Pat Metheny Group
Offramp

Before I begin:
"Offramp" is indissolubly tied to a somewhat difficult part of my distant past, of which it was the ultimate soundtrack despite my reaffirmed rocker origins and preferences; it is evident therefore that for me, it is above all an important album despite everything, and I have only recently started listening to it again, in my spare time.

Having said that, let's move on to him, Pat, that curly-haired guy from 1954, Missouri, one of the leading figures of soft Jazz-fusion in those years.
This time we have to turn our gaze to the other Continent (and for a British invasion, Central European addict like me, it's not simple), to America, and talk about a genre of music that is totally different from what was in the European scene in those same years. On the one hand, American rock, its negation, country, the west coast, and hence soft jazz, smooth fusion, and therefore Pat Metheny.
There's this thin salt-and-pepper man with a somewhat equine smile and a tight navy blue and white striped T-shirt that holds, plays, and commands the guitar in such a way that it may seem as if it is merely an extension of his body, of his very arm, a harmonious part that he looks at and plays with love and devotion...

Have you ever seen him play live? I have, at least three times, and apart from the perfectly impressive speed of execution, what amazed me is how he courts the guitar, loves it until he merges with it almost as during an orgasm, while he moves his long fingers with surgical precision among the frets, emitting almost ancestral melodies, certainly above average for the genre. Yes, because Metheny is to fusion what Bowie is to rock, if you'll allow me the comparison that not everyone will like, because many musicians have ventured into playing and composing soft jazz music, but Metheny remains elusive, a step above everyone and above the genre itself... all without ever repeating himself (too much) and always remaining unmistakable on the first listen.

"Offramp" is the 4th work resulting from the collaboration with the Band (primarily with Lyle Mays, Rodby, and Gottlieb), and it consists of 7 tracks, for the maximum duration of the old classic 45 minutes, of sweetness and virtuosity.
The CD opens with a sort of scream, a fast track with an almost obsessive and rhythmic cadence on which a guitar laments, hitting the listener's heart, but with delicacy and introspection, leaving us suspended and floating like a "barcarolle"... but only for a short while because the attack of the next track, the best on the CD (in my opinion), "Are you going with me?", is like a shake, a sudden jolt with its quiet intro and the subsequent opening halfway through the track marked by the entrance of the guitar and its effects. A track of heartbreaking beauty and a bit retro, with that fake mute applied to the synth...
And then "Au lait," a track that could not have a more fitting title... a caress... you must close your eyes.
Then the full-fledged Jazz episode of "Eighteen," and of "James," with various guitar-piano-percussion virtuosos, and the splendid closure of "The Bat," an ethereal atmospheric track.
And finally, I comment on the title track, which seems to deviate so much from the rest of the CD that it almost sounds like a piece taken from elsewhere: "Offramp," right from the start lets you know that this is not a melody with a precise and canonical structure, but seems pure improvisation and virtuosity, technically impeccable but difficult to listen to... I often skip it!

Offramp remains a historic CD in Metheny's production, clean, perfect, emotional.
Even though I always return to rock, I am happy to have it and be able to listen to it, every now and then...