Guitarists aplenty

Caught a couple of shows recently that I wanted to scribble a few notes about.

Larry Carlton and Robben Ford swung through for a one nighter at the Boulder Theater a couple of week back, a show I previewed for the paper.

Apart from their respective resumes, which aren't bad, the two guitarists have a pretty lengthy history playing together, and the quartet show at BT didn't disappoint. Swinging between gritty blues stomps and fusiony light jazz, Carlton the technician and Ford the blues gut-buster have a seamless alchemy between each other - both capable of sheer flamethrowing chops, impromptu nuance and impeccable taste, I generally found that Ford was the better player that night; his playing was looser and seemingly more effortless.

Carlton, who we reviewed in these pages last August when he led a trio through here, just seemed tight, a little over-considered and never really managed to find his swing. Most working guitarists would cut off a foot to have Larry Carlton's off-night, of course, and overall the show (featuring Travis Carlton on bass and Gary Novak on drums, fresh off a recent project with Ford) was very good. Perfect venue for them, too.

Pat Metheny brought his Orchestrion project to the Paramount a week or so ago. We previewed this one as well (via email interview, not my favorite format, but it worked out pretty well), and were intently curious what the thing would really be like. Metheny has always staged terrific large format shows, so he had a pretty high bar to clear.

The Orchestrion, briefly, is a series of instruments activated through his guitar and controlled by solenoid and midi-type technology, built somewhat around, and designed similarly to, a Yamaha Disklavier. In essence, and this is a pretty significant over-simplification, Metheny orchesrates everything through his pick and strings. Most of the rig is percussion - there are vibes, bass, guitar-bot as well, but the vast majority of the machinery is percussion - a resonance, we thought, from the heavily Brazilian-influenced Metheny Band stuff of the last decade or so.

Without too many details, we thought the project and the show was about 80% successful - he played the entire album composed and produced with this rig, and a did few other impromptu things as well (even reaching for his guitar synth for a number or two). The response dynamics were impeccable; Metheny has obviously figured out how to make this stage-consuming contraption work, as well as building enough space for himself to both execute on his long-format compositional inclinations, and, happily, solo his ass off. Never a joyless perfomer, Metheny nonetheless also seemed to be having a hell of a lot of fun with this thing. (We won't describe it detail, but leave it to say that once the entire thing rig is revealed, it's almost breathtaking contraption to witness...) As far as his playing, I can't say I ever heard him play better.

One the downside, there were times when I did feel as the pieces, generally densely written and heavily composed, came across a bit sterile and two dimensional. I generally prefer his earlier band material, more jazz and less salsa/shaker percussiony, so I found the pieces' busyness a bit much at times. And..I really did miss hearing an actual piano solo, a side effect of too many Metheny band shows with Lyle Mays, I guess.

But I will say that I do think this an intriguing and genuinely musical experiment on Metheny's part, and I applaud its ambition and sucess. I won't say this was my favorite of a dozen or so shows I've seen, but it was excellent and provocative nonetheless, and if you get a chance to see it...do.