Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes, Dave Holland
Question And Answer

Published by Geffen in 1990, "Question And Answer" features Pat Metheny, Dave Holland (on bass) and Roy Haynes (on drums). An album for purists. And let it be clear how significant the formation of the trio is (and a challenge for the guitarist himself) to perceive the vibrations and the sophistication of the most classic of jazz sounds.

It is indeed true that the work is a wonderfully fragrant assembly of new pieces and historical classics like "Solar" by Miles Davis or "Law Years" by Ornette Coleman plus the jazz standards "All The Things You Are" and "Old Folks". There is freshness and immediacy, form and style of intensity and impact, and harmonic lines reminiscent of Coltrane can be sensed. There's a hint of blues in "H&H", one of Metheny's new pieces, inspired by Holland's style. Besides intense and refined ballads like "Never Too Far Away", there are splendid harmonic progressions and engaging bass lines such as in "Change of Heart". The concluding piece "Three Flights Up" fully showcases Haynes' rhythmic talents.

This precious assemblage of 9 tracks was recorded in just one week. The product of a trio of such skilled musicians demonstrates how they push themselves to the limits of their abilities and how such a formation can deliver in terms of quality and purity of sound.

The sounds in question differ from those of PMG's classics, ("Letter from Home" had been released the previous year) and harken back to Pat's roots, at times touching the mood of "Bright Size Life". It should be noted that 10 years after this work, Pat would propose, again in a trio formation, the powerful and highly satisfying "Trio99/00", even fresher and purer, a very worthy successor to "Question And Answer". They are worth having, precisely because on these occasions the Missouri guitarist expresses himself with the utmost purity and his interpretations are full of personality. Truly interesting.