Gottlieb Garvo

The first recording by the Pat Metheny Group features the innovative guitarist along with keyboardist Lyle Mays, bassist Mark Egan, and drummer Dan Gottlieb. The music is quite distinctive, floating rather than swinging, electric but not rockish, and full of folkish melodies. The best known of these six Metheny-Mays originals are "Phase Dance" and "Jaco." This music grows in interest with each listen.

Masterpieces Played by Masters asserts the back cover of this reissue confidently. That gives the wrong idea of the flavor of this little disc of chamber music from the middle eighteenth century, originally recorded in 1978. The instruments are all either of the relevant period or copies of such, making this one of the earlier applications of historical-performance principles to pre-Classical music. The "Masters" part of the equation is justifiable enough; flutist Barthold Kuijken and the other players involved all had long careers in the Dutch heartland of the historical-performance movement, and, unlike so many other players trained primarily in the Baroque repertory, they take naturally to the light charm of the pieces played here.

Having been employed as a sideman by everyone from Miles Davis, Joe Farrell, and Gene Ammons to James Brown, Esther Phillips, and Gloria Gaynor, Joe Beck has an impressive resume when it comes to supporting others. But his output as a leader has been erratic. The guitarist's own catalog is much smaller than it should be, and he hasn't lived up to his full potential as a soloist. One of the decent CDs that Beck recorded in the '90s was Finger Painting, a fusion/post-bop effort boasting Bill Evans (not the famous pianist) on tenor and soprano sax, Mark Egan on electric bass, and Danny Gottlieb on drums.

I return to the Windham Hill label, today with the Jazz-Fusion pianist Scott Cossu.