Spring Skyline Silhouette in Cleveland

The Story:

The stage was set for this silhouette long before 2017; while growing up in Cleveland, my dad listened to a variety of music.  On road trips, the kids slept to a rotation of cassettes featuring Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express, Acoustic Alchemy, Weather Report, and The Allman Brothers.  On Saturday mornings we would wake up to songs emanating from downstairs; whether we heard Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Genesis, David Bowie, or Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, it probably meant some chore was involved.  I remember having the six-disc changer installed in his sedan back when that was the way to add convenient variety to the rotation.  Neil Young, Bill Bruford’s Earth Works, and Santana could be called upon at the touch of a button.  A few mechanical noises later, and the changer had refreshed the soundtrack of the road.

The Pat Metheny Group was a key feature of all of our family music venues.  Pat Metheny is a fairly prolific guitarist in the jazz community, for those who are not familiar.  He has done a great deal of work as the PMG, partnering with keyboardist Lyle Mays, and featuring long-time bassist Steve Rodby and drummer Paul Wertico.  They compose technically excellent pieces, and produce good sounding music in a genre-agnostic sense. I enjoy their music, and it helped me to pick up on other jazz music along the way.  I will warn you, however: I have heard their songs in more than one elevator.

They released the bulk of their catalog between 1987 and 1995, so my parents getting to see them in 1995 meant it would be a while before I would have that chance.  Mr. Metheny has taken on a lot more solo work in the last twenty years.  Recently, though, he has been touring with a quartet rounded out by Antonio Sanchez, Linda May Han Oh, and Gwilym Simcock.  In these Evenings with Pat Metheny, they play songs from his entire career; since I am a guy who only wants to hear 20-year-old music, this is perfect.

The Shot:

I made plans for a quick trip home when I saw that An Evening with Pat Metheny would be stopping in Cleveland during June of 2017.  We made it a family affair, and purchased tickets for all to attend at the Cain Park Amphitheater.  Since it was a Tuesday evening, we gathered at my parents’ house and departed once all had returned from work.  Unfortunately this meant we encountered traffic and the abysmal parking around Cain park.  I was anxious during the drive because I sensed the likelihood of arriving late.

As we crossed the Cuyahoga Valley south of downtown, though, the sun had highlighted thin upper level clouds.  The skyline was dark due to the angle of the sun, and I thought I might get a decent frame of a few Cleveland landmarks.  I reached for the only camera I had available as I rode in the family minivan, my phone.  Luckily I managed a decent frame out of the three I took. I’ll credit the capability of the 645 Pro MK III app to utilize center-weighted metering.  Aside from cropping out the guardrail and converting to B&W, it managed to capture what I wanted.  I liked the silhouette against wispy clouds framing recognizable anchors to downtown Cleveland, and it provides me a nice memory of the evening.

We did arrive slightly late, but we were in time to hear one of my favorites, Have You Heard, as we walked in.  I thoroughly enjoyed getting to hear live the music I have been listening to for 30 years.  It was such an experience that when I was in Germany for work a few months later, I traveled to Sausheim, France, to see them play again.  I stayed with Cathy and her family, which highlighted my limited French speaking ability, but they were wonderful hosts.  It’s an enjoyable town if you are in the Alsace/Haut Rhin region.  Hopefully I can catch the band on the road again, soon.