THE PAT METHENY INTERVIEWS: Richard Niles http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pat-Metheny-Interviews-Richard-Niles/dp/1423474694 Limpid, lucid, fluid, flowing, open, optimistic: you could apply these words to both Pat Metheny's music and this book, a series of interviews by arranger, producer, guitarist and composer Dr Richard Niles, a gently humorous man who, like Pat Metheny, studied at Berklee and whose strong work ethic has been rewarded with worldwide success in more than one genre. Dr Niles's banter gets the best out of his old friend and some amusing footnotes explain jazzspeak for beginners. The text delivers throughout on the subtitle's promise 'The Inner Workings Of His Creativity Revealed'. Coming of age when 'the Beatles made the world colour instead of black and white', he has retained a strong melodic sensibility which allowed him to reach large audiences without sacrificing any integrity, just as Keith Jarret has done. Metheny's clear articulate speech flows as easily as his music, it's a refreshing change from the gnomic hipster jive which once ensured jazz remained an outsider's music. Melody is a better way of reaching a larger audience than the frantic chromaticism  often associated with jazz yet Pat Metheny has still taken some serious risks. Starting on a new record label with an Ornette Coleman album? He made it happen somehow, as ever it was a critical and commercial success, although I much prefer the Jim Hall and Brad Mehldau duets. I have been diagnosed with various personality disorders but I'm still not mad enough to get Ornette. Pictures throughout show the master at work. With a sigh of relief I noticed that there was one time he didn't look unbelievably poised and handsome but then this was the 70s where flared, checkered golf trousers may have been de rigeur. Instrument fetishists will be satisfied by the info on various axes designed and/or played by the man - fretless and soprano guitars, the Pikasso, a double necked instrument,  - and Luddites will rejoice that Pat Metheny when given unfamiliar equipment somewhere a little less bountiful than his usual venues still managed to sound like himself - one of the tests of a true jazz artist - do you recognize that voice? Having found an original voice early on he still works tirelessly to develop it, while remaining instantly recognizable throughout his career. A great duettist, this book sent me to the Jim Hall/Pat Metheny duets, which is as mellifluous as expected but with some surprisingly spikey choices and, like most of his music, uplifting spritually. I've been in love with the intelligent trance of 'Are you going with me' from Offramp in the early 1980s but for some reason chose darker music and a less positive life style. More fool me. Hats off to Richard Slater for the glorious cover: a bright portrayal of Pat Metheny with plenty of Indian yellow, Hockney-esque in its bright positivity, on a duck egg blue backing which makes the book a pleasant object to have around. At this point a broadsheet hack would mention some pointless niggle just to show off his (it's generally a him) contrarian skills. Why bother? Use the bits of this book that work for you and leave whatever doesn't. Most, if not all of it, will. You can play the notated music; one exercise shows how to go 'inside' and 'outside', to which I would only add, it's better to finish 'inside' or the audience will soon be outside grumbling about crazy jazz musicians and their disregard for their public. Not likely to be a problem for Pat Metheny, in whatever form he chooses to present his ideas. Perhaps it's the wide open chords, and a tinge of folk sensibility which helps bring in listeners who may be repelled by more neurotic compositions, elitism, or the sound of the city. Whatever the secret is it's mostly hard work which has caused his deserved success. If you're interested in music and ideas for a better future this book will help. If you're already converted to Pat Metheny then it's essential. I bought two by mistake, online, not so unusual for this particular senile delinquent, but at £7.64 post free from Amazon you can buy one and give the other to a guitarist friend or indeed anyone who's interested in beautiful music. MarkRamsden.co.uk EXTRAORDINARY RENDITIONS Jazz  - But Not As We Know It... Enlightened by John Altman’s excellent Jazz Journal article on little known standards and their use by musicians and in the movies I was inspired to profile some jazz musicians in unusual contexts. These tracks can all be sampled and bought on Itunes or heard in their entirety at Spotify.com Koto Song Dave Brubeck And Paul Desmond “1975 The Duets” Universal Classics B00006316F A free music duet by Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond? Wait! Come back! It’s actually a lovely, lyrical tribute to the music of Japan. Brubeck evokes the Japanese Koto, by playing on the strings inside the piano while Paul Desmond flaps the pads against the bell of his saxophone, setting a timeless, desire-less Zen atmosphere. Desmond then imitates the Japanese flute, the Shakahachi, helped by his customary breathiness. Brubeck, now using the piano keys, finds a single Asian tonality over which the saxophonist weaves a meandering melody. Unique and exquisite.   Bill Evans (orchestration by Claus Ogerman)   2nd movement Largo “Symbiosis”  Universal Classics and Jazz B001KEL7IY This thoughtful, tranquil track was featured in the wise and funny movie Sideways, about a pair of mid-life goofs going on a Vineyard tour of California before one of them has to marry and maybe grow up. Once you hear the opening two chord motif it becomes a part of you forever. Bill Evans plays solo, introducing a wistful theme before the strings help develop this into a unique blend of jazz and classical sensibility. It's not just dry experimentation but an intensely moving statement. The first three tracks on "Symbiosis", the opening movement of this suite,  comprise the sort of 20th century classical/jazz music that is more interesting than appealing. It’s certainly worth hearing once, and you might enjoy discovering more of its secrets with repeated listening. But the last two tracks can be listened to by anyone who loves Bill Evans ballads and great orchestral writing - and even members of the general jazz-hating public. Track six builds to a furious lengthy climax that has to be heard to be believed, after which the delicate opening is reprised. Bill Evans’s orchestral projects usually contain two or three hauntingly beautiful tracks, such as Granadas on the "Bill Evans trio with Symphony Orchestra" (Verve) and some that are very good but not an essential purchase. The final two tracks of "Symbiosis" may be downloaded alone, of course. Which may be the wiser course of action if you do not grappling with algebraic music more intriguing than satisfying. Chris Potter’s solos on Steely Dan’s "Two Against Nature" Reprise B00004GOXS You may be familiar with Phil Wood’s solo on Doctor Wu from Steely Dan’s "Katy Lied", also his fine work on Billy Joel’s Just The Way You Are, both of which were genuine bebop solos with enough melody in them to please the ear of the uninitiated. Steely Dan are hardcore jazz freaks from way back (Walter Becker produced a Warne Marsh album) and they’re happy for Chris Potter to burn. He is one of the most powerful post-Brecker players, combining soul with complex chromaticism, also as powerful and thrilling as you could wish for. He’s perhaps best at giving you an energy rush but he’s played very sensitively with Jim Hall too. One of the best current tenor players, he triumphs on Gaslighting Abbie, Janie Runaway (alto) and West of Hollywood, which contains a final four minute acrobatic display which quibblers may think overbalances the song. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, the creative nucleus of Steely Dan, probably couldn’t bear to cut it.  Attempting this closing work out would keep most saxophonists busy for years. Yet the track remains listenable due to Steely Dan’s trademark painstaking production and their Rolls Royce funk rhythm section.  Some people confuse the surface gloss of their music with a candy floss sweetness. In actual fact the lyrics are pretty damn bleak, debauched and cynical, world weary, sometimes dealing with hard drugs and soft women, or the impossibility of love and the pain of divorce. These highly literate songs generally can't be decoded at first hearing and the band itself is named after a dildo from a William Burroughs novel. This is 'sacharine', 'smooth' or 'adult rock'? Really? Anyone who has heard Wayne Shorter at his most majestic emoting over fiendishly complex chords and thunderous Steve Gadd drumming from Aja on "Aja" may disagree. If you're new to these highly intelligent mid-life beatniks the later Steely Dan is of more interest to Jazz fans. Let's face it: the planet is getting crazier and so are they. Title of the last cd? "Everything must go." Hard to argue with that. Visit http://www.chrispottermusic.com/  for his brilliant straight jazz work, sheet music, online tutoring and much more.   Hubert Laws  The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky from "The Rite of Spring." originally CTI  6012 now a $6.99 download (entire album) from artistdirect.com Jazz-funk is not generally popular with critics, who sometimes think it’s an easy option, although it’s infinitely harder to play in time and tune and record it well than it is to produce a ‘pet shop on fire’ session. Although I’d prefer ‘The Pet Shop Boys on fire’. Now you’re talking... I’d love to hear the majority of free-jazz-only musicians sit in on this session and play the parts in front of them. Not that easy now, is it? As for Hubert Laws, he has flawless technique, an individual sound and is an expert bebopper and Coltraneologist, also good enough to be a classical soloist. Some dislike this music because of its luxurious production values and the 1970s waterbed and bong hit aesthetic but if Stravinsky isn’t radical enough for the naysayers then there’s nothing more I can add. Hubert Laws’s The Rite of Spring keeps the mysterious pagan vibe of the original and manages to make the difficult uneven time signatures groovy. (Steve Gadd is on drums) Mr Laws is virtuosic and passionate throughout an album of difficult 20th century classical music which nevertheless grooves its ass off. And what’s wrong with mellifluous music anyway? My "Above the Clouds" (Naxos 86041-2)  for Soprano sax and Church Organ (Steve Lodder), recorded with a gorgeous natural reverb, nothing like as polished as Mr Laws's projects of course, sold well worldwide, despite much of it being improvised. It was dismissed by a charmless gargoyle of a promoter with: “My wife would like this.” Being a sensualist myself, women-friendly music seems like a good idea. Try charming them with a bearded buffoon screeching and flutter-tonguing multiphonics over clattering pots and pans. Doesn’t happen, does it?   Skin Two Fetish Yearbook reviewed by Mark Ramsden 'Further upmarket', opines Tim Woodward in his introduction to yet another superb production. You pay more for this large hardback format than you did for the glossy magazine but then this book is fairly indestructible. Short of setting Whipmaster Alex Jacob loose on it with one of his fire whips this coffee table book will always remain a pleasure, whether browsing or sitting down and studying. Excellent photography is a given with Skin Two, also the highest possible production values, both are present and correct here. Rubber is naturally the dish of the day but many other fetishes and sexualities are referenced. The focus is global: as well as a report on the Skin Two Rubber Ball we have events in San Francisco and Montreal, Japanese fetishists and more. Kinksters of the world unite, you have nothing to lose except a boring sex life. Honourable mentions for IC's Mark Varley, whose London Bound bondage photo book is excerpted. If you're into bondage and good, original erotic photography purchase it immediately. There's a good piece on the sadly defunct Coffee, Cake and Kink coffee and book store in Covent Garden. I have especially fond memories of pulling an extremely luscious woman there, who has now blossomed into Lady Alpha, www.mistressalpha.co.uk one of the the smartest and sexiest Dommes you could ever wish for. (“Yeah, yeah. What about the yearbook, Granddad?”) Sorry, seemed to have wondered off topic slightly. Although, as this book contains informative pieces and photos of Club Rub, among many other fetish meeting places, you might also meet someone special as a result of buying a copy. I loved the overall emphasis on fit, stylish people looking happy - a refreshing change from the po-faced misery that some prefer. There's less advertising and more content than the magazine but then the advert pages are full of hot, stylish women so it's hardly a chore to read the back pages as well as the main content. Alan Moore enthusiasts will have to buy this because there's a piece by one of his collaborators, Melinda Gebbie, on one of his most controversial projects too: Lost Girls, an erotic graphic novel. For anyone who thinks it's a high retail price, it's actually necessitated by the cost of reproducing colour photo on good paper and putting on a hard cover. It's less than many people spend at the bar in one night or on a wrap of bogus cocaine or parking fines. For this price you get a reference book, some erotic fiction, some serious articles, acres of fine photography, (fashion, erotica and portraits) and a degenerate lecher might even mention how many beautiful women are between these pages. Which you would never catch me doing. Although I will say this: Pwhoar! More serious folk will admire the political pieces, up to the minute text on censorship and our idiotic government. Contributor John Ozimek is writing a book New Labour - New Puritanism? An excellent idea, mate. But do you need that question mark? With harpies like Harridan Harperson on our trail I think your case is already proved. Soon this pathetic government will be history. And you will still have your copy of an excellent reference work which will last many years to come. Apologies to the people I didn't mention and congratulations, Mr Woodward! retail price £25 www.skintwo.com