パット・メセニーのアコースティック・ソロによる2011年作。こちらのアナログ盤はCDよりも2曲多く収録した2枚組LP！本作は一切のオーバーダビングも施していないギターソロによるアルバムで、主にバリトンギターを使用。過去『ワン・クワイエット・ナイト』(2003年)でギター・ソロによるアルバムをリリースしていますが、本作はパット自身のオリジナル曲がない初の全曲カヴァー・アルバム。しかも内容は誰もが聞きなじみのある楽曲ばかり。ポール・サイモン「The Sound of Silence」(サイモン＆ガーファンクル)、レノン＆マッカートニー「And I Love Her」(ザ・ビートルズ)、バート・バカラック「Alfie」、ヘンリー・マンシーニ「Slow Hot Wind」といった、シンガー・ソングライターたちの名曲をフィーチャー。パットが作曲活動を始める以前、あるいは楽器を演奏するようになる以前に気に入っていた楽曲を取り上げているとのこと。

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2011/05/17）

Down Beat (p.46) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Even the bolero-tinged 'Pipeline' -- the peppiest piece on the record -- has a private feel that only solitude and shadows can provide." JazzTimes (p.58) - "His use of the the infamous Pikasso 42-string on opener 'The Sound of Silence' is a harbinger, with its harp-like delicacies and vaguely Eastern harmony. It's stark and slowed-down..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.98) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] beautifully understated acoustic album whose virtue is its bare-boned simplicity. Record Collector (magazine) (p.97) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "It's a testament to Metheny's artistry that he can hold the listener's attention for 55 minutes, armed solely with an acoustic guitar."

Rovi

The jazz tradition has long taken pop songs, reimagined and reinvented them harmonically and rhythmically and re-presented them as vehicles for improvisation. Pat Metheny has done something different on What's It All About, his second Nashville-tuned baritone acoustic guitar record (with a handful of other acoustic instruments and no overdubs, but there are edits). Here he performs ten pop songs that have long been part of his personal arcana and recorded them so that we might hear what's inside these songs -- as songs. Recorded on a single day in February of 2011, Metheny interprets well-known songs by Paul Simon, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Lennon & McCartney, Henry Mancini, the Ventures, Burt Bacharach, Paul Williams, Terry Kirkman, Carly Simon, Thom Bell, and others across the pop spectrum. His approach is deliberate; his interest is in the subtlety of melody; its nuance, and mystery; he finds the places he hears inside the music before these songs even begin, or just after they end, through a unique series of tunings he employs between A-flat and C. "The Sound of Silence" opens the set by suggesting the tones of a Japanese koto in its intro (courtesy of his 42-string Pikasso guitar). When the melody commences, its languorous richness and rhythmic balance are so perfect, we hear it not only as the pop song we remember by Simon & Garfunkel, but as a lyric invention that is almost magical in its possibility. The version of Kirkman's "Cherish" (a big hit by the Association), is equally profound. He finds the space where the human voice inserts itself in the harmonic structure and opens it with his guitar. There is slightly more improvisation in "Alfie," but it's open, spacious, and full of hinted-at dimensions in the crafting of the song's parameters. "Girl from Ipanema," played as a skeletal, impressionistic ballad, uncovers suggestions of darker melodies inside. He pulls out both the implied elegance in "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be," and the quietly majestic variety of it in "Rainy Days and Mondays." "Betcha by Golly, Wow" stands as a revelation: its inventive harmonics and syncopations are inherent in the tune's basic architecture. In closer "And I Love Her" are the direct implications of bossa that Lennon and McCartney had no doubt taken note of at the time. Ultimately, What's It All About is an intimate work revealing Metheny's investigation of composition itself. The notion of song is inherent in everything he does, and he reveals that inspiration in spades here. ~ Thom Jurek

Rovi