Pat Metheny, Dream Box, Modern ****

'Music exists for me in an elusive state, often at its best when discovered apart from any particular intention' – Pat Metheny Songs Metheny found in a lost folder - there is a carefreeness rather than a carelessness to Dream Box. ''The box'' he …

Published: 7 Jun 2023. Updated: 11 months.

'Music exists for me in an elusive state, often at its best when discovered apart from any particular intention'

– Pat Metheny

Songs Metheny found in a lost folder - there is a carefreeness rather than a carelessness to Dream Box. ''The box'' he says in the liner notes is slang for hollow bodied guitar. On a basic level because of its solo complexion Dream Box compares most directly but not a whole lot with 1979's driving rock drenched Americana of New Chautauqua, 2003's One Quiet Night and 2011's What's It All About.

Its sweet toned euphony is a world away from the more squally free improvisation inspired anarchic rumblings of 1994's Zero Tolerance for Silence. And mention of the latter shows that seemingly same-shaped comparisons make less sense than you might think even to the records that are a closer fit. That's because Metheny's range in his voluminous work 47 years on since the release of the classic Bright Size Life has a lot of breadth to it.

There is no weltschmerz anywhere on Dream Box more the manifestation of a poet sealed inside wishing to climb out. A gentle tristesse everywhere, clip open the locket to reveal delicate blooms inside - the tunes with words like waves, mountains, angels, love in the titles - are without any fear of exaggeration incredibly satisfying. Out on 16 June

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  • On 'Ole and Gard' - surely a pun on ''old guard'' - who knows - Scandinavian coffee outlets seem to gain names like this. Last month's most read piece on marlbank
  • Hear how different Metheny is on the Dream Box version of Jule Styne's 1940s era 'I Fall In Love Too Easily' by contrasting with the Howard Alden duo treatment from Time Lines a decade ago with Helmut Nieberle that has far more of a dated swing guitar tilt to it.

Pat Metheny, photo: Metheny Twitter image

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Astrud Gilberto has died aged 83

You never regret going to a gig, do you. And even though that distant night in the early 1990s when Astrud Gilberto took to the stage of the Jazz Cafe in London's Camden Town and was in front of a typically lit up inside raucous crowd of the era, …

Published: 6 Jun 2023. Updated: 11 months.

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You never regret going to a gig, do you. And even though that distant night in the early 1990s when Astrud Gilberto took to the stage of the Jazz Cafe in London's Camden Town and was in front of a typically lit up inside raucous crowd of the era, half the audience smoking, the other necking overpriced beers in the very epitome of a yuppie kitted out jazz bar as it had become or gazing if bereft of a beverage up at the posh seats in the restaurant, and who contrary to the venue's famous STFU (shut the fuck up) instruction stencilled on to the walls wouldn't, no matter how softly she sang and she did so preternaturally and how loudly the audience yelped with delight that voice felled the most recalcitrant of bellowing boors. Gilberto has died aged 83 and of course all the reports and instant obituaries today mentioned one thing mainly and why the crowd was there that Camden night long ago - 'Girl From Ipanema'. In 1963, Astrud went with her husband João Gilberto to New York to help him when he was making an album with Stan Getz. It became the Grammy winning Getz/Gilberto supercharging a boom in a jazz and bossa nova blend that still counts for something today in the raw ingredients of many live acoustic jazz sets in any big capital city that has a few decent jazz clubs you care to think of.

The pair needed a singer for the Norman Gimbel English lyrics version of the Jobim/Vinícius de Moraes song 'Garota de Ipanema' and Astrud volunteered. The song was an instant hit and sensation and went on to win the Grammy for record of the year. Astrud's later career highlights included duets with Chet Baker and acting roles. She also sang with George Michael a remarkable duet version of another Getz/Gilberto Jobim classic 'Desafinado' on AIDS fundraiser Red Hot + Rio in the 1990s.