Hermitage, Pat Metheny

Pat Metheny has written such beautiful tunes. Hermitage is one of those. It featured on the New Chatauqua album, but I especially liked the Charlie Haden version of the song on one of the Charlie Haden Quartet albums.

Oh yeah...Hermitage refers to the famous museum in St-Petersburg, Russia. Hermitage refers to the word "hermit" and it was given its' name because of it being the "recluse" of Catharina the Great. Once part of the Palace of the Emperors, the 1917 october revolution turned it into a museum, open to every one.

I played more than a few glitches on this tune, but you should get the general idea.

Now, the style (found in the Latin Pack 1) is called a "latin" style. It's not really profoundly latin as much as it is "latinesque" or Metheny-esque. But I just love the gentle bossa groove that Pat Metheny uses often.

I tried to make it a little more suited for a small band, a trio, that is, but kept the smooth flow of it.

Harmonically, as always with Pat Metheny, it is interesting.

Points of interest

• The use of Fdim as a colourful reharmonization of the I chord: it's got this brooding, unstable sound to it that makes it so beautiful. (in my playing I just froze, though I tend to know my diminished quite well, but then again...)

• The chromatic slash chord movement in the last 4 measures: moving from C to D by way of A/C# (the A triad in first inversion, really) or, a darker C# aeolian minor chord in my ears. To me this last part of 4 bars is just the mover from A7 to D, but the D is delayed by means of the Cmaj7 and A/C#.

Here you can find the file (mgu file) for the tune. Remember, the file wants to play a Jazzstylezz style. If you don't have styles from Jazzstylezz, you can use another style that you like.

Hope you njoy!