From BellaOnline's Blues & Jazz site:
Pat Metheny's The Way Up
Nonesuch Records, 2005
Guest Author - Elise MacDonald
Pat Metheny is back with another album full of his trademark lyrical melodies, featuring his prodigious guitar and guitar-synth playing. Any of his fans will recognize his writing immediately. What's new here is the extended format of the pieces. Ranging in length from 5 to 26 minutes, they aren't the approachable, song-length compositions Metheny has brought us over the years. Instead, the four pieces, entitled Opening, Part One, Part Two and Part Three, hang together far more like a symphony than an album of individual compositions. In fact, the music dies down but never actually stops during the entire 68 minutes of the album; the main theme, as well as other ideas, are established and then re-emerge throughout.
Opening sets the stage with a lively, angular accompaniment to Metheny's smooth melody. Things get underway in earnest with Part One, however. The main theme is introduced: a plaintive melody line featuring a pattern which repeats often on only one note, but grows and changes as the chords underneath it shift with relentless imagination.
The accompaniment, while it ranges from gentle to insistent, is most often a clock-like series of mid-tempo eighth notes; it gives a feeling of excitement yet also of the inevitability of time's passage. There are sections where this pulse disappears, or merely slows and dims, but it always returns --- almost like the daily transition of stepping out of a peaceful house onto a bustling city street. In fact, the album’s cover artwork hints at exactly such a cityscape theme. The city’s excitement is conveyed well here, too. There is a sense of driven seeking; the eighth note remains constant throughout, even though the time signature might change.
Metheny’s guitar chops are in fine shape here. Much of the melodic material is seemingly scripted, but there is a fair amount of traditional “soloing”, as well. Lyle Mays, Metheny’s longtime keyboardist, is often featured in both the quieter moments (reminiscent of Mays’s self-titled first solo album, as well as his second, Street Dreams) and the more energetic passages. Steve Rodby (acoustic and electric bass), another established Metheny sideman, supports flawlessly.
A new element in Metheny’s sound for this album is its featuring of the trumpet (Cuong Vu). Some of the most soaring melodic moments are given over to the trumpet, as opposed to Metheny’s trademark synth/guitar.
Any Metheny fan will recognize his sound immediately on The Way Up, but will have to adjust and expand her listening style somewhat to accommodate it. This album, due to its long tracks and cohesiveness as a whole work (as opposed to an emphasis on individual songs) is about as “IPod unfriendly” as it gets. Instead, dim the lights, get comfortable with some pillows on the rug or the couch, put on this CD, and step out the front door into Metheny’s dynamic streetscape.
