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Biography
Growing up in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, U.S. Metheny won a Down Beat scholarship and attended a one-week jazz camp at 15, under the creative wing of guitarist Attila Zoller, who subsequently invited young Metheny to New York City, U.S. to meet Jim Hall and Ron Carter. After a brief stint studying at the University of Miami, he was soon offered a teaching position there, before moving to Boston, U.S. to the Berklee College of Music where he made a name for himself as the wildly talented teenager with a teaching assitantship along with jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton.
Playing and contributing to a number of groups including Gary Burton’s band, Metheny soon began releasing his own material including his debut album “Bright Size Life” and the follow-up 1977’s “Watercolours” featuring pianist and long-term collaborator Lyle Mays.
Before long Metheny became ECM’s top artist and one of the most popular jazzmen of all time, making a name for himself for his highly creative, unpredictable style, with his freelance side projects often producing the most dynamic and unexpected results. The list of artists Metheny has worked with is impressively long and includes the likes of Ornettle Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Dave Holland and David Bowie.
In 1977 he founded the Pat Metheny Group, and their first release in 1978, featured the infamous writing duo of Metheny and Mays, which would go on to span 25 years and 15 albums. The group's sophomore album “American Garage” (1980) hit the mainstream with an upbeat opening track “(Cross the) Heartland” which became synonymous with the band’s success. The Pat Metheny Group went on to explore their sound, experimenting with various styles of music; inspired by new members Nana Vasconcelos and Aznar the band introduced latin-induced music to the group for the album “Offramp”.
The band left ECM records following a dispute and released their subsequent albums “Still Life” (1987), “Letter From Home” (1989), “We Live Here” (1995), “Quartet” (1996) and “Imaginary Day” (1997) on Geffen Records, the latter three represented a move away from the Latin style that had influenced many of their earlier albums.
Metheny continues to tour with an impressive line-up of musicians, has received many Grammy Awards, the first five of which were consecutive in the category of Best Jazz Fusion Performance, and remains one of the greatest progressive jazz musicians in the world.
Live reviews
Four decades on, and Pat Metheny is still touring relentlessly, still pushing the boundaries of contemporary jazz and fusion. I last saw him with his Orchestrion project when it came to London in February 2010.
He'd built an incredible one-man orchestra with the help of some engineering wizardry – but it was still Metheny in the driving seat. The unmistakably lyrical lines were translated to all manner of instruments (air blown over bottles, all kinds of percussion, xylophones, a piano, bass), all of which he controlled from his guitar with the easy, unassuming virtuosity you'd expect from his performance.
Between charts he chats with the audience very easily, in this case relating anecdotes about the construction of the various instruments and demonstrating how he controlled them with the guitar, drawing us deeper into the experience (even though the Barbican isn't the most intimate of performance spaces).
Despite the incredible showmanship and novelty of the Orchestrion project, one moment really shines out as representing Pat Metheny: the consummate musician. When he came to play the last number, the technical kit failed – after a couple of false starts and the intervention of some technicians, Metheny pulled a stool to the front of the stage and sat down with his guitar (uncoupled from the array of instruments). And then he began to play, improvising a solo performance – just him and that gorgeous guitar. It was like magic, everyone was on the edge of their seat, and the applause and standing ovation at the end dwarfed the reactions to all the other tunes he'd played that night.
tomclarke
Pat Metheny belongs on my jazz "Mt. Rushmore" as one of the artists who was instrumental (pardon the pun) in developing my interest in jazz. That was nearly 40 years ago and, as he and his new quartet proved last night, he continues to innovate, inspire, and demonstrate complete virtuosity over the guitar.
He opened the show with a solo improvisation on his custom 42 string "Pikasso" guitar, which in and of itself is an extraordinary thing to see and hear. His new quartet (longtime drummer Antonio Sanchez, bassist Linda Oh and pianist Gwilym Simcock) then emerged and for the next 2+ hours the group covered a wide range of classic compositions from the Pat Metheny Group catalog, breathing new life into the material. Toward the end of the set, Metheny performed in duet settings with each of the other instruments, particularly showcasing the contributions of the other members of the quartet.
After several standing ovations, his second encore was another solo, this time on acoustic guitar, featuring a medley of Metheny classics ranging from "Last Train Home" to "This Is Not America," his composition with David Bowie from the film "The Falcon & The Snowman."
Pat Metheny is a true artist and a masterful performer who I've had the pleasure of seeing numerous times in various musical settings and venues. He never disappoints! He's one of the musicians I'll gladly see every time they come through town because I know he will provide an amazing show.
ahg703
Despite having been performing for an incredible four decades now, Pat Metheny still cuts a wonderful figure on stage. Guitar in hand, he compelled the crowd with the type of formidable ease and self confidence that can only come from years of experience on stage. He has live shows down to a fine art and all these years later has not lost his enthusiasm for entertainment. He led the show with his trusty guitar, blending contemporary jazz and fusion as is his signature style, with he help of his backing orchestra. Metheny composed a whole host of instruments- from various pieces of percussion to the pain, bass and even the xylophone! Despite the crazy assortments of instruments that littered the stage, all eyes remained on Metheny throughout as he was the unmistakable star of the show! As one of the most popular jazz artists of all time, he had drawn a large crowd to see him play live and he did not want to disappoint a single member. The cheer that erupted from his devoted fans was deafening, impressive considering how old some of the crowd members appeared. It was a family friendly show and, all in all, a great night.
sabraziz
Great show in Lucerne's beautiful KKL hall. It was over 90 minutes nonstop music from Pat Metheny and band (b, p, dr). Nice mixture of his famous and not so famous songs. It's so nice to see and listen the powerful expression of a single guitar in a large, quiet room with a large crowd. Towards the end of the show Pat plays several songs in duo with each of his band members which opens some unexpected possibilities and combinations (e.g. Guitar and drums).
I can recommend the experience.
frank-block
Probably my favorite contemporary guitarist.TIve seen jim 6 times and will see him Monday in Eugene.He did all old songs with basically a jazz comoboMosy of the songs were recognizable by me and I think most of the audience which were obviously die hard Pats fans. GUITAR g playing was virtuoso and his played his most popular song with different arrangements.His band was absolute a knockout of playing incredible music by a contemporary jazz man.
richard-lobby
An ensemble of soloists!
My first time seeing Pat Metheny live exceeded all expectations (which were pretty high).
Love his generous identification and specific descriptions of Marcus Gilmore (@drummerslams on IG) and James Francies (@jamesfrancies88 on IG).
Sony Hall is a terrific venue, redolent of old New York. Terrific partnership of Sony & Blue Note.
ScienceDriven
We had an awesome time. Trio was magnificent. It was more than we expected. I loved his 42-string Pikasso guitar. James Francies and Nate Smith together with Pat were amazing. Wherever we are in this world, hope to see them many times over. Thank you Pat Metheny Group for a memorable concert. Bless you all.
kchristopher1960
He and his band are sacred monsters of jazz music.
That's a pity that the sound quality in that location (auditorium santa cecilia - roma) was low.Mids were too high, and the famous pat metheny synth sound was very different from recordings. Really a pity.
animamea
New musicians, new notes but always a pleasure to hear one of the greatest composers of our century,
Thank you Pat and your fantastic new band for the unforgettable evening experience and your wonderful music.
MicroFiu
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