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Extrait de QUESTION
& ANSWER , avec: Pat METHENY
(guitar), Dave HOLLAND (doublebass) and Roy HAYNES
(drums).
Biographies:
Pat METHENY:
''b. 12 August 1954, Kansas City, Missouri,
USA. Although classed as a jazz guitarist, Metheny has bridged
the gap between jazz and rock music in the same way that
Miles Davis did in the late 60s and early 70s. Additionally,
he played a major part in the growth of jazz's popularity
among the younger generation of the 80s. Throughout his
career, his extraordinary sense of melody has prevented
his work from becoming rambling or self-indulgent. His first
musical instrument was a French horn, and surprisingly he
did not begin with the guitar until he was a teenager. His
outstanding virtuosity soon had him teaching the instrument
at the University Of Miami and the Berklee College Of Music
in Boston. He joined Gary Burton in 1974, and throughout
his three-album stay, he contributed some fluid Wes Montgomery
-influenced guitar patterns. Manfred Eicher of ECM Records
saw the potential and initiated a partnership that lasted
for 10 superlative albums. He became, along with Keith Jarrett,
ECM's biggest-selling artist, and his albums regularly topped
the jazz record charts. Metheny has also been one of the
few jazz artists to make regular appearances in the pop
album charts, such is the accessibility of his music. His
early albums, Bright Size Life (featuring the late Jaco
Pastorius ), and Watercolors showed a man who was still
feeling his way. His own individual style matured with Pat
Metheny Group in 1978. Together with his musical partner
(and arguably, his right arm), the brilliant keyboard player
Lyle Mays, whose quiet presence at the side of the stage
provided the backbone for much of Metheny's work, he initiated
a rock band format that produced album after album of melodious
jazz/rock. Following a major tour with Joni Mitchell and
Pastorius ( Shadows And Light ), Metheny released New Chautauqua,
on which he demonstrated an amazing dexterity on the 12-string
guitar. The album made the US Top 50. He returned to the
electric band format for American Garage, which contained
the country-influenced '(Cross The) Heartland'. The double
set 80/81 featured Michael Brecker, Jack DeJohnette, Charlie
Haden and Dewey Redman, and was more of a typical jazz album,
featuring in particular the moderately avant garde 'Two
Folk Songs'. Nevertheless, the record still climbed the
popular charts. During this time, Metheny constantly won
jazz and guitarist polls. Mays' keyboards featured prominently
in the band structure, and he received co-authorship credit
for the suite As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls.
Metheny had by now become fascinated by the musical possibilities
of the guitar synthesizer or synclavier. He used this to
startling effect on Offramp, notably on the wonderfully
contagious and arresting 'Are You Going With Me?'. The double
set Travels showed a band at the peak of its powers, playing
some familiar titles with a new freshness. The short piece
'Travels' stands as one of his finest compositions; the
low-level recording offers such subtle emotion that it becomes
joyously funereal. Rejoicing was a modern jazz album demonstrating
his sensitive interpretations of music by Horace Silver
and Ornette Coleman. First Circle maintained the standard
and showed a greater leaning towards Latin-based music,
though still retaining Metheny's brilliant ear for melody.
In 1985, he composed the score for the movie The Falcon
And The Snowman which led to him recording 'This Is Not
America' with David Bowie. The resulting UK Top 20/US Top
40 hit brought Metheny many new young admirers. The concert
halls found audiences bedecked in striped rugby shirts,
in the style of their new hero. Ironically, at the same
time, following a break with ECM, Metheny turned his back
on possible rock stardom and produced his most perplexing
work, Song X, with free-jazz exponent Ornette Coleman. Reactions
were mixed in reviews of this difficult album - ultimately
the general consensus was that it was brilliantly unlistenable.
He returned to more familiar ground with Still Life (Talking)
and Letter From Home, although both experimented further
with Latin melody and rhythm. Metheny enjoyed a particularly
creative and productive time from 1989-90. Reunion was a
superb meeting with his former boss Gary Burton. A few months
later he recorded Question And Answer with Dave Holland
and Roy Haynes. Additionally he was heavily featured, along
with Herbie Hancock, on the excellent Jack DeJohnette album,
Parallel Realities. He continued into the 90s with Secret
Story, an album of breathtaking beauty. Although the album
may have made jazz purists cringe, it was a realization
of all Metheny's musical influences. His second live album,
The Road To You, did not have the emotion of Travels. It
was something to keep the fans quiet before he unleashed
an exciting recording with John Scofield, the guitarist
who most regularly shared the honours with Metheny at the
top of the jazz polls. The follow-up, Zero Tolerance For
Silence, could only be described as astonishing. For many
the wall-of-sound guitar was a self-indulgent mess, and
after repeated plays the music did not get any easier, but
it needed to be appreciated what a bold move this thrash
metal outing was. Metheny also found himself reviewed in
the Heavy Metal press for the first (and last) time. We
Live Here was a return to more traditional ground, and restored
Metheny to his familiar position at the top of the jazz
charts. It won a Grammy in 1996 for the best contemporary
jazz album. In the late 90s, Metheny recorded acclaimed
duet albums with Haden and Jim Hall. His 1999 offering A
Map Of The World was a set piece of evocative beauty. The
album, a series of 28 pieces inspired by the motion picture
A Map Of The World, was misunderstood as being merely a
movie soundtrack. It ranks as one of his finest works; delicate
in parts, emotional in places, especially where the music
is enriched by a full orchestra. On this album Metheny's
dexterity as a guitarist takes second place to his brilliance
as a composer. The subsequent trio album with Larry Grenadier
(bass) and Bill Stewart (drums) was of an equally high standard.
The attendant Trio - Live compiled the results of Metheny's
first live trio work since the early 90s. Metheny is able
to comfortably move between the pop jazz that made his name
and pure jazz. He is one of the few artists who can do it
with such success.''
Dave HOLLAND:
''b. 1 October 1946, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire,
England. Holland plays guitar, piano, bass guitar and also
composes, but it is as a bassist and cellist that he has
made an international reputation. He studied at London's
Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1965-68 and was
principal bassist in the college orchestra. On the London
scene he worked with John Surman, Kenny Wheeler, Evan Parker,
Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes and deputized for Johnny Mbizo
Dyani with Chris McGregor 's group. In 1968 Miles Davis
heard him at Ronnie Scott's club and asked him to join his
band in New York. Holland did so in September in time to
appear on some of the tracks for Les Filles De Kilimanjaro.
He stayed until autumn 1970, appearing on the seminal In
A Silent Way and Bitches Brew, then he and Chick Corea (who
had joined Davis at about the same time as Holland had)
formed Circle with Anthony Braxton and Barry Altschul. Circle
broke up in 1972 when Corea left, but Braxton, Altschul
and Sam Rivers played on Holland's Conference Of The Birds.
Holland also played in Rivers' and Braxton's groups in the
70s, as well as in the occasional trio Gateway (with John
Abercrombie and Jack DeJohnette ). The 1977 Emerald Tears
was a solo bass album, and in 1980 Holland played at Derek
Bailey 's Company Festival, recording Fables with Bailey,
George Lewis and Evan Parker. Since the early 80s, following
recovery from serious illness, he has lead his own much-admired
group, which has included Kenny Wheeler, Julian Priester,
Marvin 'Smitty' Smith, Kevin Eubanks and Steve Coleman,
and in 1984 he began a series of fine albums for ECM Records,
perhaps most notably 1990's highly-acclaimed Extensions.
In 1986, he toured Europe in a remarkable quartet with Albert
Mangelsdorff, John Surman and Elvin Jones which, regrettably,
did not issue any recordings; and in the late 80s also played
with the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, recording on their
Zurich Concerts collaboration with his longtime associate
Anthony Braxton.''
Roy HAYNES:
''b. 13 March 1926, Roxbury, Massachusetts,
USA. Haynes began his career in his home town where he played
drums with Sabby Lewis' big band. In the early 40s he joined
Pete Brown 's jump band and later in the decade was on the
road with the Luis Russell big band and also played in a
small group led by Lester Young. In New York in the late
40s and early 50s, Haynes adapted readily to the demands
of bebop and became a valued club gig and record session
drummer for Charlie Parker, Bud Powell , Stan Getz , Wardell
Gray , Miles Davis , Thelonious Monk , John Coltrane , Sarah
Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and many other
important artists. Haynes' career continued through the
60s and into the 70s with many fruitful collaborations with
jazzmen such as George Shearing, Art Farmer, Kenny Burrell
and Gary Burton, and in several interesting groups under
his own leadership. In the early 80s Haynes recorded with
Pat Metheny, Freddie Hubbard, joined Chick Corea for worldwide
tours and continued to lead his own bands in New York. Haynes
is a major figure in the development of bop drumming.''
(sources: http://music.yahoo.com)
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