Pat Metheny Special Quartet
The Cabaret,
San Jose, CA
1988-07-22 (1st show)

Pat Metheny - Guitars, Guitar Synthesizer
Ernie Watts - Tenor Saxophone
Charlie Haden - Bass
Paul Wertico - Drums

source/lineage-cd-r trade of EXC audience capture done on unknown equipment> EAC> Audacity> TLH> DIME

01-Intro/Blues For Pat (Charlie Haden) 15:49
02-PM intros 1:48
03-Police People (Ornette Coleman) 10:34
04-How Insensitive (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius De Moraes) 12:57
05-The Calling (Pat Metheny) 30:09
06-KC Blues (Pat Metheny) 11:07
07 PM outros 0:33
08-The Good Life (Ornette Coleman) 7:52

Pat Metheny spent quite a bit of 1988 playing in other contexts besides the Pat Metheny Group. The Group had finished touring the Still Life (Talking) album in the first few months of '88, and reconvened to work on some new material that would surface on Letter From Home in a few gigs played late November near Boston. The Special Quartet convened here was active from this date through a few more California shows. Then they did about a week in Japan, and concluded in Hong Kong on the 9th of August. All of that info is courtesy of the PMDB. Metheny operated a few times through the years under the "Special Quartet" name/idea, an in this particular case it was with his drummer at the time from the PMG, Paul Wertico, and with his buddy Charlie Haden along with the saxophonist from Haden's Quartet West, Ernie Watts.
I got this show in a cd-r trade many years ago (thanks to the trader!), and it doesn't seem to be that well circulated. If the dimebot archive is to be believed, it hasn't been here on DIME before this share. There had been small gaps between the tracks (TAO once upon a time, perhaps?), so I repaired them in Audacity, and also did some minor re-tracking to join the Show Intro play-in to Blues for Pat, the beginning of which was being played during that intro. I also separated out Pat's two instances of stage talking into separate tracks. Another stage announcement had been trimmed prior to my receiving the show, and about a 15 second snippet of that survives at the end of How Insensitive. There's also about 10 seconds of some kind of minor distortion at the start of KC Blues that clears out quickly. I did use EQ tools in Audacity to slightly reduce the bass, which had been quite dominant throughout. The mids were also mildly boosted. Once again, the samples will clearly show what to sonically expect. sbe's had also been present, and they were repaired in TLH.
Finally, I got the show with the date of July 21st, and there's one other reference to that shown on etree. However, the remarkably reliable and informative PMDB has this shown by the date with which it's now being shared. Thanks to those involved in recording and sharing out this show, and particularly to the trader who sent it my way. Enjoy!