Pat Metheny closed out his fall Orchestrion tour of North America with a final concert in Connecticut on Saturday. The Hartford Courant describes Metheny as "a visionary artist, as he displayed throughout Saturday's performance"; his "one-man orchestra proved to be an exciting and constantly creative endeavor." MassLive, reviewing Thursday's show in Northampton, says Metheny has "found a way to create world’s tightest jazz band."

Pat Metheny follows last spring's worldwide Orchestrion Tour with an additional 19 North American performance halls beginning October 1. He has performed shows to sold-out audiences in some of the world’s best-known halls, including two sold-out nights at New York City’s Town Hall. London’s Telegraph calls the show “a triumph,” while the Kansas City Star says, “Metheny’s Orchestrion is nothing short of spectacular ... Endlessly fascinating and visually dazzling.”

With the year at its halfway point, NPR's jazz sampler, Take Five, has picked its choices for the Best New Jazz of 2010 (So Far). Two of the five come from Nonesuch: Orchestrion, on which Pat Metheny "makes every instrument an extension of his guitar skills, technical knowledge and sheer artistic willpower," and Highway Rider, on which Brad Mehldau "shows how much he's grown as a composer, and not just a renowned pianist."

Pat Metheny brought a close to the current US leg of his Orchestrion tour at New York's Town Hall, as new dates have been added this fall. The New York Times says of his one-man band that Metheny "made that machine prove itself ... [I]t seems to push robotic humanism to the limit." His show in Boston "was a spectacle almost beyond belief," says the Boston Herald. "Even so,  the standing ovations that Metheny inspired came not for the spectacle and technological feat, but for what a single guitar in the hands of a legend can create."

Pat Metheny's US Orchestrion tour comes to a close this week with concerts along the Northeast. The Philadelphia Daily News says "the now meditative, now bluesy, now bopping or dramatically soaring music sounds very fine and 'in the pocket.'" Philadelphia Weekly calls it "dizzyingly advanced, but warm and full of heart." The Boston Phoenix says the album "reveals new depths at every turn"; the Boston Globe calls it "a soaring five-movement suite featuring some of the most intricate music he's ever created."

Pat Metheny returned to his home state of Missouri for two stops on the Orchestrion tour this weekend. "Metheny's Orchestrion is nothing short of spectacular," raves the Kansas City Star,  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says, "The music spoke for itself, and eloquently." The tour continues tonight in Chicago. "Simply put," explains Time Out Chicago of Orchestrion, "the famed jazz guitarist has raised the bar for inventiveness, which says a lot for a career stretching over three decades."

The CBS Sunday Morning profile of Pat Metheny and his Orchestrion album and tour, scheduled to air on yesterday's episode of the program, has been postponed to an unspecified later date. In the mean time, Metheny's Orchestrion tour continues its western run this week. The Santa Cruz Sentinel, in a preview of tonight's show, says "Metheny's one-of-a-kind genius takes another evolutionary step forward with his latest project."

Pat Metheny and his Orchestrion are due to be the subject of a profile on this weekend's CBS Sunday Morning. The tour continues this weekend after a performance in LA Variety described as "more fun visually than pretty much any jazz show one might attend," creating "a remarkably pure and organic musical sound." After last week's show in Austin, the American-Statesman describes it as "a musical happening of the highest order—a jaw-dropping confluence of jazz, technology and visual art."

Pat Metheny and Orchestrion, his latest Nonesuch release and worldwide tour, were the subject of a feature on the latest episode of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. "Seeing the orchestrion in action is like watching Santa's workshop," says NPR, "if Santa was a jazz cat." The tour is in California this week, where the San Diego Union Tribune calls the album "dazzling" and the Santa Barbara Independent calls it "wonderful."

Pat Metheny begins the North American leg of his world Orchestrion tour today, just as the album releases on vinyl. The Wall Street Journal's Ashley Kahn takes a look at the orchestrion in action, calling the performance "surprisingly fluid and nuanced," with "Metheny's trademark guitar sound: fluid, with a clear melodic sense, flitting between a bright, pop approach and a more moody effect." The album, says Kahn, contains "as beautiful a melody as any Mr. Metheny has written since his Question and Answer session."

Pat Metheny and his recent Nonesuch release, Orchestrion, were slated to be featured on NPR's Morning Edition tomorrow morning, but will be rescheduled for a later date. Metheny was featured on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction earlier this week. The album is full of "lush diatonic harmonies and sweetly melodic improvisations," says Sequenza21, but "what makes this disc so special" is Metheny's "interaction with a robot ensemble" and its "surprising richness and warmth."

Pat Metheny's Orchestrion continues through Europe, following a performance at the Barbican in London. The one-man band was revealed to "a gasp of wonder" from the crowd, says the Times four-star review, with Metheny giving "a highly original performance, full of delightful invention and an almost childlike imagination." Jazzwise calls it "a great achievement ... You’ll never see anything like it." Pat discussed the project on BBC Radio 3's Jazz on 3.