Pat Metheny & Anna Maria Jopek - Upojenie - 2008

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Pat Metheny & Anna Maria Jopek - Upojenie - 2008

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Anna Maria Jopek Biography: Born December 14, 1970, vocalist Anna Maria Jopek is a native of Poland, and grew up listening to her native folk music. She studied classical piano at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, and briefly participated in jazz studies at the Manhattan School of Music. She was a contestant in the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest, and is a recipient of the Michel Legrand Award. Her nearly dozen recordings have reached gold and platinum status in Europe. She prefers not to be pegged as strictly a jazz singer, though the influence of Keith Jarrett is quite prevalent in her music. Borrowing from pop music, Polish folk forms, and other ethnic sources, Jopek synthesizes a whirlwind of sound from various contemporary music sources, similar to her acclaimed Polish peer, Grazyna Auguscik. She played Carnegie Hall in January 2004. Collaborators over the years have included Tomasz Stanko, Pat Metheny, Richard Bona, Branford Marsalis, Christian McBride, Dhafer Youssef, Gordon Haskell, Mino Cinelu, and Manu Katche. ~ Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide

* Born: December 14, 1970
* Active: 2000s
* Genres: Jazz
* Instrument: Vocals
* Representative Albums: "Nienasycenie", "Barefoot", "Jasnoslyszenie"

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Pat Metheny & Anna Maria Jopek - Upojenie - 2008

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Pat Metheny Biography: One of the most original guitarists from the '80s onward (he is instantly recognizable), Pat Metheny is a chance-taking player who has gained great popularity but also taken some wild left turns. His records with the Pat Metheny Group are difficult to describe (folk-jazz? mood music?) but managed to be both accessible and original, stretching the boundaries of jazz and making Metheny famous enough so he could perform whatever type of music he wants without losing his audience.

Metheny (whose older brother is the trumpeter Mike Metheny) started on guitar when he was 13. He developed quickly, taught at both the University of Miami and Berklee while he was a teenager, and made his recording debut with Paul Bley and Jaco Pastorius in 1974. He spent an important period (1974-1977) with Gary Burton's group, met keyboardist Lyle Mays, and in 1978 formed his group, which originally featured Mays, bassist Mark Egan, and drummer Dan Gottlieb. Within a short period he was ECM's top artist and one of the most popular of all jazzmen, selling out stadiums. Metheny mostly avoided playing predictable music, and his freelance projects were always quite interesting. His 1980 album 80/81 featured Dewey Redman and Mike Brecker in a post-bop quintet; he teamed up with Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins on a trio date in 1983; and two years later recorded the very outside Song X with Ornette Coleman. Metheny's other projects away from the group have included a sideman recording with Sonny Rollins; a 1990 tour with Herbie Hancock in a quartet; a trio album with Dave Holland and Roy Haynes; and a collaboration (and tour) with Joshua Redman.

Although many regarded his 1994 recording Zero Tolerance for Silence as largely a waste (40 minutes of feedback), Metheny retained his popularity and remained a consistently creative performer. In addition to recording for ECM, he has appeared as a leader on the Geffen, Warner Bros., and Nonesuch labels. Metheny has remained active in the 21st century, releasing Speaking of Now in 2002, the solo One Quiet Night in 2003, Way Up in 2005, and Metheny Mehldau in 2006. Metheny and pianist Brad Mehldau returned to the studio the following year for Quartet. Metheny released the trio album Day Trip in 2008. Orchestrions, which featured a solo Metheny playing several acoustic instruments designed and built for him by Eric Singer, appeared from Nonesuch early in 2010. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

* Born: August 12, 1954, Lee's Summit, MO
* Active: '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000s
* Genres: Jazz
* Instrument: Guitar
* Representative Albums: "Pat Metheny Group", "The Falcon and the Snowman", "80/81"
* Representative Songs: "Waltz for Ruth", "Third Wind", "The Roots of Coincidence"

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Pat Metheny & Anna Maria Jopek - Upojenie - 2008

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Product Description: One of the hallmarks of guitarist Pat Metheny's career is his willingness to connect with a wide variety of musicians, from avant-garde legends Ornette Coleman and Derek Bailey to master drummer Roy Haynes and pop-rocker David Bowie. Previously released in Europe and Japan only, UPOJENIE (Ecstasy) is the result of Metheny's collaboration with Polish singing star Anna Maria Jopek, an album of originals and re-workings (plus lyrics!) of older Metheny tunes. The album is unusual but charming, as Metheny's melodious approach dovetails beautifully with Jopek's sophisticated vocals and influences from traditional Polish folk songs. UPOJENIE is fairly unique in the Metheny canon, but open-eared fans (especially those with world music leanings) who yearn to hear him in a song-oriented context should jump on it.

Recording information: Pueblo People Studios, Warsaw, Poland (07/??/2002-12/09/2002); S1 Concert Hall, Warsaw, Poland (07/??/2002-12/09/2002); s4 (07/??/2002-12/09/2002); Sala Kongresowa, Warsaw, Poland (07/??/2002-12/09/2002).

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Pat Metheny & Anna Maria Jopek - Upojenie - 2008

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Review: How many Pat Metheny fans know "Tam. Gdzie Nie Siega Wzrok" is one of his most popular songs? I'm willing to bet less than one fan in 1,000 recognizes the title, yet nearly any listener would immediately recognize it as one of most intriguing versions of "Follow Me" (from Imaginary Day ) he's performed. That's the lure of Upojenie, an album recorded in Warsaw by the guitarist with a group of Polish musicians led by singer and keyboardist Anna Maria Jopek. The revamped "Follow Me," a pop-jazz instrumental in its original form, gets a lyrical interpretation here from Jopek's lilting voice, backed by what apparently is a children's chorus. The album is filled with familiar Metheny tunes that get similar treatment, along with collaborative efforts on Polish folk songs and several originals written by Jopek and her husband. One listen to the lyrical world-beat rendition of the Metheny standard "Are You Going With Me" reveals him playing with an intensity and creative spark often missing from his studio albums with the Pat Metheny Group in recent years. His guitar synth solo during the second half of the song features the familiar runs of arpeggio-dominated riffs into the higher registers of his fretboard, yet there is a sense of extra energy infused by the different context. Much the same holds true for the other songs—familiar and strange, slow and upbeat—with Metheny performing on his now-usual variety of guitars ranging from acoustic to the 42-string Pikasso. Adding vocals to pop-jazz is often a dubious prospect, turning what may or may not be a strong instrumental song into soft rock mush. For that reason it's almost certainly a blessing for American listeners that the Polish lyrics on Upojenie are likely to be indecipherable. They apparently deal largely with matters of a darker nature, such as betrayal and sex as a metaphor for dying, but it matters little whether they are substantiate or silly. So does the fact that Jopek delivers a consistently soothing and pleasing effort, without ever achieving any performance landmarks. Her voice and those of others become part of the instrumentation and in such a context the consistency makes for a much better listen than any attempts by them to stretch vocal boundaries are likely to produce. ~ Mark Sabbatini (All About Jazz)

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Pat Metheny & Anna Maria Jopek - Upojenie - 2008

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