Blu-ray of the Day - "Pat Metheny: The Way Up - Live"

Blu-ray Disc of the Day
Pat Metheny Group: "The Way Up-Live" (Eagle Vision/ST2) 2008
Blue-ray Disc Features: Keep Case / Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround / Dolby Digital DTS 5.1 Surround / PCM Stereo - English
Subtitles: English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish (interview only)
Bonus Feature: 22 Minutes interview with Pat Metheny
Tracks: 1. Opening 2. Part One 3. Part Two 4. Part Three (all played without pause)

At that time, the PMG members, besides Pat and Lyle Mays (on piano & keyboards) were Steve Rodby (besides having played acoustic & electric bass, he also direct and edited this video), Antonio Sanchez (drums & electric bass), Cuong Vu (trumpet, vocals, percussion, guitar), Gregoire Maret (harmonica, guitars, percussion, vocal, electric bass) and another multi-instrumentalist, Pernambuco-born Nando Lauria, heard on percussion, guitar & vocals. Curiously, soon after the tour, Lauria left the band and also decided to return to Brazil, where he is currently living in the city of Jaboatão...

Pat Metheny is one of the most original and distinctive guitarists of the contemporary jazz (yes, JAZZ!) scene. Together with longtime collaborator and keyboardist Lyle Mays, he founded the Pat Metheny Group in 1978. Instantly successful, they have established themselves at the forefront of jazz-rock fusion with a succession of best selling albums and sellout world tours. This Blu-ray Disc, previously released by ST2 on DVD, was filmed in late 2005, at LG Arts Centre, in Seoul (one of myTop 5 cities in the world!), Korea, during the Asian leg of a 6-month tour.

It's the full concert version of their most recent studio album, "The Way Up" (2004), which earned the Pat Metheny Group their 10th Grammy Award and Metheny personally his 17th.
I was lucky to have attended the concert in California; this Blu-ray communicates the excitement felt at the live concert. The camera work and detail of this production is clearly superior to previous Pat Metheny's DVDs. Co-written by Pat and his alter-ego Lyle Mays (a partnership equivalent, in the fusion field, to the Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn association), the ambitious & eloquent "The Way Up" is defined by the guitarist as "a long form piece that describes in detail many of the most pressing issues in our musical lives."