Question And Answer is an album released by guitarist Pat Metheny in 1990 on the Geffen label. The album is half jazz standards and half Pat Metheny compositions. This is a trio album featuring jazz alumni Dave Holland on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. I got the album for free as a promotional at my local record shop but you can actually buy the CD on amazon for as low as $0.98 cents used and $3.49 brand new! Pretty damn good prices for great jazz.
The first song is a Miles Davis tune, 'Solar', one of my personal favorite Miles Davis tunes, probably my favorite. The song starts off with a drum introduction and the familiar head to the tune begins. It's a bluesy bebop type thing that is characteristic of the 50's. But soon Metheny and company take off, stretching the tune in all directions. Pat's guitar lines are very melodic but he jazzes everything up, using the jazz kind of phrasing in his solo. They play Solar very uptempo and the drumming is everything you could expect from a great jazz drummer. Lots of cymbal and snare hits, keeping time but also colouring and accenting the beats. After's Metheny's fast and inventive guitar solo Dave Holland plays a bass solo. His playing is very melodic like Metheny's but he lays down a groove more rather than flurries of notes. After the bass solo, they trade bars, like trading 4's or 8's its called, where they play all together but then the drums come in solo, playing a kind of solo that incorporates the whole band into it. Roy Haynes is a fantastic drummer that came up during the 50's. He's still playing to this day. I believe he's in his 80's. What you can really appreciate here is how great this is in terms of being jazz, and I mean jazz in the straight-ahead sense of the word. These guys are all seasoned veterans and you can tell they've been doing this their whole lives just from hearing this first song.
Next, is a tune entitled 'Question And Answer', which is more of a mellow number that I believe is a Metheny composition. On this song you can really hear Metheny's Midwestern roots. The atmosphere of the song is very rural, very relaxed, but has all the characteristics of a great jazz song. The melody is very bluesy and the chords Metheny plays are very pleasing to the ear. They are typical jazz chords but sound lush and beautiful with the drums and bass. After an extended guitar solo, Dave Holland plays a bass solo where he shows his musicality rather than virtuosity. The blues is so real in this song that it really hits deep. It's that Midwestern blues, something that I can relate to myself, being from Wisconsin. The blues influence is so apparent here but there is also a darkness to the melody too. It really shows Metheny's depth as a composer. He's a hell of a guitar player and a composer.
Then, the next tune is 'H&H'. Not sure what that stands for but it sounds like a great title for a tune. This one has a bebop head before Pat takes solo. Once Pat starts playing they are really cooking. On this one Dave Holland plays walking bass lines that make it sound like something from the 50's but because of Pat's guitar tone it sounds modern and fresh. This was 1990 after all. I would say Pat has had the same guitar tone all of his life but I couldn't say that because I haven't heard him when he was like my age. But for the most part, Pat's guitar tone on his recordings have been the same. It's a hollow sound of a big box jazz guitar, with lots of mid-range rather than treble and bass. Once you hear it you'll always know its Pat Metheny once you hear him play. After Pat's solo Dave Holland takes a bass solo but this time it's a complicated fast type of thing but it's still musical. What a guy! He plays with so much technique but has a certain musicality to his bass playing. After the bass solo they trade bars with the drums, giving Roy Haynes a time to shine with all his wild snare and cymbal hits. Then the head repeats, signaling the end of the tune. The head is complicated but musical at the same time.
Next, is a tune called 'Never Too Far Away'. This one is a ballad with beautiful chord changes. They sound like standard jazz chord changes. I think this song might be a standard but one I've just never heard before. The guitar chords are typical jazz chords but they have so many extensions that it would be hard for even me to figure out and I'm a pretty good guitar player. The song kind of focuses on the guitar chords. It's like a chord-melody type song rather than just single note lines from Pat. The bass playing supporting the guitar is very melodic and pretty. And then there's the drums playing with brushes, adding character and depth to the song, giving it a very classic 'jazz' kind of sound. This song sounds so modern to my ears that it sounds like this guy I listen to named Kurt Rosenwinkel, a young guitarist that plays out of New York a lot. No doubt, he was influenced by Metheny.
Then, we have a tune called 'Law Years'. It has a quick short introduction that is very boppish and then goes into a bass solo. This is a jazz standard, an old Ornette Coleman song from the album Science Fiction, released in 1972. It has a classic jazz vibe to it and is uptempo. The drumming on this track is especially terrific because he's really swinging. He's emphasizing certain beats over others, and getting in a lot of snare hits while hitting the cymbals. This rhythmic nature of the music is probably the most important part of jazz. Without it, it wouldn't sound like jazz. Pat's guitar solo here gets a little weird, well for him. This is no doubt the Ornette Coleman aspect of the piece. There's a great drum solo at the end of the tune that is very loud and in your face.
Then, comes a tune called 'Change of Heart'. The introduction has more of those beautiful guitar chords that Metheny likes to play. He even throws in some harmonics the guitar, giving it that harp-like sound. This one sounds like a Metheny original tune. The tone of this song is very happy. The guitar lines from Pat here are amazing. He plays lots of fast technical stuff but has such a melodic singing quality to his sound. It's almost as though he was singing. This is also more of a ballad type song.
Next up, is one of my personal favorites, 'All The Things You Are'. Pat, for lack of a better word, jazzes up the theme, playing it faster and with more of a rhythmic emphasis. Then they begin going for it, with Pat leading with his guitar solo. At the end of his solo he quotes the theme of the song. Then the bass comes in with a solo but as he's playing the guitar is comping (accompanying, playing chords) in the background with the drums. At all the other moments so far on the album where there's a bass solo, Pat sat out but here he's still playing over it, which is true trio style of playing. After the bass solo the drums trades bars with the band, playing lots of snare and cymbal hits. Roy Haynes just has that classic jazz sound. I can't say that he's playing anything unique but he does sound like himself. The ending of the piece is great because they repeat the theme but play it slower.
Then, we have a piece called 'Old Folks'. This one is a slower piece that sounds like another ballad. This is another one of those classic jazz standards, although I haven't heard this one because I think it goes back farther. Pat's guitar solo here is very bebop influenced but very much based on the blues as well. Some of the bass lines in this piece are very 'jazz' sounding, having those classic bass lines from very early jazz standards. The ending of the piece is very memorable. I just love those classic jazz endings that give the tune a charismatic ending.
Finally, the last piece is 'Free Flights Up', which I believe is another jazz standard. This one has some kind of keyboards or synthesizers in the background over the guitar, bass, and drums. Pat kind of goes right into a solo from the get go. With the keyboards supporting the solos and giving the band harmonic structure, it sounds like a very modern tune. Usually jazz bands try not to play with keyboards or synthesizers, none of that glittery stuff in my jazz please. But here it ain't bad. The bass solo in this song is very mellow. The whole vibe of this song is kind of like a Midwestern night's dream.
Lastly, this album was a blast to listen to. It's one of the best albums I've heard from Pat Metheny since I've listened to his first record, which was from the 1970's. He really became a jazz star. All of these guys in this band are jazz superstars, for good reason, because they all can really play like motherfuckers. This album has since gotten a lot of great reviews, not so much back then but now because of the great playing on it. Its a great straight-ahead album that most jazz fans can approve of.
