Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays
As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls

This is a 1980 album, co-signed by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays.

Our heroes had just finished a series of concerts accompanying Joni Mitchell, where they shared the stage, in addition to the Blonde, with Jaco Pastorius and Michael Brecker. Not bad at all. A great leap forward for their careers, their names were starting to circulate in the big round. But the tour was over: what to do now?

One day, Pat, with a sly little angel face not yet in striped shirt, says to Lyle: "Tomorrow we're going to Oslo." Lyle turns around bewildered and gives him a snobbish look under his girlish hair. He’s looking for any excuse, you can tell, but the other continues: "Come on, it’s a nice place, and there’s the Talent Studio where they say recording is good and cheap. Nana is coming too."

And so these two, with Nana Vasconcelos in the suitcase, go to Oslo and record As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls. It's an important record for me, I'll tell you later.

- POST SCRIPTUM I like to imagine the scene like that, but today, consulting the internet, I learn that the two had already been to the Talent Studio in 1978 to record their first album. Therefore, it is necessary to backdate the entire episode, without changing a comma, by two years. -

Let's draw a veil of mercy over the title, a bizarre thing like the thirty-three Trentins who trotted to Trento, and over the really embarrassing cover. They were talented musicians, but on some choices, they should have been helped, maybe by someone who knew how to choose a decent photo. But there were only Norwegians there, the music is good, and we forgive them.

It’s Pat and Lyle who compose and play everything, always except for Nana who came out of the suitcase, so for those who know them, no surprises. Two years later, their style would be beautifully done, defined, and ready. Here they are working on it, let’s say they are one step away from becoming Martians. The guitar doesn’t yet have the unmistakable dreamy sound we love. It's less refined, still missing a touch of delay, but the right one, his one, and a fine-tuning of the magnet tones, but that special adjustment that only he knows. You can tell he’s looking for that sound, but he’s not far, he’ll find it soon. Anyway, he’s good.

Five tracks that I will describe briefly. The first has the album title; a title I obviously refuse to write again if I don't want to go crazy. Long, complex, it occupies an entire side of the live LP Travels two years later. A bit boring, ooppsss.....Another three rather varied pieces, all worth listening to. There's even Nana at the end, hinting at Amazing Grace in his own way... And then Her, the Goddess, the reason for buying the CD (by the way, 27,900 lire, the price is still there on the cover, I bought it full price, damn when there’s love...), and the reason I’m writing now.

Let me introduce her, it’s called "It’s for You", 8 minutes and 17 seconds.

A symphony in three movements, minimal and dazzling, pure, unique.

Have you seen the movie Fandango? All that series of chaotic events, the background and the unspoken, the screams and the insinuations, the laughter and the fears, culminates in the final wedding scene in extremis. When the evening falls, when the tables, tablecloths, and makeshift cutlery are miraculously in place, when even the sleeper wakes up and realizes what he missed, and, above all, when Costner dances the last fandango with the contested girl, he does it to the rhythm of this song. Myth and unsurpassed peak in my personal ranking as a fusion of music and images.

The first times, when I rewound the VHS until it wore out, I wondered who that gifted and expressive guitarist could be, and who could be the author of such a magical piece. Then I did some research, I found out and bought it. No internet to download in those days.

I like it, it enchants me, it makes me feel and see things. That’s how my interest and passion for our Pat and his art were born. That’s why it’s a special record.

greetings to all