Customer Reviews
The beginning of a lifetime love - By: John Ferngrove, 12 Aug 2008 
I had become aware of Pat Metheny from the TV screening of Joni Mitchell - Shadows & Light, when this young guy went into this guitar solo whose tone & phrasing were like nothing heard before on Earth. I had always responded to music visually & did not yet know that this condition was called synaesthesia, & to this day feel sorry for those who cannot share this experience. With Pat's solo it was like someone was painting the whole sky with a huge brush of liquid silver, accompanied by a feeling of utter tenderness & compassion. (No drugs, honest)
Soon after, a friend of mine tracked down this album, Travels, & my first hearing was of the majestic opening track, Are you Going With Me? surging from his open attic window, across the rooftops of Leeds Bedsit land (he'd probably have got an ASBO now), & immediately knew who it was without having to be told, just from the pictures going offin my head.
Again, Are you Going with Me?, features a guitar sound unlike anything heard till then, like Whale song from Saturn. It was actually a midi guitar but it was the first time I'd heard a midi guitar used to make real music & not just as a gimick. Even twenty years later, whenever I drive west, into a sunset, this is what goes on the car player.
The next song, The Trees, The Sky is just that. Swooping over endless mountains & valleys of trees, & err..., sky. There is a country bluegrass element here, but amalgamated with jazz of the utmost sophistication. Again, a thing never heard before.
After that we get what for me is the best of the best - Goodbye. It is compositionally the most sophisticated on the album. I would defy anyone with a bit of musical nous (even quite a bit actually) to figure out how the chords are movingin this piece. It is all over the place & yet with nothing harshin it at all, just infinite kindness. This is a backing for a guitar solo that just climbs & climbs until you've nowhere else to go but out of the top of your own head. Then you are bought back down as gently as a feather.
The next two songs, Phase Dance & Straight on Red are very lively, upbeat songs that feature the stereo phasing that was another Metheny signature guitar sound. They also feature great solos from Lyle Mays, my favourite pianist of the modern jazz age, whose spirit & musical values are so uncannily close to Pat's own.
Disc 1 ends with the lovely Farmer's Trust. Another one with a bluegrass feel but more of a sixin the morning walk through a misty farmscape with the land just waking up.
The second disc has more fine songs, with gorgeous solos from both Pat & Lyle throughout, but the standout for me is the twenty minutes-ish revisioning of their amazing title piece from the earlier As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls album. Whereas the album version was a subtly ethereal ambient affair, for the live performance it was turned into the sonic equivalent of going over Niagara Fallsin a barrel. The piece again abounds with sounds the like of which had not been heard before. Polynesian bell tones, strange melting glissandos, phased shimmerings & walls of sparkles. It's an absolute conceptual masterpiece that shows up the tedious experiments of the Stockhausens & Cages for the vacuous nonsense they are.
Disc 2 ends with the beautiful & tender San Lorenzo which includes what is arguably the best of Lyle's piano solos on the whole set.
There is nothing of anger or harshnessin these pieces. No teenage angst or existential maunderings. As such, they won't have mass appeal. However, there is excitement, there is exhilaration & there is kindness & compassion. These songs provide a soundtrack for the lives of those who know that the world is truly beautiful, despite its darkness, & for whom each day is a blessing. As such, that makes this music with a truly spiritual dimension.
I can never listen to this enough - By: No Name, 01 Jun 2007 The textures & soundscapes created by Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays (with the tremendous addition of Nana Vasconcelos) make this an unforgettable journey into the pleasant depths of what modern instrumental (jazz?) music can be.
Get on board for the musical journey of your life - By: Mr. Simon J. Howe, 23 Sep 2006 If you could pick one album to have with you at all times - pick this one. Travels is a musical journey through many styles - composed by an artist who has pure genius & performed by musicians who actually care about music. I'm not going to pick out individual tracks, as the sum of the tracks together is what makes it so great. The inspiration for many of the tracks seems to come from the great mid-western landscapes of Missouri - it is easy to imagine those landcapes as you listen to this album. For any mood, occasion, this album is as good as music gets. The soundtrack for my life. Buy it any shelve your other cds.
Young Live Metheney Group's Epic Musical Voyage - By: , 05 Jan 2002 I confess that the opening tune 'Are You Going With Me' has long been a dependable drug free stress release companion. Its two minute intro by the entire ensemble softly builds an atmosphere that suggests something truly ground breaking is about to be unleashed. It isin the form of the most innovitive guitar sound of its time. It is easy to mistake Pat's guitar for an harmonica at first until it becomes gradually apparent that not even the genius of Larry Adler could conjure up sounds of this dimension. Once a trombonist Pat's unique guitar phrasing reminds me more of a brass instument & at times mimics the sound of a singing whale.
This is probably their most widely appreciated anthem which lays the ground for a euphoric musical voyage of alternating exhileration & relaxation which makes the trip the most pleasurable musical journey I have endured.
Steve Rodby, now installed on bass with a less complex sound than his predessors, & percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, adding a Brazillian flavour have realy kicked the band into a new stride on these 1982 live recordings.
Disc one winds down with the exquisite slow classical style that is 'Farmers Trust'.
Disc two strides out purposefully with the contemplative 'Extradition', followed by the lullaby,'Going Ahead' before the storm, 'Wichita Falls' a menacingly turbulent tune, resolved by the serene calmness of 'Travels'.
'Song for Bilbao' is a fanfare for the safe return of thr musicians at their journy's end.
This remarkable exploration closes with a track from their trio days,'San Lorenzo' as a reflection & modest but majestic celebration of this fantastic trip.
