Pat Metheny: The Unity Sessions Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Pat Metheny: The Unity Sessions Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 19, 2015

Pat Metheny has forged what is probably the most consistently successful career of any jazz guitarist over the past 40 years (!) or so. A friend of mine who is, like Metheny himself, a Downbeat poll winner in the world of jazz guitar, has told me on more than one occasion, “There’s Pat Metheny. . .and then there’s everyone else.” Metheny has offered a glut of really gorgeous albums through the years, often working with his main collaborator, keyboard ace Lyle Mays, but on this Blu-ray release he’s working with his so-called Unity Band, an aggregation Metheny formed circa 2012, and which offered a more horn based approach that was sparked by Metheny’s love of the playing of Chris Potter, who is featured on tenor and soprano saxes, as well as more outré instruments like bass clarinet. The Unity Band still wafts through some of Metheny’s luxuriously melodic creations, but they’re also just as apt to offer tunes that tend to reside in more anachronistic niches, often reminiscent of one of Metheny’s other collaborators, the late iconoclast Ornette Coleman (who in fact shares writing credit on one of the tunes included on this disc). Pat Metheny: The Unity Sessions offers Metheny, Potter, percussionist Antonio Sanchez, bassist Ben WIlliams and keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi on a wide array of song selections that sees the players gliding over everything from Charlie Barnet’s warhorse “Cherokee” (written by Ray Noble) to other songs that reflect on Metheny’s now long and illustrious recording career.

The Unity Band's songlist includes:

1. Genealogy
2. On Day One
3. This Belongs to You
4. Roofdogs
5. Come and See
6. Kin
7. Born
8. Rise Up
9. Adagia
10. Sign of the Season
11. Go Get It
12. Cherokee
13. Police People
14. Two Folk Songs (#1)
15. Medley

Pat Metheny: The Unity Sessions Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Pat Metheny: The Unity Sessions is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Metheny Group Productions, Universal Music Group and Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a pretty 'arty' looking ostensible concert video, with a couple of steadicam operators credited and lots of wafting panning shots that move in and out of the players. While that gets things up close and personal where fine detail is often quite excellent, the overall drab and even dim lighting, as well as other lighting choices which bathe the players in blue (to cite just one example), tend to detract at least as much from detail levels. There are some recurrent, minor but noticeable compression issues that tend to dust the image with noise in the darkest moments.

Pat Metheny: The Unity Sessions Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While Pat Metheny: The Unity Sessions has been authored to default to the LPCM 2.0 track, there is a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track included as well (not to mention a standard lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track). The 5.1 track offers superb clarity and excellent precision, as well as good separation. The wide array of instruments (which include some of Metheny's "Rube Goldberg"-esque contraptions) provide the track with a lot of brightness, but things never sound overly brash. Fidelity is top notch and there are no problems of any kind to address in this review.

Pat Metheny: The Unity Sessions Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interviews (1080p; 13:38)

Pat Metheny: The Unity Sessions Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Those who are used to Metheny's more languid, often Brazilian inflected, recordings may be brought up short by some of the dissonant explorations offered on The Unity Sessions. Those who have a sense of adventure will find the master guitarist and his ace band at the top of their forms, both individually and collectively. Recommended.