Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce Metheny (born August 12, 1954) is an American Jazz guitarist and leader of the Pat Metheny Group.
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2 Works 3 Influences 4 Books 5 External links |
Biography
Pat Metheny was born in 1954 in Lee's Summit, Missouri. He is the son of Dave and Lois Metheny, born second to his brother Mike who is five years older than Pat. Like his 5 years older brother Mike he first played trumpet but switched to the guitar in order to distinguish himself .Since the Beatles were just becoming popular he asked his parents for a guitar who at first declined. He then asked for Christmas present the "go" to buy a guitar on his own. They agreed and he began to practice tunes from the Beatles as well as songs popular in the early 60's. When Pat's brother Mike brought home a Miles Davis album entitled "Four and More", he became an instant jazz fan.
Metheny began to play jazz clubs in Kansas City, Missouri not far from his home in Lee's Summit, MO. His father worried about his playing in clubs, but since he was making money, he was allowe dto continue. An early and lasting influence of that period was the music of Wes Montgomery.
At University of Miami he became professor at age 19 and met bass player Jaco Pastorius. A chance meeting with Gary Burton, a vibist and professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston led to Metheny actually moving to Boston to both teach at Berklee and join Burton's band. He quit Burton's band in mid-tour for divergent opinions on his contributions (and reconciled only 1989 on "Reunion"). Being detached he called Lyle Mays, who by coincidence had just left an engagement with Woody Hermann's Thundering Herd and soon the two of them started the Pat Metheny Group.
Metheny has ever since searched for vastly different musical contexts and yet maintained the joint work with Lyle Mays in the Pat Metheny Group as a major thread.
Works
Roughly Metheny's musical contexts separate in two branches: the PMG and the Side Projects.
And as a key person on many other projects, repeatedly with Michael Brecker, Herbie Hancock and Jack DeJohnette.
Together with keybordist Lyle Mays he founded the Pat Metheny Group (PMG) 1978 after they met each other and discovered how close their musical conceptions were. The Pat Metheny Group has ever since been one rare example of a jazz formation that has been extremely successful over the years and yet never followed any commercial temptation. They have developed a very dense orchestral way of composing, connecting often with the classical age for counterpoint, metric alternations and musical drama, but also connecting with different kinds of world music, especially South.American music. Where Metheny is the ultimate melodycist, Mays is the complex harmonist. In 1981 they were joined by bassist Steve Rodby who in the run of time developed as a catalyst in Pat's and Lyle's artistic collaboration and defined much the process of recording. Metheny refers to the PMG as the experimental corner of his music.
Influences
Metheny maintains that he plays what he would like to hear as a listener, and with his innate curiosity his music includes a lot of influences, classical as well as cultural. In particular he has been influenced by Brazilian Music. He has lived in Brazil and performed with several local musicians such as Milton Nascimento and Toninho Horta. In turn has he himself been influential for a vast number of younger musicians as is documented by the list of his pieces played by other musicians and the number of players of the follwoing generation who Metheny integrates in his Pat Metheny Group and various Trio settings.
Books
External links