Pat Metheny has always been a graceful pilot of lush harmonic skies, starting in the 1970s, when he worked with the keyboardist and arranger Lyle Mays, who died this month. On “From This Place,” his new album, Metheny passes through cycles and rhythms so fluidly, you hardly notice how elaborate an apparatus he’s got running behind him: He is being supported by Joel McNeely and the Hollywood Studio Symphony, as well as his mutable multigenerational quartet. Finding some kind of humbly transcendent glory in the mythos of America has always been a goal of Metheny’s music, and on the Meshell Ndegeocello-penned title track, the song’s author sings in sincere, resolute tones about the challenge of the moment: “Here I’ll stand with thee until hearts are truly free/Until hearts” — and here Ndegeocello drops to a tired, still-steadfast speaking voice — “are truly free.” GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

George Burton, ‘Finding’