Pat Metheny - Secret Story (1992)

Artista: Pat Metheny

Álbum: Secret Story
Año: 1992
Género: Jazz fusión/Neo-Folk
Duración: 76 + 16 minutos
Nacionalidad: Estados Unidos (+ unos otros cuántos)

Lista de Temas:
1. Above the Treetops (2:43) 
2. Facing West (6:05) 
3. Cathedral in a Suitcase (4:52) 
4. Finding and Believing (10:00) 
5. Longest Summer (6:34) 
6. Sunlight (3:53) 
7. Rain River (7:09) 
8. Always and Forever (5:26) 
9. See the World (4:48) 
10. As a Flower Blossoms (I Am Running to You) (1:53) 
11. Antonia (6:11) 
12. Truth Will Always Be (9:15) 
13. Tell Her You Saw Me (5:11) 
14. Not to Be Forgotten (Our Final Hour) (2:22)

CD 2 (Bonus):

1. Back In Time (5:22)
2. Understanding (4:05)
3. A Change In Circumstance (2:14)
4. Look Ahead (1:19)
5. Et si c’était la fin (As If It Were the End) (3:40)

Alineación:

- Pat Metheny / Guitarras (acústicas, eléctricas y con sintetizadores), teclados (sintetizadores y piano eléctrico) percusión acústica y electrónica, bajo eléctrico y sítar eléctrico

- Armando Marcal / Percusión

- Lyle Mays / Piano
- Sammy Merendino, Paul Wertico y Steve Ferrone / Batería
- Orquesta Pinpeat (Coro Real del Palacio de Camboya) / Vocals 
- Steve Rodby / Bajos eléctricos y acústicos
- Toots Thielemans / Armónica 
- Ryan Kisor, Mike Metheny y Michael Mossman / Trompeta y fliscorno
- Akiko Yano / Voz
- David Taylor / Trombón (bajo)
- John Clark / Corno francés
- Dave Bargeron / Trombón y tuba
- Danny Gottlieb / Platillos
- Andrew Findon / Flauta
- Charlie Haden / Bajo Acústico
- Anthony Jackson / Guitarra
- Skaila Kanga / Arpa
- Mark Ledford / Voz
- Will Lee / Bajo eléctrico
- Naná Vasconcelos / Percusión y voz
- Gil Goldstein / Piano y acordeón 
- Tom "Bones" Malone / Trombón
- Orquesta Sinfónica de Londres, conducida por Jeremy Lubbock

Y contra todo pronóstico, mi actividad posteadora del día duplica su actividad, todo sea para celebrar el día de la música (?)

En fin. Traigo por acá uno de los mejores trabajos (empatado en mi opinión con el igualmente colosal The Way Up, que eventualmente pienso traer por acá) de la increíblemente amplia y en expansión lista de trabajos discográficos de uno de los guitarristas de jazz más emblemáticos de la actualidad: Patrick Bruce alias Pat Metheny.

Parafraseando al siempre monumental Alfredo Casero, "si usted no conoce a este músico, es porque evidentemente vive adentro de un ñoqui."

Entonces, para esta Gente de los Ñoquis, Pat Metheny es un multiinstrumentista (principalmente guitarrista) de jazz nacido en Missouri, Estados Unidos, en 1954. Es junto a otros nombres pesados como Allan Holdsworth, Bill Frisell, John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola y John Scofield, de los guitarristas y compositores más icónicos del jazz contemporáneo, ganador de numerosos premios por su trabajo. Está en actividad desde mediados de los años '70, tocó con infinidad de músicos de gruesísimo calibre, entre ellos Jaco Pastorious, Ornette Coleman y nuestro Pedrito Aznar; y sacó también infinidad de álbumes.

Es fácilmente reconocible por su estilo 'limpio' de tocar la guitarra, su enorme habilidad para la improvisación, combinar estos pasajes improvisados con composiciones bien formadas, por tocar casi siempre con una guitarra Gibson ES-175 y por usar siempre el mismo buzo rayado, como pueden apreciar en esta imagen:

Suficiente presentación. Vamos al disco. Secret Story es el dieciseisavo álbum de estudio de Pat Metheny. En muchas ocasiones él lanzó discos al mercado bajo el nombre de algún grupo, como suelen hacer muchos artistas de jazz (en este caso el Pat Metheny Group), pero este disco por nomenclatura, es un disco solista de Metheny, en donde él toma las riendas de todas las composiciones (salvo excepciones, como el tema que abre el disco, que está basado en un tradicional canto de Camboya y el tema As Flower Blossoms, co-compuesto con la cantante japonesa Akiko Yano) y de muchos instrumentos, como pueden apreciar más arriba.

Según muchas reseñas denotan, Metheny venía coqueteando con la mezcla del jazz fusión con muchísimos estilos de música folk de varios lugares del mundo (me niego a usar un término como el de World Music), llegando al punto máximo de dicha fusión en Secret Story.

El disco según muchos dicen también (y salta a la vista de simplemente escucharlo), según su título, cuenta una historia entre toda su majestuosidad sonora. Viajes, reencuentros, enamoramientos, distanciamientos y muchísimo más son increíblemente expresados a través de las composiciones de Metheny. Pese a ser un disco instrumental (donde las voces funcionan como otro condimento más a la ya variada instrumentación), dice demasiadas cosas. Es extremadamente fácil escuchar este disco y hacerse uno mismo la película e imaginarse una historia a medida que este transcurre.

Secret Story pasa en sus temas de la alegría pura a unas melodías increíblemente bellas y melancólicas. Del jazz fusión más étnico a secciones sinfónicas acompañadas por la orquesta sinfónica de Londres, que ambienta todo de un modo espectacular, como nunca había escuchado antes.

La versión que traigo por acá es la del remaster del 2007, que viene con un disco bonus con cinco canciones que no habían visto la luz anteriormente. Si bien este de por sí es un disco largo, y más aún con el material bonus, no es cansino y se recontra deja disfrutar. Por momentos es tan calmo que es necesario prestarle especial atención a lo que suena para no distraerse y creer que lo que suena es música de fondo de supermercados.

Recomiendo fervientemente este discazo. Feliz día de la música, guachines!

The masterpiece album Secret story is an extremely well made classical & modern urban soft jazz album with progressive & even acoustic New Age elements. The album is long: more than 70 minutes of delightful music. Curiously, Lyle Mays is rarely present on the songs. Nevertheless, Metheny made a very good job!! The keyboards, the percussions and the guitars are really perfect! You have to listen it with HI-FI product, if you do not want to conclude it's a supermarket music!! The piece "Antonia" is noticeable with is wonderful vibrant rhythmic accordion! The gentle finesse involved is palpable, and the omnipresent, delicate & slow orchestration involved gives this album something very relaxing, noble, addictive and accessible! When I listen to this album using a state-of-the- art sound system, I really have a feeling of GRANDEUR!

EXTREMELY RECOMMENDED!!!!

Greenback - ProgArchives

"Secret Story" is one of Pat Metheny's most ambitious, unique, and progressive works.

One of Metheny's highest and most interesting points of his career, "Secret Story" is not your usual guitar oriented jazz album. There's as a matter of fact something to it that makes it one of this guitarist's most ambitious, unique, and frankly progressive works.

This kind of jazz is labeled by some smooth jazz, but it's actually much more than that: there are tons of synthesizer sounds (played by Pat himself, with nothing but his guitar, and of course MIDI cords), tons of world music influences, especially African and European, the latter one by chance being part of the most melancholic side of the LP. This is Metheny exploring and experimenting, and he does it so well that it is always enjoyable to hear him do so. The musicianship surrounding him is decent, but not memorable, as obviously Pat is the center of the album, and all the noticeable sounds (except for drums) are created by him.

"Secret Story" to me is one of the perfect examples of Metheny's favorite themes, such as travel and being on the road: the world music influence is the exquisite proof. But we also find this theme in moods themselves, cheerful, full of hope and excitement, but at times also full of melancholy and even sadness. It literally is an adventurous albums that visits different sounds textures and new horizons. My only complaint is that it is way too long, clocking in almost 80 minutes in length, and I strongly feel that the results would have been the same if it was a half an hour shorter. However, the longer episodes seem to be more appealing than others: "Finding And Believing"'s ten minutes are pretty epic, thanks to the outstanding African-esque vocals that create a wonderful atmosphere, "The Truth Will Always Be" a greatly structured song, with a nice, calm hook that echoes along the nine minutes of the entire track. "Antonia" is a shorter, but extremely nostalgic piece, of soothing beauty, "Cathedral In a Suitcase" a brilliant evocation and summary of the general moods that the album as a whole creates.

"Secret Story", despite it's excessiveness, is a great treat, an album that a Pat Metheny fan will love dearly, for sure. I never had so much emotions brought up by listening to one of his albums.

EatThatPhonebook - JazzMusicArchives

If The Way Up (Nonesuch, 2005) is Pat Metheny Group'smagnum opus, then Secret Story is the guitarist's greatest achievement as a solo artist to date. A sprawling, 76-minute epic featuring a wealth of guest artists, members of a symphony orchestra and Metheny playing countless parts on an arsenal of guitars and keyboards, its only flaw has been the comparably thin sound that marred much of his Geffen-era work. Secret Story: Deluxe Edition not only gives the album the sonic upgrade it's been waiting for, but includes a second disc with five tracks that, while recorded for the date, were ultimately omitted.

Metheny has always leaned towards long-form, through-composed writing, especially in collaboration with pianist Lyle Mays on Pat Metheny Group albums. Here, as sole composer, one can hear Mays' contribution to PMG through its absence. While there's no lack of complexity here, there's stronger romanticism and less mathematical logic. Still, Metheny makes many of his roots clear, most notably the pulse-driven minimalism of composer Steve Reich, whose influence can be heard on the sweeping "Cathedral in a Suitcase" and multi- layered, contrapuntal "Finding and Believing," where the late Mark Ledford's many times overdubbed voice is pitted against percussive guitar and keyboard parts.

While Secret Story's rich compositional approach eschews the spontaneity of Metheny's more open-ended trio projects, there's still no shortage of strong improvising throughout, most notably his electric guitar solos on the propulsive Midwestern Americana of "Facing West" and more change-heavy "See the World," and his signature trumpet-like guitar synth on the balladic "The Longest Summer" and powerfully dramatic "The Truth Will Always Be."

Metheny's world view is all over Secret Story, from the opening "Above the Treetops," based on a traditional Cambodian hymn, to the classical romanticism of "Tell Her You Saw Me," the backbeat-driven and near-anthemic "Sunlight" and Brazilian-informed "Rain River." While most Metheny albums have each possessed a relatively singular focus, Secret Story's broad narrative is the most inclusive representation of the guitarist as composer and multi-instrumentalist.

Tthe added tracks on disc two are intriguing, but it's easy to see why they weren't included on the original release. The orchestra-driven "Back in Time," the best of the bunch, features harmonicist Toots Thielemans and Metheny's graceful nylon-string guitar, while "Et si c'était la fin" is a bright, Burt Bacharach-like piece of pop. These tunes bookend three tracks—"Understanding," "A Change in Circumstance" and "Look Ahead"— that are unfortunately mislabeled. The first features the entire Pat Metheny Group, a delicate, through- composed piece; the second is another orchestral piece featuring harpist Skaila Kanga; and the last is a brief orchestral miniature.

For those who already own Secret Story, the bonus tracks are an interesting view into how and why certain pieces make it onto an album while others don't. But it's the beautifully warm and rich remastering, revealing details previously unheard, that makes Secret Story: Deluxe Edition definitive, essential, and a welcome return to print of an indisputable masterpiece.

John Pelman - AllAboutJazz.com