Pat Metheny Group - Letter From Home (1989)

La gira mundial 87-88 había encumbrado al Group como un gran valor en directo, llenando estadios por todas las ciudades del planeta. La popularidad provocó, quizá, una cierta continuidad estilística en Letter From Home, a la postre uno de los discos más vendidos en la historia del jazz. Para esta ocasión la banda utilizó por última vez la  técnica consistente en montar una pequeña gira en la que mostrar al público las nuevas composiciones antes de grabarlas, y para ello contó en la parcela multiinstrumental con el guitarrista brasileño Nando Lauria (miembro de la gira de The Way Up) en sustitución de la pareja Blamires-Ledford. Finalmente, la disponibilidad de Pedro Aznar le hizo acreedor a ocupar tan vistoso puesto en la grabación del disco y directos posteriores.

Letter From Home is the first Metheny Group record to take advantage of the greater capacity of the compact disc, fashioning an album that was even more akin to a musical travelogue than any released to date. However, in the same way that much of Still Life (Talking)'s material still finds its way onto setlists of Pat Metheny Group and Metheny side projects, the fact that only "Have You Heard" would become a set-list regular—and even that has fallen off in recent years—suggests that if it's not one of the group's best efforts, it's certainly not one of their favourites either.

That being said, there's still plenty to recommend. With Blamires and Ledford gone—returning for 1995's We Live Here—Aznar was back in the fold and, just as on First Circle, his multi-instrumental talents are put to great use, not to mention there being two songs on Letter From Home that actually feature him singing lyrics instead of the wordless vocals that Metheny has typically favoured.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/a-trio-of-pat-metheny-group-reissues-by-john-kelman.php

 

01. Have You Heard (6:25)
02. Every Summer Night (7:13)
03. Better Days Ahead (3:02)
04. Spring Ain’t Here (6:55)
05. 45/8 (0:56)
06. 5-5-7 (7:54)
07. Beat 70 (4:53)
08. Dream of the Return (5:25)
09. Are We There Yet (7:55)
10. Vidala (3:04)
11. Slip Away (5:24)
12. Letter from Home (2:33)