The most striking thing about Rejoicing is that Metheny plays closer to the jazz mainstream than on any of his recordings since the 80/81 album. Side one has him employing his characteristically muffled guitar tone in faithful and swinging interpretations of three Ornette Coleman tunes and a blues by Haden. He takes up the acoustic guitar for an excellent rendition of Horace Silver’s melancholy ballad Lonely Woman, where his playing is beautifully measured and considered. Higgins’s brushwork on this track projects so strongly that it feels like a physical presence.
Side two is a different matter and shows that the guitar synthesiser has not fallen from favour with Metheny. It is altogether more orchestral and less rhythmic than side one. Story starts life as an acoustic ballad, but before long a viola-like sound indicates that the guitar synth has been insinuated and it remains prominent until the end of the record. At the beginning of The Calling, the synth sounds something like a heraldic horn section, eventually giving way to a difficult free-for-all.
Personal reservations apart, Rejoicing is an eclectic exploration of the guitar trio’s potential and should prove worthwhile to any guitar enthusiast.
Discography
Lonely Woman; Tears Inside; Humpty Dumpty; Blues For Pat; Rejoicing (25.22) – Story From A Stranger; The Calling; Waiting For An Answer (17.56)
Pat Metheny (g); Charlie Haden (b); Billy Higgins (d). New York, November 1983.
ECM 1271
