Pat Metheny Orchestrion at Barbican, London
Vobiscum, Pilgrims!
If you’re familiar with my blog, you may have read how every now & then I describe certain people as being ‘lousy, talented punks.’ By definition, it’s a term of endearment to people who are just really, really good at what they do. Take Pat Metheny for instance. Not only is this Grammy-award winning artist a guitar genius, he only goes ahead to reinforce his status with his new musical contraption of ‘Orchestrion‘, or as I see it, a giant musical Mechano set.
According to Metheny, the idea for this musical project came from childhood when he used to play around with his grandfather’s piano and was curious as to how all the sounds came to gether. If yesterday’s performance was anything to go by, you could still see the kid in him coming out to play again and again. Most of the sounds carried his signature tune, and although certain tracks were experimental in my opinion, it was still ‘Pure Metheny‘.
Inasmuch as I applaud this creative design, I’m still old school and nothing beats the real deal. But hey! What do I know? If I could play just an inch of what Metheny does, I’d be minting it…I think! (what’s the going rate for a jazz artist these days, anyway? 
)
From a pictorial perspective, we (myself and 3 other photographers) had to shoot with certain restrictions. For starters, we had to shoot from the booth, so unless you had a f2.8 300 or more, then you’re fresh out of luck shooting from a considerable distance. But hey! You work with what you have. We couldn’t shoot during the first 3 solo performances, which to be honest, is a reasonable request. I could just imagine Pat Metheny throwing a prop from his set in the direction of a photography. (Not that I am insinuating in anyway that Mr. Metheny would do such a thing, so let’s just get that out of the way right now!)
Pax, Pilgrims!
(All Images are copyrighted to Pixgremlin aworan. That means you should please contact me if you want to use the shot on your web page or such. Because the pictures come up via google images does not mean that it’s visual All You Can Eat Buffett!)
© 2010, Akin Aworan. All rights reserved.
Nice shots!
GREAT shots…..thanx for sharing!
Saw him yesterday also, but then in Amsterdam Concert Hall….
Because of a blizard in London his plane came in late…..
He played from 21:20 till approx 23:45.
It was an amazing intresting show and a bit akward as well.
Fantastic to see and hear him play in this “classical music dominated surrounding”