Charlie Haden/Pat Metheny: Beyond the Missouri Sky - Short Stories (2LP) [DECCA]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set gives the duets four sides to breathe, pressed in the Czech Republic. The album won the Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance in 1998 and sits in The Penguin Guide to Jazz's Core Collection.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Pressed in the Czech Republic

About the album

Two Missouri boys, a double bass and a stack of acoustic guitars: that's the whole recipe, and it's plenty. Charlie Haden grew up in the state singing on his family's country radio show, Pat Metheny grew up near Kansas City, and decades later they met in a New York studio to play music that sounds like the wide skies they came from.

Haden brings "Waltz For Ruth" and "Our Spanish Love Song," Metheny adds "Message To A Friend" and "Tears Of Rain" (played on his sitar-guitar), and between them they find room for Jimmy Webb's "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress," Roy Acuff's "The Precious Jewel" and both themes from Ennio and Andrea Morricone's Cinema Paradiso. The closer, "Spiritual," was written by Haden's son Josh. Metheny layers a few extra guitar parts here and there, but it never stops feeling like two friends on a porch.

Jay Newland recorded it at Right Track in New York, and it has turned up on late-night playlists ever since. It is, in the best possible sense, music for staring out of windows; we recommend a window.

Also at Kops: more Pat Metheny on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Verve / Decca (cat# 538 322-2), a reissue of the 1997 album.