Song X
Studio album by
Pat Metheny and Ornette Coleman
Released1986
RecordedDecember 12–14, 1985
StudioPower Station, New York City
GenreFree jazz
Length48:39
LabelGeffen
ProducerPat Metheny
Pat Metheny chronology
The Falcon and the Snowman
(1984)		 Song X
(1986)		 Still Life (Talking)
(1987)
Ornette Coleman chronology
Prime Design/Time Design
(1985)		 Song X
(1985)		 In All Languages
(1987)
Alternate cover
20th anniversary edition cover

Song X is a collaborative studio album by American jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and saxophonist Ornette Coleman. It is a free jazz record that was produced in a three-day recording session in 1985.[1] The album was released in 1985 by Geffen Records.[2][3]

Background

Metheny was a longtime admirer of the saxophonist, recording Coleman compositions on Bright Size Life (1976), 80/81 (1980), and Rejoicing (1983) (which features Coleman alumni Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins). During the three weeks leading up to the recording, Coleman and Metheny spent "between 6 and 12 hours a day every day, playing, hanging out and talking, trying to come up with a vocabulary for this particular session ... that would be different."[4]

Coleman's saxophone tone, when combined with a saxophone preset on Metheny's Synclavier guitar synthesizer, created an "ensemble blend [that] was surprising to both of us."[4]

The album features bassist Charlie Haden (a frequent Coleman collaborator who'd also played on 80/81), Jack DeJohnette on drums, and Coleman's son Denardo on drums and various percussion instruments. It was recorded at The Power Station in New York City between December 12 and December 14, 1985. A remixed and remastered version was issued on CD in August 2005, titled Song X: Twentieth Anniversary. Six unreleased tracks were added prior to the original eight songs.[3]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Blender[5]
DownBeat[6]
Entertainment WeeklyA−[7]
The Guardian[8]
Mojo
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[9]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[10]
The Village VoiceA[11]

Reviewing Song X in 1986 for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau deemed it Coleman's best album of unadulterated jazz since the early 1970s and believed Metheny's mild mannered style of jazz kept the music uncluttered compared to some of Coleman's recent work. "No rock moves, and no funk, harmolodic or otherwise", Christgau added. "It's all sweet lyricism, sonic comedy, and headlong invention."[11] DownBeat magazine hailed the album as "a remarkable union of the true and the new, a fusion of the bedrock human sound of Ornette's alto with the sometimes jarring, mostly bracing electronic capabilities of Pat's guitar-synth".[6] Jon Pareles wrote in The New York Times that the experiment succeeded because both artists were masterful melodists, finding the record "less tangled and more directly songful than Mr. Coleman's recent albums with Prime Time".[12] Song X was voted the nineteenth best album of 1986 in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll.[13]

In The Penguin Guide to Jazz (2004), Richard Cook and Brian Morton said the more adventurous recordings on Song X showcased the jubilant playing between Coleman and Metheny, who not only "powered his way through Coleman's itinerary with utter conviction, he set up opportunities for the saxophonist to resolve and created a fusion with which Coleman's often impenetrable Prime Time bands had failed to come to terms."[9] In a review of the album's 2005 reissue, Christgau wrote in Blender that all six bonus tracks were "strong enough to justify kicking off with them, and the perfect warm-up to an album Metheny was right to construct exactly as he did."[5] In his list for 2005 Pazz & Jop poll, he named its twentieth anniversary edition the sixteenth best album of the year.[14]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Ornette Coleman except where noted

Side one:
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Song X" 5:38
2."Mob Job" 4:13
3."Endangered Species"Coleman, Metheny13:19
Side two:
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Video Games" 5:21
2."Kathelin Gray"Coleman, Metheny4:15
3."Trigonometry"Coleman, Metheny5:09
4."Song X Duo"Coleman, Metheny3:08
5."Long Time No See" 7:36
Song X: Twentieth Anniversary (2005)
No.TitleLength
1."Police People"4:57
2."All of Us"0:15
3."The Good Life"3:25
4."Word from Bird"3:48
5."Compute"2:03
6."The Veil"3:42
7."Song X"5:38
8."Mob Job"4:13
9."Endangered Species"13:19
10."Video Games"5:21
11."Kathelin Gray"4:15
12."Trigonometry"5:09
13."Song X Duo"3:08
14."Long Time No See"7:36

Note

  • Tracks 1–6 are unreleased new tracks.

Personnel

Technical staff

  • Ted Jensen – audio remastering
  • David A. Cantor – photography

Charts

Year Chart[15] Position
1986 Billboard Top Jazz Albums 9

References

  1. ↑ Jackson, Grant (April 26, 2013). "Pat Metheny On Piano Jazz". NPR. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
  2. 1 2 Olewnick, Brian. "Pat Metheny, Ornette Coleman - Song X Album Reviews, Songs & More | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  3. 1 2 Jurek, Thom. "Song X [Twentieth Anniversary Edition] - Ornette Coleman, Pat Metheny | Release Info". AllMusic. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  4. 1 2 Warner Brothers Music Show 137 (WMBS 137); Lyle Mays: The Interview with music from the Lyle Mays LP (GHS 24097) / Pat Metheny: The Interview with music from the Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman LP Song X (GHS 24096) (Vinyl LP). USA: Geffen Records. 1986.
  5. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (September 2005). "Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman: 'Song X'". Blender. New York. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
  6. 1 2 "Review: Song X". DownBeat. Chicago. August 1986.
  7. ↑ Blumenfeld, Larry (August 12, 2005). "Jazz 101". Entertainment Weekly. New York. p. 833. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
  8. ↑ Fordham, John (September 22, 2005). "CD: Ornette Coleman/ Pat Metheny, Song X". The Guardian. London. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
  9. 1 2 Richard Cook and Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 7th ed. (Penguin, 2004), p. 1114.
  10. ↑ DeCurtis, Anthony; Henke, James; George-Warren, Holly (1992). The Rolling Stone Album Guide (3rd ed.). Random House. p. 152. ISBN 0679737294.
  11. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (September 2, 1986). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
  12. ↑ Pareles, Jon (April 20, 1986). "Jazz's Odd Couple Join Forces to Make Splendid Melody". The New York Times. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
  13. ↑ "The 1986 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. New York. March 3, 1987.
  14. ↑ Christgau, Robert (February 7, 2006). "Pazz & Jop 2005: Dean's List". The Village Voice. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
  15. ↑ "Song X – Pat Metheny – Awards". Allmusic. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
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