His first major studio album in six years, Pat Metheny’s Side-Eye III+, is the latest evolution of a concept he first introduced in 2021. The ongoing project is designed to focus on collaborations with younger musicians the contemporary jazz icon admires, allowing him to reimagine his past work and devote the collective talents to new original music as well.
In that sense, the concert release from four years ago, Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV), is a microcosm of the initiative, while Side-Eye III+, comprising eight new compositions, is the natural extension of the idea. From the very first strains of the opening cut, “In On It,” the music is vintage Metheny. That is to say, bright fluid guitar abounds, underpinned by limber rhythm work full of flourishes…