Across a career that now spans half a century, Pat Metheny has repeatedly reinvented the format of the guitar-led jazz group. The Side-Eye project—launched in 2021 as a rotating platform for exceptional younger musicians—was his latest iteration of that impulse. But Side-Eye III+, his first major studio album in six years and the inaugural release on his new Uniquity Music imprint, may well be the most convincing argument yet for the project’s long-term importance.
At the core of the record is the touring trio: Metheny, keyboardist Chris Fishman and drummer Joe Dyson. It’s a formidable unit. Fishman’s harmonic agility and Dyson’s deep-rooted New Orleans rhythmic sensibility create a constantly shifting landscape for Metheny to navigate—often pushing him into some of his most alert, propulsive playing in years. “Joe has incredibly deep roots in his playing,” Metheny says, “and that spirit allowed me to get to my own Kansas City thing in a way I have not often done.” You feel that throughout: a renewed spring in his phrasing, a tautness to the grooves, and a willingness to lean into rhythmic friction.
What elevates Side-III+ beyond a live-ready trio
document is the expanded studio palette. Additional contributions from bassist
Daryl Johns, harpist , percussionist Luis Conte and a vocal
ensemble led by Mark Kibble (Take 6) give the album a widescreen dimension
without smothering the trio’s spark. Metheny has long joked that his
discography falls into two camps—the documentary records and the “Steven
Spielberg” records where the studio itself becomes an instrument. This one is
an elegant hybrid: intimate at its core, cinematic around the edges.
The focus track, Make A New World, feels instantly canonical—a
broad-shouldered Metheny anthem with ascending harmonies and a lyricism that
nods back to the Secret Story era while remaining firmly rooted in the
trio’s crisp rhythmic language. Elsewhere, the album moves between fast twitch-burners,
moodier mid-tempo meditations and richly layered ensemble passages, always
maintaining that Metheny hallmark: complexity framed with inviting clarity.
What’s striking is how natural the balance feels.
The music is undeniably intricate—multiple layers, shifting metres, dense
voicings—but never alienating. “There is nothing about it that is off-putting,”
Metheny insists, and he’s right. The sophistication is there for those who want
to dig, but the surface shines with immediacy.
Metheny’s playing across the record is quietly
astonishing: warm, fluid, melodically generous, but with a renewed urgency that
seems drawn directly from Fishman and Dyson’s energy. The younger musicians
don’t defer—they push—and Metheny responds with the openness that has kept him
relevant for decades.
By the time the final track fades, Side-Eye III+
feels less like a late-career consolidation and more like a doorway to another
creative chapter. This is Metheny still searching, still curious, still
refusing to repeat himself. For all its polish and craft, the album carries a
sense of forward motion—a reminder that even after 20 Grammys, three gold
albums and collaborations with everyone from Joni Mitchell to Ornette Coleman,
Metheny remains an artist in transit.
A superb record, and arguably the most complete realisation of the Side-Eye vision so far.
Metheny performs at The Hall, Aviva Studios
in Manchester on July
17 and three headline shows at London’s
Barbican between July 18 and 19, 2026. Glenn Wright
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