Pat Metheny-Orchestrion Tour

Saw Pat Metheny's Orchestrion Tour last night with my son Nate at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, Pennsylvania. Both of us have seen him several times, with different ensembles, and were somewhat skeptical of this show. It seemed either to have the potential to come off as contrived or flat with an absence of "swing". How can someone of his creative caliber stand before a "music machine" and improvise with the passion of a player within a human combo? To be honest, after having viewed two and a half hours of incredible music and passion, I'm still not sure how he did it. He began the show with several solo acoustic numbers, one of the them dating back to Bright Size Life. Then suddenly, without an interruption in focus, the stage came alive with sound, the Orchestrion swinging away with Pat smiling forth with purity of purpose. He performed the entire five part suite of the Orchestrion record and then dabbled in his catalog, with some straight improvisation pieces, actually channeling some "Ornette" at one point. At the conclusion of the performance, as Pat left the stage to the last of many standing ovations, we sat in wonder, having just received a pure tonic for the soul.