Jazz for aficionados

Hello there O - 
Some comments about your Metheny links...

"Last Train Home"  - I know this one well from the very good live album, "The Road to You".  It's a beautiful song.  Pat at his lyrical best.  TRTY has a couple of tracks from Still Life (Talking) including Last Train.  It also contains material from another studio album, Letter From Home - an excellent Pat Metheny Group album from around this same time.  

For a good part of the '80s, Metheny was incorporating South American percussion.  On this album, Armando Marcal is listed as percussionist.  Elsewhere it's Nana Vasconcelos.  I think these sounds lend something pretty magical to the music.  

My introduction to PMG was walking into a record store when "Wichita Falls" first came out.  I'd never heard anything like it before.  THAT became my favorite Metheny album for a long time.  Released on the excellent ECM label.  Actually got to hear it live later that year or the next when the Metheny Group performed at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton NJ.  Felt like I was walking on clouds when I left the show.

Have to admit I do not know Offramp at all.  I remember when I was just getting into Metheny after hearing Wichita Falls, it and American Garage were LPs I always wanted to get but never did, as it turns out.  I like the two tracks you posted from Offramp; esp. those synths on "Are You Going With Me" and Nana's brief vocal contributions on "Au Lait".  

Guess I'll be listening to some more Pat Metheny soon.  Haven't pulled out my old stuff of his from the '80s in quite a while.  Probably waited long enough and should get Am. Garage and Offramp too.
  
Letter from Home here, if you've not heard it before.  A groove not too different from your Last Train Home link...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGGqEivPIKs&ab_channel=MrAkdnt

Here's the final track from Metheny's 2nd album, "Watercolors".  This one alone is worth the price of the album....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2iuL69IF78&ab_channel=ΚωσταςΠετρακος

Dave, it's good to respect what you don't know. That made me aware of the responsibility I have to inform.

We all have our crosses to bear, I hope to help lighten your awesome burdens. My mother-in-law gets crazier every day; she left in 6 degree below 0 weather one night, and had us worried enough to call the police. Some good samaritan saw her, and knew an old lady had no business out in that weather at night. Fortunately she knew her address, and they brought her back home.

I'm impressed by your ability to hear "classic jazz". Imagine the music as an FM radio station, and we as FM tuners; we have to be on the right frequency in order to hear the music; not everyone is tuned to the right frequency.

As far as classic jazz, you can go back through posts, and pick an artist or specific sound you want to expand on and we'll delve into it. The 100 Greatest Jazz Albums is a very good start, and I imagine you already have that.

Stay safe from the hurricane, and I'll look for you after all is straightened out.

"Ghosthouse", I know exactly what you mean by "walking on a cloud" after leaving that PMG show, I had the same feeling. Somehow, his group caught the feel of the moment; you were not in yesterday, or tomorrow, you were in that exact moment in time.

I'll listen closer to his albums that I haven't heard in awhile. I'm not tuned to "Watercolors" this morning, but the music expresses "Watercolors".

Thanks o. I very much appreciate your empathy.

Okay, I will go WAY out on a limb and nominate track 1, "Laveau Dirge No.1" and track 7 "Familiar" from the Trombone Shorty "Parking Lot Symphony" album.

The latter track is particularly challenging for the true jazz aficionado I expect.

Credit to Erik Squires for alerting me to this gem.

Dave  

o10, not sure I understood your "not my cup of tea" reference.  Was that related to my "Timeless" link post?

For me, that relates to a bit of Miles, who certainly was classic jazz, except when he wasn't. ;^)

For those without a full catalog of Miles' records, this was his initial real departure from "classic jazz" -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSPuPYIK5-E