The ongoing chronicles of the mutual love affair between the Lobero Theatre and veteran jazz guitar hero Pat Metheny continue on Tuesday, May 5, when the guitar returns to Canon Perdido Street with his current Side-Eye III+ project.
The legacy goes back some four-plus decades, to Metheny’s appearance with his 80/81 project featuring Charlie Haden, Michael Brecker, Dewey Redman, and Paul Motian, and includes countless memorable shows there over the years. Recently, those appearances included last year’s career-spanning and autobiography-tapping solo concert and a concert in which he premiered a song written with Alan and Marilyn Bergman, sung by Tierney Sutton in this hallowed space — an especially jazz-welcoming space at that.
Now comes a bold new project, a fresh variation on the theme of his “Side-Eye” group concept, with a new aggregate of young musicians — keyboardist Chris Fishman, drummer Joe Dyson, bassist Jermaine Paul, and Leonard Patton on percussion, and vocals.
“I really love Santa Barbara,” Metheny has enthused to me in the past. “And I particularly love the Lobero — I honestly feel honored to be able to return there so often over the years. There are a few European festivals I feel the same way about, where I have been able to play regularly over the years, but there are very few places in the States that I could compare the Lobero to, and, for that matter, the S.B. audience. It is a gig I always look forward to.”
As a further, on-site testament to his Lobero appreciation factor, when he appeared with his earlier incarnation of Side-Eye, just after the lifting of COVID restrictions in 2021, Metheny told the Lobero crowd, “Whenever I put together a new band or album, I ask myself how it will sound here.” The verdict then: A-OK.
With the new album, Side-Eye III+ (listen here), released on Metheny’s own new record label, Uniquity Music, a new band is born and documented, with echoes of Metheny’s established sonic landscapes. On the new record, Metheny and his young bandmates carve out sonic terrain reminiscent of the long-standing Pat Metheny Group, which the guitarist led with co-writing ally, the late, great Lyle Mays, for many years.
Wordless vocal textures — supplied on record by a vocal group led by Take 6’s Mark Kibble — are added sweeteners, along with guests such as bassist Daryl Johns, seasoned percussion ace Luis Conte, and young harp sensation Brandee Younger. They contribute toward a big yet friendly, epic ensemble sound, especially on the longer tracks “Don’t Look Down” and “Make a New World.” But then, the going gets twangy and gospel-ized on “Urban and Western,” replete with Hammond B-3 sounds, and the album closes out with a wistful farewell song, which could be a life summation statement, “So Far So Good.”
No doubt, the young charges will conjure up a suitably lush and hot, romantic and lyrical storm at the Lobero. Metheny, after all, has a veritably unassailable batting average in this room, going into the way-back machine. Pat Metheny returns to the Lobero Theatre on Tuesday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. For more information, see lobero.org.
