| Name | Pat Metheny |
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| Born | August 12, 1954Lee's Summit. Missouri, United States |
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| Instrument | electric guitar, acoustic guitar, guitar synthesizer |
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| Occupation | Musician, songwriter |
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| Genre | Jazz, jazz fusion, world fusion, post-bop, jazz-rock, jazz-pop, crossover jazz | Associated_acts= Pat Metheny Group, NoaThe OrbSteve Reich |
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| Label | ECM/Universal ClassicsWarner Bros. RecordsGeffen/MCA RecordsNonesuch/Elektra Records |
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| Notable instruments | Gibson ES-175 Ibanez PM20 Signature ModelIbanez PM100 Signature ModelIbanez PM35Roland GR-300Pikasso guitar |
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| Years active | 1974–present |
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| Url | patmetheny.com |
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Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny (pronounced ; born August 12, 1954) is an
American jazz guitarist and
composer.
One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progressive and contemporary jazz, post-bop, latin jazz and jazz fusion.
In 1974 he made his recording debut on two sessions for pianist Paul Bley's and Carol Goss' Improvising Artists label, along with fretless electric bassist Jaco Pastorius.
Metheny entered the wider jazz scene in 1975 when he joined Gary Burton's band, where he played alongside resident jazz guitarist Mick Goodrick. Goodrick was himself a 1967 alumnus of Berklee, who held a teaching post there in the early 1970s. The two guitarists were interviewed jointly by Guitar Player Magazine in 1975, bringing them to the attention of fellow guitar aficionados around the world. Metheny's musical momentum carried him rapidly to the point that he had soon written enough material to record his debut album Bright Size Life with Pastorius and drummer Bob Moses.
Metheny's next recording, 1977's Watercolors, was the first to feature pianist Lyle Mays, Metheny's most frequent collaborator. The other musicians on this session were Eberhard Weber on upright bass and Danny Gottlieb on drums. Metheny's next album formalized his partnership with Mays and began the Pat Metheny Group, featuring several songs they co-wrote; the album was released as the eponymous Pat Metheny Group on West German musician/producer Manfred Eicher's ECM record label. Pat Metheny also has released notable solo, trio, quartet and duet recordings with musicians such as Jim Hall, Dave Holland, Roy Haynes, Toninho Horta, Gary Burton, Chick Corea, Pedro Aznar, Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Haden, John Scofield, Jack DeJohnette, Herbie Hancock, Bill Stewart, Ornette Coleman, Brad Mehldau, Joni Mitchell and many others.
Pat Metheny has also joined projects such as Song X with Ornette Coleman; Parallel Realities; and Jazz Baltica, with Ulf Wakenius and other Nordic jazz players like E.S.T., Nils Landgren and has played with female singers from all over the world, such as Silje Nergaard on Tell Me Where You're Going (1990), Noa on Noa (1994), Abbey Lincoln on A Turtle's Dream (1994) and Anna Maria Jopek on Upojenie (2002).
Pat Metheny has been touring for more than 30 years, playing between 120-240 concerts a year.
Pat Metheny Group
The Pat Metheny Group is a jazz band founded in 1977. The first Pat Metheny Group release, 1978's
Pat Metheny Group, featured the writing duo of Pat Metheny and pianist
Lyle Mays, a collaboration which would span over 25 years and 15 albums. The recording featured the electric bass playing of Jaco Pastorius's protégé
Mark Egan. The second group album,
American Garage (1980), was a breakout hit, reaching #1 on the Billboard Jazz chart and crossing over onto the pop charts as well, largely on the strength of the up-tempo opening track "(Cross the) Heartland" which would become a signature tune for the group. This early incarnation of the group included
Mark Egan on electric bass and
Dan Gottlieb on drums.
The group built upon its success through constant touring across the USA and Europe. The early group featured a unique sound, particularly due to Metheny's Gibson ES-175 guitar coupled to two Eventide Clockworks' Harmonizer digital delay units and Mays' Oberheim and Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 synthesizers and Steinway piano. Even in this early state the band played in a wide range of styles from folk to rock to experimental. Metheny later started working with the Roland GR-300 guitar synthesizer and the Synclavier guitar system made by New England Digital. Mays expanded his setup with the Synclavier keyboard and later with various other synthesizers.
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From 1982 to 1985 the Pat Metheny Group released Offramp (1982), a live set Travels (1983), and First Circle (1984), as well as The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), a soundtrack album for the movie of the same name in which they collaborated with David Bowie. A single from the soundtrack, 'This Is Not America', reached number 14 in the British Top 40 in early 1985 as well as number 32 in the USA.
Offramp marked the first appearance of bassist Steve Rodby (replacing Mark Egan) and Brazilian "guest artist" Nana Vasconcelos whose work on percussion and wordless vocals marked the first addition of Latin music shadings to the Group's sound, a trend which would continue and intensify on First Circle with the addition of Argentinian multi-instrumentalist Pedro Aznar, which also marked the group debut of drummer Paul Wertico (replacing Dan Gottlieb) - both Rodby and Wertico were members of the Fred Simon Group at the time, and had played in Simon-Bard as well, in Chicago, before joining Metheny.
This period became a peak of commercial popularity of the band, especially for the live recording Travels. First Circle would also be Metheny's last project with ECM Records; Metheny had been a key artist for ECM but left following conceptual disagreements with label founder Manfred Eicher. The next three Pat Metheny Group releases would be based around a further intensification of the Brazilian rhythms first heard in the early 1980s. Additional Latin musicians appear as guests, notably Brazilian percussion player Armando Marçal. Still Life (Talking) (1987) was the Group's first release on new label Geffen Records, and featured several popular tracks. During this period The Steppenwolf Theater Company of Chicago featured an assortment of compositions by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays for their production of Lyle Kessler's play Orphans where it has remained special optional music for all productions of the play around the world since.
Metheny then again delved into adventurous solo and band projects, and four years went by before the release of the next record for the next Pat Metheny Group, a live set entitled The Road to You, which featured tracks from the two Geffen studio albums amongst new tunes. The group integrated new instrumentation and technologies into its work, notably Mays' unique playing technique accomplished by adding midi-controlled synth sounds at command during acoustic solos via a pedal on the piano.
Mays and Metheny themselves refer to the following three Pat Metheny Group releases as the triptych: We Live Here (1995), Quartet (1996), and Imaginary Day (1997). Moving away from the Latin style which had dominated the releases of the previous 10 years, these albums were the most wide-ranging and least commercial Group releases, including experimentations with sequenced synthetic drums on one track, free-form improvisation on acoustic instruments, and symphonic signatures, blues and sonata schemes.
After another hiatus, the Pat Metheny Group re-emerged in 2002 with the release Speaking of Now, another change in direction adding musicians to the band who are one generation younger and thus grew up with the Pat Metheny Group. The new members on the bandstand are the drummer Antonio Sanchez from Mexico City, trumpet player Cuong Vu, and bassist, vocalist, guitarist, and percussionist Richard Bona from Cameroon.
The latest release, 2005's The Way Up, is another large concept record which consists of one 68 minute-long piece (although split into four sections solely for CD navigation), a tightly organized, but not through-composed piece based on a pair of three-note kernels: The opening B, A#, F# and the derived B, A, F#. The reception of The Way Up was consistent, with standing ovations in each of the almost 90 concerts during the world tour 2005. On The Way Up, harmonica player Grégoire Maret from Switzerland was introduced as a new group member, while Richard Bona contributed only as a guest musician.
During the world tour Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Nando Lauria completed the line-up of the Pat Metheny Group. The Way Up was released through Nonesuch Records and all of Metheny's Geffen and Warner Brothers back catalogue is to be released on the label. Core members of the group are leader and founder, guitarist Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays (piano, keyboards) and Steve Rodby (double and electric bass) who joined in 1980. Drummer Paul Wertico replaced Dan Gottlieb in 1983 and continued to play with the group for more than 18 years, until he was replaced by Antonio Sanchez, currently also a member of The Pat Metheny Trio.
The current Pat Metheny Group members are Pat Metheny (guitars), Lyle Mays (piano and keyboards), Steve Rodby (double bass, electric bass), Antonio Sanchez (drums), Cuong Vu (trumpet). Other musicians that have been hired regularly for Metheny Group tours are: the late Mark Ledford (vocals, trumpet, guitar); David Blamires (vocals, miscellaneous instruments); Armando Marçal (percussion); Pedro Aznar (vocals, guitar, percussion); Richard Bona (vocals, guitar, bass, and percussion). On the most recent tour to promote the record "The Way Up", Grégoire Maret (harmonica, percussion, vocals) and Nando Lauria (guitar, percussion, vocals) joined the Group. Pat Metheny has collected 17 Grammy Awards, and of them, as part of The Pat Metheny Group, 10 of those awards were consecutive.
Side projects
When working outside of the confines of the PMG, Metheny has shown different sides to his musical personality. On Secret Story (1992) and Orchestrion (2009), he has ventured into forms of orchestrating his music not covered by the PMG. Working with established jazz figures such as
Ornette Coleman,
Chick Corea,
Michael Brecker,
Joshua Redman,
Charlie Haden,
Jim Hall,
Dave Holland,
Christian McBride, David Sanchez and
Roy Haynes, he has made records that have found favor with jazz critics who were disparaging of the "pastoral" or "light rock" aspects of his work with the PMG. Projects like the collaboration with
Derek Bailey and
Zero Tolerance for Silence have confounded critics who saw Metheny as following a path of increasing blandness with the PMG. Metheny's latest side projects teams him with
Brad Mehldau and his Trio. In 2006, Metheny appeared as a sideman on Brecker's last album,
Pilgrimage.
Guitar contributions
Continuing the tradition of jazz guitarists borrowing tones and techniques from their rock counterparts, Metheny has made alterations to the jazz guitar tone palette.
Twelve-string electric
Prior to Metheny,
Pat Martino had used the electric
twelve-string guitar on a studio album,
Desperado, and
John McLaughlin had used a double-neck electric guitar with the
Mahavishnu Orchestra. (
Lenny Breau had introduced the acoustic twelve-string to jazz. ) Metheny introduced alternate 12-string tunings to jazz; these can be heard on tunes such as "Sirabhorn" (from
Bright Size Life) and San Lorenzo (from
Pat Metheny Group and
Travels).
Six-string electric
Metheny's tone, which has evolved over the years, involves using the natural full-frequency response of his hollow-body guitar, combined with high-midrange settings on his amplifier to create a smooth, sustaining lead sound that is virtually devoid of piercing treble yet is able to cut through a dense mix. By using
digital signal processing that involves digital delay/chorus and reverb, he has created a big, rich, and resonant instrumental voice.
Guitar synthesizer
Metheny was also one of the first jazz guitarists to make heavy use of the
Roland GR-300
Guitar Synthesizer. While
John Abercrombie and
Bill Frisell also used it heavily in the 1980s, Metheny is the only one of the three who still uses the instrument on a regular basis. Unlike many guitar synth users, Metheny limits himself to a very small number of sounds. In interviews, he has argued that each of the timbres achievable through guitar synthesis should be treated as a separate instrument, and that he has tried to master each of these "instruments" instead of using it for incidental color. One of the "patches" that Pat used often is on Roland's JV-80 "Vintage Synth" expansion card titled "Pat's GR-300".
42-string Pikasso guitar
Metheny plays a
custom-made Pikasso I created by Canadian
luthier Linda Manzer on "Into the Dream" and on the albums
Quartet,
Imaginary Day,
Jim Hall & Pat Metheny,
Trio->Live, and the
Speaking of Now Live and
Imaginary Day DVDs. Metheny has also used the guitar in his guest appearances on other artist's albums.
Manzer has also made many acoustic guitars for Metheny, including a mini guitar, an acoustic sitar guitar, and also the baritone guitar, which Metheny used for the recording of One Quiet Night. His latest use of the Pikasso is found on the album Metheny Mehldau Quartet, his second collaboration with pianist Brad Mehldau and his trio sidemen Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard; the Pikasso is featured in Metheny's impressionistic composition "The Sound of Water."
Influences
As a young musician, Pat Metheny did everything he could to sound like
Wes Montgomery, but when he was 14 or 15, he decided that he felt that it was disrespectful to imitate him. In the liner notes on the 2-disc Montgomery compilation "Impressions: the Verve Jazz Sides," Metheny is quoted as saying, "(Smokin' at the Half Note) is the absolute greatest jazz-guitar album ever made. It is also the record that taught me how to play."
The angular compositions, asymmetrical lines, relentless rhythmic drive, and deep blues feeling of Ornette Coleman's New York is Now (Blue Note) inspired Metheny to find his own direction. He has recorded Coleman compositions on a number of his records (starting with a medley of "Round Trip" and "Broadway Blues" on his debut Bright Size Life); worked extensively with Coleman collaborators such as Charlie Haden, Dewey Redman, and Billy Higgins; and has even made a record, Song X, with Coleman.
Metheny's playing (as well as his tone) also show significant influence by Jim Hall, Joe Diorio, Kenny Burrell, Joe Pass, and other classic jazz players. Metheny has often been quoted saying that he is as likely to name non-guitarists as significant stylistic influences as fellow guitar players, giving as examples players like Clifford Brown and John Coltrane. He has stated that Miles Davis' live album Four & More was hugely influential on his pursuit into jazz music. He has also admitted to being heavily influenced by The Beatles, going so far as to say that everything by The Beatles has impacted him as a musician. He has paid significant attention to the evolution of guitar playing across genres, however, and is familiar with the playing of notables from the likes of rocker Eddie Van Halen to Leo Kottke.
In particular, he has been influenced by Brazilian music--both the European-influenced jazz sound of the bossa nova and the intensely polyrhythmic Afro-Brazilian sounds of the country's northeast. Metheny made 3 albums on ECM with the Brazillian vocalist and percussionist Naná Vasconcelos in the early 1980s. He also lived in Brazil from the late 1980s to the early 1990s and performed with several local musicians such as Milton Nascimento and Toninho Horta. He also played with Antonio Carlos Jobim as a tribute, in a live performance in Carnegie Hall Salutes The Jazz Masters: Verve 50th Anniversary before Jobim’s passing away.
He is also a fan of several pop music artists, especially singer- song writers including The Beatles; James Taylor (after whom he named the song "James" on Offramp); Bruce Hornsby, Cheap Trick, Joni Mitchell, with whom he performed on her Shadows and Light (1980, Asylum/ Elektra) live tour. Metheny is also fond of Buckethead's music. He also worked with, sponsored or helped to make attractive recordings of unique singer-song writers from all over the world such as Pedro Aznar (Argentina), David Bowie (UK), Silje Jegaard (Norway), Noa (Israel), Anna Maria Jopek (Poland), etc.
Metheny's compositional style is reflective of his debt to the American minimalist composer Steve Reich. This is particularly evident on recordings such as The Way Up and Orchestrion, which utilize similar rhythmic figures structured around a pulse. Reich's composition Electric Counterpoint was first recorded by Pat Metheny in 1987.
The Metheny Brothers
Pat took part in recording some of the CDs by his older brother, trumpeter
Mike Metheny, a talented jazz musician and a trumpet player based in Kansas City, Missouri, among them
Day In - Night Out (1986) and more recently
Close Enough for Love (2001).
Discography
Early Recognition
Chuck Lorre (producer of '
Two and a Half Men' and '
The Big Bang Theory') mentions Pat Metheny in his weekly 'vanity card' (shown briefly after the credits of an episode of
The Big Bang Theory). To summarize, Chuck Lorre was a professional guitarist at the age of 22. He was invited to audit a jazz guitar class at the University of Miami, and his ego was crushed when Pat Metheny began to play. Chuck says that this experience played a part in shifting his focus toward television.
References
External links
The Pat Metheny Homepage - biographies, discographies, discussion and songbook forums, tour dates, etc.
Pat Metheny Group on MySpace
The most complete Pat Metheny discography with radio shows, promos a. o.
Allmusic to Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny profile, NNDB
Pat Metheny's Guitar Rig
Category:Lead guitarists
Category:American jazz guitarists
Category:Jazz fusion guitarists
Category:Post-bop guitarists
Category:Berklee College of Music faculty
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:People from the Kansas City metropolitan area
Category:University of Miami alumni
Miami, University of
Faculty
Category:1954 births
Category:Living people
Category:Musicians from Missouri
Category:ECM artists
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