Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny has spoken of this idea that his group has produced not a body of individual compositions, but one long song. This is how he view's the story of the Pat Metheny Group, a sort of interconnected river of ideas. In some ways, that's exactly how I perceive the music of my favorite artists: as one long song that helps to connect the various portions of my life.
In the middle of reading Ryan Blotnick's biographical material, I realized there's another equally valid angle for looking at this: that interrelated parts of our own stories serve as the glue that connect musical events. Sure, this chain of events remains internal to our experiences, but the power of it is undiminished.
Ryan Blotnick was born in Alfred, Maine. He had a good friend in Bar Harbor, Maine. Right then and there, my own history with the state comes to the fore: a good friend of mine lived not far from Alfred, and we spent many a fine evening listening to and discussing music. Bar Harbor was (and still is) my playground. On a different path, Blotnick exited the state of Maine, went on to William Patterson University, traveled the world, and studied with some elite players including the great Gene Bertoncini. He makes his home in Brooklyn, New York.
There are no intersections in our respective journeys and yet his music has been added to mine.
Blotnick's guitar and composition concepts at first seem quite traditional: nothing 'out,' nothing radical. But if you listen for a while, little dissonances creep in. They remind me of Jim Hall, who likes to remind himself to "make musical sense." The guitar teacher who introduced me to Jim Hall also set up a workshop with Gene Bertoncini at a local school. While much of what Bertoncini had to offer was over my head (and fingers) it was still a great experience to be in his presence and to hear to fabulous chord melodies that he seemed to be able to produce at will.
I hear this rich sense of harmony in Blotnick's music. On "Thinning Air," he mirrors Pete Robins' saxophone lines before adding that touch of 'out.' He lays down some delicate unison lines with Robins on the noir-ish blues of "The Quiet Space Left Behind." Somewhat unusual (lately, anyway), he seems as comfortable in his instrument's lower registers as with the high end. The title track again finds Blotnick spending some time in those subtle angularities that bring me back to Jim Hall. There are touches of influences Bertoncini ("Winter Melt") and Metheny ("Wrong Turns") as well. None of this is to say that Blotnick isn't his own man. While "Liberty" might have a little Wes Montgomery vamp going on, the guitar solo takes several surprising turns.
The complement of Blotnick's band deserves some credit here as well. Alberto Sanz on piano, Joe Smith (drum), and Perry Wortman (bass) definitely know how to bring it...as well as get out of the way.
So here we have some new music that has no history with me, and yet is drawn into a particular cross section my story. While you can't really know this bit of my internal landscape, I can guarantee that you'll still love the music.
(Music Needs You will be released on February 12, 2009 on Songlines Recordings)
Article comments
1 - Pico
This Blotnick dude is someone whose music I'm going to have to investigate. Thanks for the tip!