Segnalo un'altra intervista a Pat Metheny pubblicata sul sito del Daily News Los Angeles, nella quale il chitarrista cerca di spiegare il suo ultimo progetto Orchestrion.
"In the most overarching sense, the guitarist is playing everything," says the jazz great. "The tricky part is that it's real physical instruments doing what real instruments do and not electronics."
In other words, it's a one-man band. There's Metheny playing his electric guitar surrounded by dozens of custom-made instruments - pianos, guitars, drums, vibes and other forms of percussion - that are accompanying him. Drumsticks and mallets are used to play the acoustic instruments - so the sound is naturally struck, not created electronically. They are all connected with wires that eventually lead to an Apple computer.
"There's a lot of smacking, banging, blowing, plucking. Those are the kinds of movements that work well under this system," says Metheny, who has won 17 Grammys.
It's all triggered by foot pedals, but what's hard to describe is the control side. "That really does require about an hour's explanation in front of a computer," he admits. You can get a picture of it by going to patmetheny.com or laphil.com.
An orchestrion is an old term for a machine that could crudely mimic the sound of an orchestra. The mechanical devices usually used music rolls. Recordings made them obsolete, but when he was a child, Metheny loved trying out the different rolls for the old player-piano his grandfather had in his basement.
Today, the 55-year-old employs a variety of robotics, solenoids, and electromagnetic switches to a vibraphone riff, a particular drumbeat or a guitar strum. He spent four years and his own money on the project, and while some of the technology was already invented, he turned to experts to help create his dream.
But unlike a piano roll, the guitarist, who does about 160 dates a year, says he's not locked in, asking you to imagine a spectrum where one side is densely organized and the other is blank and you have the ability to fly freely between them.
"It's not like it's programmed. It's a set of possibilities that then I can control," he says. "What's really interesting about what I'm doing is that it's mostly improvised, which would not have been possible back (in the days of piano rolls)."
Metheny has always been known for his musical explorations. His 1979 album "New Chautauqua" layered several guitars to create an ensemble sound, something that he couldn't duplicate live. In the 1980s he was one of the first to use a guitar synthesizer, and over the years he has included a variety of genres in his sound, including Latin and even hip-hop, while forging his own path.
"I just have a streak of independence. I kind of want to do my own thing," he says. "Actually, I don't think I fit into any one little zone. Even in the jazz world I'm sort of all over the place."
Calling it "the most personal thing I've ever done," he says Orchestrion isn't like anything else in his 40 years of playing and had to draw on all his experience to make it work.
"Now I'm happy with the record ... but at the same time I didn't sleep for six months trying to figure out everything. There is no place to look for instructions. If you do a trio record you can listen to Oscar Peterson for a week and then listen Ornette Coleman for week. There is no place to look for anything here. I had to make it all up as I went along."
Comparing it to making an animation film as opposed to a live film, Metheny says he's heard comments like "Don't you get lonely up there?" about the project.
"To me that's a little bit like saying, `When Walt Disney did "Bambi," a Hollywood deer didn't get the gig.' No, they would never use a real deer. It's a different form."
Si può leggere l'intervista integrale a questo indirizzo.
"In the most overarching sense, the guitarist is playing everything," says the jazz great. "The tricky part is that it's real physical instruments doing what real instruments do and not electronics."
In other words, it's a one-man band. There's Metheny playing his electric guitar surrounded by dozens of custom-made instruments - pianos, guitars, drums, vibes and other forms of percussion - that are accompanying him. Drumsticks and mallets are used to play the acoustic instruments - so the sound is naturally struck, not created electronically. They are all connected with wires that eventually lead to an Apple computer.
"There's a lot of smacking, banging, blowing, plucking. Those are the kinds of movements that work well under this system," says Metheny, who has won 17 Grammys.
It's all triggered by foot pedals, but what's hard to describe is the control side. "That really does require about an hour's explanation in front of a computer," he admits. You can get a picture of it by going to patmetheny.com or laphil.com.
An orchestrion is an old term for a machine that could crudely mimic the sound of an orchestra. The mechanical devices usually used music rolls. Recordings made them obsolete, but when he was a child, Metheny loved trying out the different rolls for the old player-piano his grandfather had in his basement.
Today, the 55-year-old employs a variety of robotics, solenoids, and electromagnetic switches to a vibraphone riff, a particular drumbeat or a guitar strum. He spent four years and his own money on the project, and while some of the technology was already invented, he turned to experts to help create his dream.
But unlike a piano roll, the guitarist, who does about 160 dates a year, says he's not locked in, asking you to imagine a spectrum where one side is densely organized and the other is blank and you have the ability to fly freely between them.
"It's not like it's programmed. It's a set of possibilities that then I can control," he says. "What's really interesting about what I'm doing is that it's mostly improvised, which would not have been possible back (in the days of piano rolls)."
Metheny has always been known for his musical explorations. His 1979 album "New Chautauqua" layered several guitars to create an ensemble sound, something that he couldn't duplicate live. In the 1980s he was one of the first to use a guitar synthesizer, and over the years he has included a variety of genres in his sound, including Latin and even hip-hop, while forging his own path.
"I just have a streak of independence. I kind of want to do my own thing," he says. "Actually, I don't think I fit into any one little zone. Even in the jazz world I'm sort of all over the place."
Calling it "the most personal thing I've ever done," he says Orchestrion isn't like anything else in his 40 years of playing and had to draw on all his experience to make it work.
"Now I'm happy with the record ... but at the same time I didn't sleep for six months trying to figure out everything. There is no place to look for instructions. If you do a trio record you can listen to Oscar Peterson for a week and then listen Ornette Coleman for week. There is no place to look for anything here. I had to make it all up as I went along."
Comparing it to making an animation film as opposed to a live film, Metheny says he's heard comments like "Don't you get lonely up there?" about the project.
"To me that's a little bit like saying, `When Walt Disney did "Bambi," a Hollywood deer didn't get the gig.' No, they would never use a real deer. It's a different form."
Si può leggere l'intervista integrale a questo indirizzo.
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