(BMG Modern Recordings)Metheny’s new trio, with the formidable James Francies on piano and Marcus Gilmore on drums, provoke rapture in this live set
![Pat Metheny: Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV) | John Fordhams jazz album of the month](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/a5afbdbf34e7e5c78f177bedb810dd6cce8bad70/0_76_1800_1080/master/1800.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTQucG5n&enable=upscale&s=96cdba42fb5cf190306c27461985c389)
Playing and working with artists as different as Ornette Coleman, John Zorn, Joni Mitchell and David Bowie takes a fluid musical mind and a technique to match. Pat Metheny, the 67-year-old Missouri-born guitarist and composer, unveiled both back in 1976.
Metheny has long entertained a mainstream audience and often surprised an experimental one, written contemporary classical and movie music, lyrical songs sounding unjazzily like singles, and welcomed the provocations of gifted players much younger than him. From the latter impulse comes Side-Eye – a headlong reinvention of the popular 1960s Hammond organ/guitar/drums trio lineups pioneered by funky organists including Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff, on a repertoire of new Metheny
music and old hits.