Many artists, when asked to pick a favorite from their own discography, will lean toward their most recent release. Sure, I can see that. You work on new material, it's fresh and exiting, and right there in the front of your mind.

I've been wondering recently what Pat Metheny's response would be if he was asked to pick a favorite from his many trio lineups. Obviously, this is like asking him to do a little apple/orange comparing...and maybe that's not fair. But, given the chance, I'd have to ask.

The reason I've been tossing this question around in my head is that I'm going to see the latest version of the Pat Metheny Trio tonight at the Boston-area Somerville Theatre. With Metheny will be group alum Antonio Sanchez on drums and the always amazing Christian McBride on bass. As usual, I've been listening to as much trio music as possible as the date approaches. Here's my thoughts on the Metheny's various trio lineups (in reverse chronological order).

Trio 99->00 (1999)

I think the 'official' name was just The Pat Metheny Trio (not sure about that , the danged cd packaging was a little confusing). It was quite an interesting outfit with Larry Grenadier on bass and Bill Stewart (who's done a lot of work with John Scofield) on drums. The studio record contains some fine playing including a nice cover of "Giant Steps", the bouncy opener "(Go) Get It" and reinterpretations of Metheny tunes "Lone Jack" and "Travels". But if you want to get a more accurate idea of what this group was capable of, check out Trio Live. When I saw them in concert, I was immediately struck by the nearly telepathic interplay between Metheny's guitar and Stewart's drums. I can't remember the tune ("Question and Answer"?) but they opened the show with just guitar and drums ripping through the song. It takes a very musical drummer to pull that off. Also on this record is a shimmering "Into The Dream", Pat's Picasso guitar workout, and "Faith Healer", a room-clearing noisefest that makes me grin ear-to-ear.

Question and Answer (1990)

Dave Holland on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. Can it get any better than that? Probably not. This is Metheny's most straight-ahead trio date with covers of Miles' "Solar", Ornette's "Law Years" and the standard "All The Things You Are". Also offered are several Metheny originals.