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News & Reviews

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Pat Metheny Unity Group's "Kin (??)" Out Now

Kin (??), the first album from Pat Metheny Unity Group-Chris Potter, Antonio Sanchez, Ben Williams, and Giulio Carmassi-is out now on Nonesuch Records. The album was released in the UK yesterday to critical acclaim, earning four-star reviews across the board from Jazzwise, Mojo, Evening Standard, Q, BBC Music, Financial Times, Record Collector, and Hi-Fi News. "Like the best of Metheny's oeuvre," says Mojo, "it takes guitar-led improvisation to new aesthetic levels," with his "eloquent guitar etching a kaleidoscope of sonic hues."

Monday, February 3, 2014

Pat Metheny Unity Group Begins World Tour with Release of New Album, "Kin (??)"

Pat Metheny Unity Group, featuring woodwind player Chris Potter, longtime collaborator Antonio Sanchez on drums, Ben Williams on bass, and multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi, kicks off a world tour at Jackson Academy Performing Arts Center in Jackson, Mississippi, tonight; its debut album, Kin (??), is out this week. The tour continues in North America for the next two months, followed by a two-month European tour in the spring. 

About this Album

Last year, for the first time since 1980, guitarist Pat Metheny recorded with a band that highlighted tenor saxophone. Unity Band, which went on to win Metheny his 20th Grammy Award, featured Chris Potter on sax and bass clarinet, longtime collaborator Antonio Sanchez on drums, and Ben Williams on bass. Now, Metheny has added another musician, multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi, and christened the ensemble Pat Metheny Unity Group. The Group's first record, Kin (??), will be released by Nonesuch on February 4, 2014. The vinyl includes two 140-gram LPs pressed at Pallas MFG in Diepholz, Germany, and a CD of the album. 

The Pat Metheny Unity Group will tour to 44 cities throughout North America this winter, beginning February 3, then tour Europe from April through June. 

Metheny says of this new Group, "The core quartet of Chris, Ben, Antonio, and me played more than 100 concerts over the year that followed the release of our Unity Band record. Over the course of that period, the band became one of those rare combinations of players where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; it gelled in every way, and that just seemed to beg for expansion and further research." He continues, "Simultaneously, I had been itching to write using more of a lush and orchestrated kind of concept that went beyond the sonic limits of what a straight-ahead quartet might invoke. But I really didn't want to lose the energy, focus, and intensity of what this band had developed. I wanted to take it further. If the first Unity Band record was a thoughtful, black and white documentary of four musicians in a recording studio playing, this record is more like the Technicolor, IMAX version of what a band like this could be-but with that hardcore thing still sitting right in the middle of it all."

Over the course of more than three decades, guitarist Pat Metheny has set himself apart from the jazz mainstream, expanding and blurring boundaries and musical styles. His record-setting body of work includes 20 Grammy Awards in 12 separate categories; a series of influential trio recordings; award-winning solo albums; scores for hit Hollywood motion pictures; and collaborations and duets with major artists such as Ornette Coleman, Steve Reich, Charlie Haden, Brad Mehldau, and many others. His band the Pat Metheny Group, founded in 1977, is the only ensemble in history to win Grammys for seven consecutive releases.

Credits

MUSICIANS
 Pat Metheny, electric and acoustic guitars, guitar synth, electronics, orchestrionics, synths
 Chris Potter, tenor sax, bass clarinet, soprano sax, clarinet, alto flute, bass flute
 Antonio Sanchez, drums and cajon
 Ben Williams, acoustic and electric basses
 Giulio Carmassi, piano, trumpet, trombone, french horn, cello, vibes, clarinet, flute, recorder, alto sax, wurlitzer, whistling and vocals

PRODUCTION CREDITS
 Produced by Pat Metheny
 Associate Producer: Steve Rodby
 Recorded and Mixed by Pete Karam
 Recorded June 2013 at MSR Studios, New York, NY 
 Assistant Engineer: Fred Sladkey
 Mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, New York, NY
 Technical Direction: David Oakes
 Guitars and Orchestrion Technician: Carolyn Chrzan
 Orchestrion Technician: Austin Stillwell
 Piano Technician: Mike Micciov
 Production Coordination: David Sholemson

Art Direction and Design: Doyle Partners
 Photograph of the Pat Metheny Unity Group by Jimmy Katz

All Compositions by Pat Metheny

Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

Ben Williams appears courtesy of Concord Jazz

Antonio Sanchez plays Yamaha Drums, Zildjian Cymbals and Sticks, Remo Drumheads, LP Percussion, and Cympad Fets exclusively. Chris Potter plays Rico Jazz Select reeds.

Track Listing 

1 On Day One 15:15 
2 Rise Up 11:56 
3 Adagia 2:14 
4 Sign of the Season 10:14 
5 Kin (??) 11:02 
6 Born 7:51 
7 Genealogy 0:38 
8 We Go On 5:32 
9 Kqu 5:27 

Top dit, jazz van de bovenste plank. Chris Potter is weergaloos op dit album.