Zero Tolerance for Silence (original) (raw)

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1994 studio album by Pat Metheny

Zero Tolerance for Silence
Studio album by Pat Metheny
Released 1994
Recorded December 16, 1992
Studio Power Station, New York City
Genre Avant-garde jazz, free improvisation, noise rock
Length 39:14
Label Geffen
Producer Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny chronology
The Road to You(1993) Zero Tolerance for Silence(1994) I Can See Your House from Here(1994)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic StarHalf star[1]
Robert Christgau (dud)[4]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star[5]
Entertainment Weekly B−[2]
The New York Times unfavorable[3]
Tom Hull B-[6]

Zero Tolerance for Silence is a studio album by American jazz guitarist Pat Metheny that was released by Geffen Records label in 1994. The album was recorded in one day and consists of improvised, solo electric guitar.

Background and reception

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Tim Griggs of AllMusic called it "semi-organized noise."[1]

Griggs has two theories about the album's origins. The first is that Metheny was upset with Geffen, and as his contract was ending, this was his way of expressing his displeasure.[1] In 2008, Metheny said,

That rumor was started by a journalist who was seriously not listening to the album. All it would have taken was a quick phone call [to me] to find out that that wasn't the case. Besides, I would never do something like that. It isn't the way I operate, which I think has been pretty self-evident over the years. That record speaks for itself in its own musical terms. To me, it is a 2-D view of a world in which I am usually functioning in a more 3-D way. It is entirely flat music, and that was exactly what it was intended to be.[7]

Griggs's second theory is that Metheny simply made the kind of album he wanted to make.[1] At All About Jazz, one critic called it "the album no one seems to understand."[8]

The cover of Zero Tolerance for Silence carried an endorsement by Thurston Moore, guitarist for Sonic Youth, who called the album "an incendiary work by an unpredictable master."[9] Critics have been less kind. Ben Watson of the music magazine The Wire called it "rubbish".

All tracks are written by Pat Metheny.

No. Title Length
1. "Part 1" 18:32
2. "Part 2" 5:17
3. "Part 3" 4:19
4. "Part 4" 5:13
5. "Part 5" 5:53
Total length: 39:14
  1. ^ a b c d Griggs, Tim. "Zero Tolerance for Silence". AllMusic. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  2. ^ Steffens, Daneet (April 1, 1994). "Zero Tolerance for Silence". Entertainment Weekly. No. 216. Time Inc. Archived from the original on April 21, 2009. Retrieved May 24, 2012.
  3. ^ Zwerin, Mike (March 30, 1994). "For Pat Metheny, Silence Is Awful : The Sound Under The Sound". The New York Times. Retrieved May 24, 2012.
  4. ^ Christgau, Robert. "Pat Metheny". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved May 24, 2012.
  5. ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
  6. ^ "Tom Hull: Grade List: Pat Metheny". Tom Hull. Retrieved October 16, 2025.
  7. ^ Gold, Jude (September 2008). "Full Contact Musicology". Guitar Player. 42 (9). San Bruno, California: Newbay Media: 102.
  8. ^ Holloway, Nathan (March 1, 2015). "Pat Metheny: Quantum Musician". All About Jazz. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  9. ^ "Zero Tolerance for Silence". Pat Metheny. Retrieved September 9, 2017.