Guitarist and composer, born in Lee's Summit, Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He formed his own group, producing an album a year over a decade, beginning with Bright Size Life (1976). He also wrote the score for the John Schlesinger film The Falcon And The Snowman (1985).
| Pat Metheny | |
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| Born |
August 12, 1954 Lee's Summit, Missouri, United States |
| Genre(s) | Jazz |
| Notable guitars |
Gibson ES-175
Ibanez PM120 Signature Model Pikasso I (42-String Guitar) |
| Years active | 1975 - present |
| Official site | Official Website |
Patrick Bruce Metheny (born August 12, 1954 in Lee's Summit, Missouri) is a world renowned American jazz guitarist and leader of the Pat Metheny Group as well as various collaborations, duets, solo works, and other side projects. (Metheny dropped out of the University of Miami in his first semester and was immediately offered a teaching position there.)
Metheny came onto the jazz scene quickly in 1975, at the age of 21, after joining Gary Burton's band and then recording a trio record with Jaco Pastorius called Bright Size Life. Metheny's next album formalized this partnership and began the Pat Metheny Group, featuring several songs co-written with Mays; Pat Metheny also has released notable solo, trio, quartet and duet recordings with musicians such as Jim Hall, Dave Holland, Roy Haynes, Gary Burton, Chick Corea, Charlie Haden, John Scofield, Jack DeJohnette, Herbie Hancock, Bill Stewart, Ornette Coleman, Brad Mehldau, and many others.
Pat Metheny has also joined projects of all kinds both as a player and a writer, notably the record Song X with Ornette Coleman;
Pat Metheny has been touring for more than 30 years, averaging 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 early group featured a unique sound, particularly due to Metheny's Gibson ES-175 guitar and Mays' Oberheim synthesizer and Yamaha Organ.
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. 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 Danny 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.
Then next three Pat Metheny Group releases would be based around a further intensification of the Brazilian rhythms first heard in the early 1980s. The album's first tune, "Minuano (Six Eight)," represents a good example of the Pat Metheny group compositional style from this period: the track starts with a haunting minor section from Mays, lifts off in a typical Methenian jubilant major melody, leading to a Maysian metric and harmonically-modulated interlude, creating suspense which is finally resolved in the Methenian major theme. 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.
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).
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 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, replacing Dan Gottlieb in 1984, played 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: Mark Ledford (vocals, trumpet, guitar);
Pat Metheny has collected 17 Grammy Awards with, as part of The Pat Metheny Group, ten consecutive Grammys.
Side Projects
When working outside of the confines of the PMG, Metheny has shown different sides to his musical personality.
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 Guitar
Pat Martino had used the electric twelve-string guitar on a studio album, Desperado, and John McLaughlin had famously used a double-neck electric guitar with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, but Metheny was a significant user of the twelve-string electric in jazz.
Six-String Electric Guitar
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.
Guitar Synthesizer
Metheny was also one of the first jazz guitarists to make heavy use of the Roland GR300 Guitar Synthesizer.
42-String Pikasso Guitar
One of the most unusual guitars that Metheny plays is the Pikasso I, created by Canadian luthier Linda Manzer. 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.
Influences
As a guitarist, Metheny cites Wes Montgomery as his biggest early influence. 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.
Metheny has also named Ornette Coleman as a musical influence.
Pat Metheny on Kenny G
Metheny has been highly critical of smooth jazz saxophonist Kenny G. Drawing Metheny's extreme ire was Kenny G's overdubbing of a song by legendary jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong which Metheny described as follows - "By disrespecting Louis, his legacy and by default, everyone who has ever tried to do something positive with improvised music and what it can be, Kenny G has created a new low point in modern culture - something that we all should be totally embarrassed about" - the full Q & English guitarist Richard Thompson followed Metheny's comment's by writing the song "I Agree With Pat Metheny, Kenny's Talents Are Too Teeny"; Pat Metheny with Jim Hall (1999) Song X : Twentieth Anniversary with Ornette Coleman including 6 unreleased recordings from the original sessions (2005) Metheny/Mehldau (listed here as a duet -- also accompanied by Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard)(2006)
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