Pat Metheny Ornette Coleman

When this album was released in 1994, it shocked casual, and even some hardcore, Metheny fans. Recorded in one day, Zero Tolerance for Silence can best be described as semi-organized noise. In fact, it is often compared with Lou Reed's racket-fest, Metal Machine Music. The recording is five tracks of Metheny's improvised riffing on electric guitar with no other accompaniment, and few, if any, overdubs. Pat Metheny has flirted with this mind-bending musical genre many times before, including his work with Ornette Coleman and even in concert with the Pat Metheny Group.

The "Orchestrion" was a 19th century hybrid musical instrument that usually contained a wind orchestra, various percussion instruments, and sometimes a piano played by a pinned cylinder or a music roll. Pat Metheny designed and played his own version of one – thanks to a commissioned group of inventors, advanced solenoid switch technology, and pneumatics on the 2010 album Orchestrion. The guitarist's version combined organic instruments - various pianos, basses, rows of tuned bottles, bells, cymbals, and other percussion, with digital technology – guitarbots (including one modeled on Paolo Angeli's guitar), switches, and more. The Orchestrion Project was recorded following Metheny's world tour with the instrument, wherein he discovered more about the instrument and its capabilities for group interplay in a solo setting.

"Rejoicing" makes a perfect companion to "Beyond the Missouri Sky." Haden and Metheny share a magnetism on the ground that can only be matched by Lyra and Orion in the night sky. Each tune shines with lyrical brilliance; be it in the softened freedom of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman," the dazzling blur of Metheny's clean runs on the title track, or the wailing synthguitar of "The Calling." Higgins on drums complements all the string action. Harmony, harmolodics, and eudemonics: the joy of the musicianship on this album uplifts the listener with its magic.

In June of 1990, drummer Jack Dejohnette, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Dave Holland, and guitarist Pat Metheny, went on tour together to promote Dejohnette's album, Parallel Realities. The two of these shows, which were performed at the Mellon Jazz Festival, were edited to make the very exciting DVD, Dejohnette, Hancock, Holland, Metheny in Concert. Watching the disc, I became very envious of the audience for being able to see four musicians of this caliber play together on one stage. In fact, watching the tremendous amount of skill and creative energy exhibited by the musicians in this DVD is a good reminder of why jazz is such an important school of music.