2019 Highlight: Janek Gwizdala

Maybe it is John Patitucci producing, maybe it is a new much more mature sound but for whatever reason there is a lot less bombast, a lot more expressiveness and some great tunes all factored in. Gwizdala has gathered a fine band around him on The …

Published: 14 Nov 2019. Updated: 3 years.

Maybe it is John Patitucci producing, maybe it is a new much more mature sound but for whatever reason there is a lot less bombast, a lot more expressiveness and some great tunes all factored in. Gwizdala has gathered a fine band around him on The Union (issued on his own label Gwizmon Productions) with Clarence Penn on drums, Philip Dizack on trumpet, and Ruslan Sirota (who appeared with Gwizdala on the excellent Bob Reynolds album Quartet) on piano.

On ‘The End of the Story’ there is a pared back almost-Steve Rodby Metheny-esque feel to the tender ballad and this track is at the heart of the album which relies for a lot of its best effects on a thoughtful, more meditative and less-is-more mentality. In a sea of music this is the kind of message in a bottle we all need that defies the odds to reach out and communicate. SG

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Metheny: From This Place

It's been a while since he had a record, three years since The Unity Sessions and Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny, but here look Pat Metheny is back and heralding the release of his next album listen to the 13-minute plus 'America Undefined' drawn …

Published: 14 Nov 2019. Updated: 4 years.

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It's been a while since he had a record, three years since The Unity Sessions and Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny, but here look Pat Metheny is back and heralding the release of his next album listen to the 13-minute plus 'America Undefined' drawn From This Place which is to be released on 21 February, something of a ''magic date'' on the calendar, 21.02.20 or 02.21.20 if you prefer.

With a lush, romantic, and yet decidedly pensive feel, the absorbing track was composed by Metheny and arranged by the guitarist and his pianist Gwilym Simcock brandishing an orchestral arrangement by Gil Goldstein.

Personnel on the track: Pat Metheny, guitars, keyboards, sound design; Antonio Sanchez, drums; Gwilym Simcock, piano; Linda May Han Oh, bass; Luis Conte, percussion with the Hollywood Studio Symphony conducted by Joel McNeely.

The album has ten compositions by Metheny. Album guests include Meshell Ndegeocello (vocals) and Grégoire Maret (harmonica).

Nonesuch quote Metheny: ''From This Place… 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."

Other track titles are: 'Wide and Far,' 'You Are,' 'Same River,' 'Pathmaker,' 'The Past in Us,' 'Everything Explained,' 'From This Place,' 'Sixty-Six,' and 'Love May Take Awhile.'

Update 5/12/19: 'You Are' featuring an orchestral arrangement by Alan Broadbent is above.