I enjoy participating in a few music communities on the Internet. Each one focuses on particular artists I like--Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Umphrey's McGee, and a smattering of Jamgrass bands. These groups are great platforms to share thoughts about the music and the musicians and discover obscure concert videos. In some cases, "tribute" bands often do a great job interpreting the music of more prominent groups.

Make no mistake, Metheny fans have a lot of passion and really love the work of guitarist Pat Metheny and pianist Lyle Mays, who served as kind of a Lennon and McCartney for Jazz Fusion music from the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s. The Band's Swan Song was in 2007 with the release of The Way Up, a four-part magnum opus that ran at more than an hour. I was lucky enough to see it live at GW's Lisner Auditorium in 2007, and what a show it was. The Way Up is a complex and provocative piece that culminates decades of writing and touring for Metheny and Mays. Some of its melodic themes draw back to untitled tunes the Band played in the late seventies. I have come back to this piece more and more, there are new things to hear and realize every time you listen. That said, my favorite ear for this band is the seventies and eighties, when much of their finest work was written, thanks to a youthful energy that matured over the years of the Band.

This last weekend I read a post from a guy on the Lyle Mays group on Facebook. He linked to a YouTube video of a group called First Circle, a tribute band for the Pat Metheny Group. There have been a number of cover productions for the Metheny work over the years. Bob Curnow's LA Big Band put out an album of Metheny in 1994 that was a great effort. Recently, there have been a few more relevant releases--John Pizzarelli released an excellent solo guitar outing of Metheny tunes in 2021, and Peter Sprague just released a two-volume set of his interpretation of Metheny, and it is another fine effort. But the best I had seen is another YouTube artist, Michele Fischietti, an amazing Italian musician who for more than a decade has taken a number of Metheny tunes and reproduced them in video format where he plays all of the instruments--the guy is amazing--check his work out here: www.youtube.com/user/miki2676.

In May 2022, the band First Circle posted was a Metheny classic, Phase Dance, which the band used to open their shows for years. It was the first song I ever heard Metheny play live. The video opened with a wide shot of the stage, with a sextet of musicians. There were two guitarists, bass, keyboards, drums and percussion, who launched into the tune with gusto. The lead guitarist notably was a lefty, and looked a bit like My Morning Jacket's Jim Jones. He wore a blue horizontal striped shirt like Metheny. But he had chops, and played the music well. The pianist was especially fine, playing the music in his own way, quite capably, with vestiges of Lyle Mays coming through each phrase. It was a damn good cover. They also have a video of their interpretation of the song September 15th, and I cannot stop playing it-- see it here: https://youtu.be/kp81g5D_htI.

After viewing the Phase Dance video, I wrote a post for the Lyle Mays Group and posted it, only to see that another member had beat me to it. After I deleted my post, I added a comment to the original. Then the magic of social media came into play, and the pianist, Christophe Magnan-Bosse' responded to my comment. He continued to engage other members of the group, as he commented on their approach to Metheny's music:

"We are undeniably and strongly influenced by the playing of Metheny and Mays, but every musician has his style/vocabulary of improvisation. You are right about the tribute bands. We try to find the right balance between their style and ours. I'm glad you like it! The very nature of this project makes it impossible for anyone to 100% imitate the original band. We would have to play all the solos as is? That just makes no sense. And their gear!! They had a lot, including many instruments that are now super rare and goddamn expensive. Luckily with modern technologies, very good VST emulations of vintage instruments are available [so we can recreate the sound]".

First Circle has a YouTube page set up with a number of videos of Metheny music (www.youtube.com/c/FirstCirclePatMethenyGroupTribute), and they bring youthful energy back to Metheny's catalog. After more than a decade of no new Metheny Group shows, many fans are hungry for new interpretations, and Lyle May's death made things even worse, ending the possibility of anything new coming out from him or the original Pat Metheny group.

At a Metheny show I went to last November, there were few people there under 50--there needs to be an infusion of younger fans to keep this amazing music alive. It is great to see that a new generation of jazz musicians taking on Metheny's formidable music, and doing it with great skill. Hopefully more young music lovers will discover this amazing music. If you are unaware of Pat Metheny and Lyle May's work, by all means check it out. I promise you will like what you hear. There is great variety of styles in their music, songs that sound easy that are anything but that-- soft jazz it is not.

Steve Chase is on the porch in Unison with a Pat Metheny play list keeping him calm.