンロードして何度も聴いてるけれど、うん、これは確かに今までのパットメセニーを彷彿とさせるものがある。かと言って古臭くないし、すんなり入っていけて、いつまでも聴いていられる。集大成かどうかはアレであるが。
ブックレットにこんなポエムが載ってる。
FROM THIS PLACE
From this place I cannot see Heart is dark,
Beneath rising seas
From this place, I don’t believe All my hopes,
My sweet relief
From here, I say I cannot breathe Fear and hurt
Again we bleed
Unsafe, unsound, unclear to me Don’t know how to be
From this place, I must proceed Trust in love,
Truth be my lead
From here I will stand with thee Until hearts are truly free
このアルバムのテーマのようにも読めるけど、前途への不安とそれに対する決意のようなものを感じる。
