Pat Metheny's Orchestrion

As much as I love words, nothing communicates quite as powerfully as a good piece of music. One of the most impressive musical communicators I've witnessed is Pat Metheny, whose "Orchestrion" has taken sound and experience to levels I cannot quite describe. You can watch a video and read about this unfathomable unparalleled phenomenon here, but I wish that you could experience it in person as I did. If you can get there, go.

My brother, as a budding jazz guitarist himself, introduced me to the wonders of Pat Metheny when I was about ten. He has remained a devoted fan ever since, regularly updating me on Pat's latest projects and new sounds. My brother is particular when it comes to music, and I noted Pat's unique sound from when I first heard it. He explained to me recently that the first time he heard Pat, when he was about fifteen, was at a concert. He had never heard a recording nor heard him speak. But to him, from that first experience, it seemed that Pat was speaking through his guitar in a way my brother had never quite heard anyone communicate. I did not, however, quite begin to grasp the genius of this man until I saw him on stage single-handedly improvising a multi-layered symphony of funk and depth on an elaborately mounted conglomeration of musical instruments and equipment which to many unsuspecting onlookers may have looked like a junk heap. 

We were in box seats way to the right of the stage, in the same section as some members of Pat's technical crew. They briefly described to us the amount of time and energy it takes for them to mount this astounding musical masterpiece every time they go to a new venue. When they were doing trial runs before leaving New York for the tour, I believe it took them three days to disassemble and set up the instruments. With consistent practice, if I remember correctly, it took them just five hours.

If you watch the video, you will learn in more detail how this fascinating one-man-band functions. I don't want to ruin the surprises of the show in case you do get to go. It's hard for me to begin to explain the sounds that come out of what is on the stage. I will leave that to Pat. What I do want to explain is my reason for identifying him as such a powerful communicator.

From reading the description of the Orchestrion project, you can see that Pat is an excellent writer (and/or had an excellent editor work with him), making the impossible seem simple. That may be the ultimate essence of any excellent communication or excellent endeavor in general: it makes the impossible seem not only possible, but simple. We can never know the hours of anguish nor the sweaty and sleepless nights Pat devoted to making this project happen. But he brought the authenticity of his pure boyhood ambition (read about his visits to his grandparents' house where he raced to see the player piano upon arrival) and a dedication to sharing it with others in spite of many who questioned "when he lost his mind". Through his perseverance to share the fruits of his childlike delight and intense labor with the world, he himself got to "some new places". 

When you're finding yourself in some new places and being accused of losing your mind, don't fret. You might be on the verge of making some powerful music with your own band.