Jazz Fusion Album: Pat Metheny Group

Speaking of Now, Warner Bros

If fusion has a high end then guitarist Metheny stands on the prow. On the good ship Pat Noodle you'll find elaborate melodies, intense improvisation, epic emotional sweep, diaphonous textures and Lyle Mays. He's the keyboard player. And he envelops the vessel in a fog of prog. Nothing to be done about it. Except that this time his captain has hired a trumpet player and Richard Bona to sing. The difference? Hardly any you'd notice. Speaking of Now amounts to the same old hyper-aestheticised rhetoric, done over again nicely and, naturally, in exquisite taste. How lovely. How dull.