Date and Venue 1 May 2010 @ 8pm | Centre for the Performing Arts , Vancouver

Reviewer David Powell

Orchestrions were mechanical musical instruments, popular at the turn of the last century. Expanding on the concept of player pianos, in their most complex form they could comprise a complete wind orchestra and percussion section.

Metheny has been fascinated by these sorts of musical devices ever since he was captivated by his grandfather's player piano as a child. So in the Orchestrion Project he has fulfilled a life-long dream, which he shared with a very appreciative Vancouver audience at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts on Saturday May 1st.

It was really quite a wondrous spectacle. So often I like to close my eyes at concerts and just listen, but in this concert there was much to see as well, and I wish I'd brought my binoculars with me.

At the start Metheny sat on a stool, amongst various instruments, some recognizable, some not. There was a piano, instruments that looked like xylophones, wooden shelving housing variously-sized glass bottles, a couple of cymbals, and two contraptions that looked more like futuristic weaponry than anything else.

For a time these lay silent, while he played some solo songs. He used a different guitar for each of these, one of which was an extraordinary-looking machine, a 21st-century Baroque lute, with two fingerboards and harp-like strings stretched across the body. At the back of the stage hung a red curtain. What lurked behind it, one wondered.

The orchestrion made its appearance slowly. First, in one number a couple of small cymbals joined him. Soon however the red curtain lifted on what was a quite extraordinary sight, a wall of instruments like a circus, a carnival, a magic workshop, all jiggling, dangling, banging, tooting, clanging, strumming, with each instrument blinking a light as it sounded.

And how does it all work? Several times during this 2.5 hour performance (played with no break), Metheny addressed the audience to explain the inspiration behind the concert, and to explain what was actually going on onstage. The instruments are operated by solenoids, controlled by Metheny's guitar. By way of demonstration, he wandered around his workshop like a magician, animating various instruments in turn: he would play something on the guitar but one would hear it on the instrument he was addressing. Once he'd brought an instrument to life, he'd move on to another. Having thus built up several layers of music, he launched himself into the free flight of improvisation.

Metheny is a brilliant and highly original musician. His music touches many styles: jazz, blues, folk, Latin, even Indian. His music can be very dissonant and, in spite of the powerful rhythms of his percussion section, at times quite arhythmical. However, his music can be soft, gentle and sweetly harmonious too. In this duality he reminds me a little of Beethoven. There is also often a strong sense of architecture and form in his work, something that one associates more with classical music than with jazz or pop. And underlying it all is an immense creative spirit.

© 2010 David Powell

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