The Pat Metheny Group was an American jazz band founded in 1977 by guitarist and composer Pat Metheny , along with his core collaborating member, keyboardist and composer Lyle Mays . Other long-standing members included bassist and producer Steve Rodby from 1981 to 2010, and drummer Paul Wertico from 1983 to 2001, after which Antonio Sanchez became the percussionist from 2002 to 2010. Vocalist Pedro Aznar was also a long-time member, performing with the group from 1984 to 1993. In addition to a core quartet, the group was often joined by a variety of other instrumentalists expanding the size to six or eight musicians.
47-439: Founder Pat Metheny first emerged on the jazz scene in the mid-1970s with a pair of solo albums. First was Bright Size Life , released in 1976, a trio album with bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Bob Moses . The next album, released in 1977, was Watercolors , featuring Eberhard Weber on bass, pianist Lyle Mays , and drummer Danny Gottlieb . In 1977, bassist Mark Egan joined Metheny, Mays, and Gottlieb to form
94-416: A guitar duet with Jim Hall (Telarc, 1999), whose work has strongly influenced Metheny's. He collaborated with Polish jazz and folk singer Anna Maria Jopek on Upojenie (Warner Poland, 2002) and Bruce Hornsby on Hot House (RCA, 2005). He has also played on albums by his older brother, Mike Metheny , a jazz trumpeter, among them Day In – Night Out (1986) and Close Enough for Love (2001). As
141-642: A job to teach as a professor, as the school had recently introduced electric guitar as a course of study. He moved to Boston in the early 1970s to teach at the Berklee College of Music under the supervision of jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton and established a reputation as a prodigy. He appeared on Burton's studio recordings, from Ring in 1974 to Passengers in 1977. In 1974, he appeared on an album unofficially titled Jaco with pianist Paul Bley , bassist Jaco Pastorius , and drummer Bruce Ditmas on Carol Goss's Improvising Artists label—but he
188-576: A jubilant major melody more typical of Metheny. A Metheny solo builds into an intricate, composed marimba section followed by a brief, but metrically and harmonically complex interlude, both characteristic of Mays, before finally leading to a reprise of the minimalistic Metheny theme. Another popular track was "Last Train Home", a rhythmically relentless Metheny piece that builds to a single point of release where wordless vocals finally enter. The 1989 release Letter from Home continued this approach, with
235-480: A mini guitar, an acoustic sitar guitar, and the baritone guitar , which Metheny used for the recording of One Quiet Night (2003). Metheny was one of the first jazz guitarists to use the Roland GR-300 guitar synthesizer . He commented, "you have to stop thinking about it as a guitar, because it no longer is a guitar." He approaches it as if he were a horn player, and he prefers the "high trumpet" sound of
282-492: A number of albums, starting with a medley of "Round Trip" and "Broadway Blues" on his debut album, Bright Size Life (1976). He worked extensively with Coleman's collaborators, such as Charlie Haden , Dewey Redman , and Billy Higgins , and he recorded the album Song X (1986) with Coleman and toured with him. Metheny made three albums on ECM with Brazilian vocalist and percussionist Naná Vasconcelos . He lived in Brazil from
329-495: A recurring pulse. Decades earlier, Metheny had appeared on Reich's album Different Trains (Nonesuch, 1987) performing Reich's composition, Electric Counterpoint . Metheny plays a custom-made 42-string Pikasso I created by Canadian luthier Linda Manzer . He plays it on "Into the Dream" and on the albums Quartet (1996), Imaginary Day (1997), Jim Hall & Pat Metheny (1999), Trio → Live (Warner Bros., 2000), and
376-823: A triptych: We Live Here (Geffen, 1995), Quartet (Geffen, 1996), and Imaginary Day ( Warner Bros ., 1997). Moving away from the Brazilian-inspired styles which had dominated the releases of the previous ten years, these albums included experiments with hip-hop rhythms, sequenced synthetic drums, free-form improvisation on acoustic instruments, and symphonic signatures, blues, and sonata schemes. With Speaking of Now (Warner Bros., 2002), new group members were added: drummer Antonio Sánchez from Mexico City , Vietnamese-American trumpeter Cuong Vu , and bassist, vocalist, guitarist, and percussionist Richard Bona from Cameroon . On The Way Up ( Nonesuch , 2005), harmonica player Grégoire Maret from Switzerland
423-592: A young guitarist, Metheny tried to sound like Wes Montgomery , but when he was 14 or 15, he decided 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." Ornette Coleman's 1968 album New York Is Now! inspired Metheny to find his own direction. He has recorded Coleman's compositions on
470-481: Is also fond of Buckethead 's music. He also worked with, sponsored or helped to make recordings of singer/songwriters from all over the world, such as Pedro Aznar (Argentina), Akiko Yano (Japan), David Bowie (UK), Silje Nergaard (Norway), Noa (Israel), and Anna Maria Jopek (Poland). Two of Metheny's albums, The Way Up (2005) and Orchestrion (2010), show the influence of American minimalist composer Steve Reich , with rhythmic figures structured around
517-663: Is the only person to have won Grammys in 10 categories. Metheny was born in Lee's Summit , Missouri . His father Dave played trumpet, his mother Lois sang, and his maternal grandfather Delmar was a professional trumpeter. Metheny's first instrument was the trumpet, on which he was taught by his brother, Mike . Pat's brother, father, and grandfather played trios together at home. His parents were fans of Glenn Miller and swing music. They took Pat to concerts to hear Clark Terry and Doc Severinsen , but they had little respect for guitar. Pat's interest in guitar increased around 1964 when he saw
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#1732788100053564-512: The Pat Metheny Group later that year. With Mark Egan on bass, the lineup was set for the group's self-titled debut album, Pat Metheny Group (ECM, 1978). When Pat Metheny Group (ECM, 1978) was released, the group was a quartet comprising Metheny, Danny Gottlieb on drums, Mark Egan on bass, and Lyle Mays on piano, autoharp , and synthesizer. All but Egan had played on Metheny's album Watercolors (ECM, 1977), recorded
611-679: The Simon & Bard Group . A soundtrack album The Falcon and the Snowman followed in 1985. It featured the song " This Is Not America ", a writing and performing collaboration with David Bowie which reached #14 in the UK Top 40 and #32 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1985. The South American influence would continue and intensify on First Circle with the addition of Argentine multi-instrumentalist Pedro Aznar . This period saw
658-744: The Simon and Bard Group at the time and had played in Simon-Bard in Chicago before joining Metheny. First Circle was Metheny's last album with ECM ; he had been a key artist for the European record label but left following disagreements with the label's founder, Manfred Eicher . Still Life (Talking) ( Geffen , 1987) featured new group members trumpeter Mark Ledford , vocalist David Blamires, and percussionist Armando Marçal . Aznar returned for vocals and guitar on Letter from Home (Geffen, 1989). With Metheny working on multiple projects, it
705-559: The Speaking of Now Live and Imaginary Day Live DVDs. Metheny has used the guitar in his guest appearances on other artists' albums. He used the Pikasso on Metheny/Mehldau Quartet (Nonesuch, 2007), his second collaboration with pianist Brad Mehldau and his trio sidemen Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard ; the Pikasso is featured on Metheny's composition "The Sound of Water". Manzer has made many acoustic guitars for Metheny, including
752-621: The Steppenwolf Theater Company 's production of Lyle Kessler's play Orphans . It has remained special optional music for productions of the play around the world since. Metheny ventured into experimental jazz with the quartet releases 80/81 (ECM, 1980), Song X (Geffen, 1986) with Ornette Coleman , and The Sign of Four with Derek Bailey (Knitting Factory Works, 1997). In 1997, Metheny recorded with bassist Marc Johnson on Johnson's release The Sound of Summer Running (Verve, 1998). The next year, he recorded
799-492: The Beatles perform on TV. For his 12th birthday, his parents allowed him to buy a guitar, which was a Gibson ES-140 3/4. Pat Metheny's life changed after hearing the album Four & More by Miles Davis . Soon after, he was captivated by Wes Montgomery 's album Smokin' at the Half Note which was released in 1965. He cites the Beatles, Miles Davis , and Montgomery as having the biggest impact on his music. When he
846-584: The Body Electric , Columbia, 1972), and Larry Coryell and Philip Catherine made extensive use of acoustic twelve string in alternate tunings at the 1975 Montreux Jazz Festival , later releasing some of the material on their 1976 Twin House album. Metheny used a twelve-string guitar on his debut album, Bright Size Life (1976), including alternate tuning on "Sirabhorn", and on later albums ("San Lorenzo", from Pat Metheny Group and Travels ). At
893-615: The Pat Metheny Group. ECM released the album Pat Metheny Group in 1978 with songs co-written by Metheny and Mays. Pat Metheny Group showcased Mays' use of the Oberheim synthesizer , which became an integral part of the group's sound. In 1979, the group's second album, American Garage , reached No. 1 on the jazz chart in Billboard magazine. The Pat Metheny Group released the album Offramp in 1982. Offramp marked
940-615: The Snowman (see above) and his own A Map of the World (Warner Bros., 1999) film soundtrack. Recent solo-billed recordings include From This Place (Nonesuch, 2020), recorded with a variety of guest artists, and the all-guitar collaboration Road to the Sun (Modern Recordings, 2021). In 2012, Metheny formed the Unity Band with Antonio Sánchez on drums, Ben Williams on bass and Chris Potter on saxophone. This quartet released
987-539: The South American influence becoming even more prevalent in its bossa nova and samba rhythms. Metheny subsequently concentrated on solo and other small-group projects, and four years went by before the release of the next Pat Metheny Group album. This was a live set recorded in Europe in 1993 titled The Road to You and it featured tracks from the two Geffen studio albums alongside new tunes. By this stage,
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#17327881000531034-557: The age of 12, Metheny bought a natural finish Gibson ES-175 that he played throughout his early career, until it was retired in 1995. After his first tour of Japan in 1978, he began an association with Ibanez guitars, who have since produced a range of PM signature models. Metheny is the younger brother of jazz flugelhornist Mike Metheny . He lives in New York City with his wife, Latifa (née Azhar), and three children. Latifa has been credited for album photography. Metheny
1081-833: The album Unity Band (Nonesuch, 2012) and toured Europe and the U.S. during the latter half of the year. In 2013, as an extension of the Unity Band project, Metheny announced the formation of the Pat Metheny Unity Group, with the addition of the Italian multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi . Outside the Group, Metheny has shown different sides of his musical personality. An early duo billing with Lyle Mays As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls (ECM, 1981) includes Brazilian percussionist and vocalist Naná Vasconcelos for an elegant set noted for its atmospheric, long-form title track. In 1983, Metheny and Mays wrote music for
1128-632: The album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance . It was certified gold by the RIAA on July 23, 1998. The album marked the return of Pedro Aznar , who became a member of the Group on the album First Circle . It also featured a reemphasis on increased instrumental diversity and was a huge commercial success, comfortably making the Top 200 album chart at Billboard magazine. "Slip Away" was, as Metheny put it, "extraordinarily successful, one of
1175-523: The band are not included. Pat Metheny Patrick Bruce Metheny ( / m ə ˈ θ iː n i / mə- THEE -nee ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He was the leader of the Pat Metheny Group (1977–2010) and continues to work in various small-combo, duet, and solo settings, as well as other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progressive and contemporary jazz, latin jazz , and jazz fusion . He has three gold albums and 20 Grammy Awards , and
1222-522: The commercial popularity of the band increase, especially thanks to the live recording Travels . First Circle would also be Metheny's last project with the ECM label; Metheny had been a key artist for ECM but left over 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
1269-666: The concert. The final performance of the piece was at a free show for more than a hundred thousand people at the close of the 2005 Montreal Jazz Festival . Their final album, The Way Up was released through Nonesuch Records . It is planned that all of Metheny's Geffen and Warner Bros. Records albums are to be rereleased on the label. The Pat Metheny Group played at the Blue Note Tokyo and Blue Note Nagoya in December 2008 and January 2009 in its core quartet of Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby and Antonio Sanchez. This quartet version of
1316-502: The early '80s. Additional South American musicians appear as guests, most notably Brazilian percussionist Armando Marçal . The Group's first release on Geffen Records was Still Life (Talking) (1987). The album's first track, "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 showing Mays' compositional influence, yielding to
1363-482: The first recorded appearance of bassist Steve Rodby in the group (replacing Mark Egan), and also featured Brazilian "guest artist" Naná Vasconcelos . Vasconcelos had appeared on the Pat Metheny / Lyle Mays album As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls in 1981, and his performance on percussion and wordless vocals marked the first addition of Latin-South American music shadings to the Group's sound. Offramp
1410-476: The group had integrated new instrumentation and technologies into its sound, including Mays' addition of midi-controlled synthesized sounds to acoustic piano solos, accomplished via a pedal control. Mays and Metheny refer to the following three Pat Metheny Group releases as the triptych : We Live Here in 1995, Quartet in 1996, and Imaginary Day in 1997. Moving away from the Latin style which had dominated
1457-436: The group later toured the jazz festivals of Europe in the summer of 2010 for their "Songbook Tour". These concerts featured music from all eras of the group but no new material. * This timeline reflects active members of the band, at either times they recorded or times they toured with the band. Members may have left the band by the time albums they performed on were released. Minor contributors to albums who did not tour with
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1504-445: The group's final release, 2005's The Way Up , together with a new group member, Swiss-American harmonica player Grégoire Maret . The Way Up is a long-form recording which consists of a single 68 minute-long piece split into four sections. Metheny has said that one of the inspirations for the labyrinthine piece was a reaction against a perceived trend for music requiring a short attention span and which lacks nuance and detail. Many of
1551-528: The instrument. One of the patches that he has often used is on Roland's JV-80 "Vintage Synth" expansion card, titled "Pat's GR-300". In addition to the Roland, he uses a Synclavier controller. Metheny was an early proponent of the twelve-string guitar in jazz. During his 1975 tour with the Gary Burton "Quartet" (five people, including Metheny), he primarily played electric twelve-string guitar against
1598-682: The late 1980s to the early 1990s and performed with several local musicians, such as Milton Nascimento and Toninho Horta . He played with Antônio Carlos Jobim as a tribute, in a live performance in Carnegie Hall Salutes The Jazz Masters: Verve 50th Anniversary . He is also a fan of several pop music artists, especially singer/songwriters including James Taylor (after whom he named the song "James" on Offramp ); Bruce Hornsby , Cheap Trick , and Joni Mitchell , with whom he performed on her Shadows and Light ( Asylum / Elektra , 1980) live tour. Metheny
1645-517: The release Speaking of Now , marking another change in direction through the addition of younger musicians. Joining the core players (Metheny, Mays and Rodby), were drummer Antonio Sanchez from Mexico City , Vietnam -born trumpeter Cuong Vu from Seattle , and bassist/vocalist/guitarist/percussionist Richard Bona from Cameroon . Following the group's 2002 tour, Bona left to concentrate on his solo career, but appeared as one of two guest artists (the other being mallet cymbalist Dave Samuels ) on
1692-424: The releases of the previous decade, these albums included hip-hop drum loops, free-form improvisation on acoustic instruments, and symphonic signatures, blues and sonata schemes. On some tunes from this era, the band also experimented with thrash metal , electronica , and folk music from parts of the world unexplored by the band in the past. After another hiatus, the Pat Metheny Group re-emerged in 2002 with
1739-546: The single " This Is Not America " with David Bowie . The song reached number 14 in the British Top 40 in 1985 and number 32 in the U.S. Offramp marked the first appearance of bassist Steve Rodby (replacing Egan) and a Brazilian guest artist, Nana Vasconcelos , on percussion and wordless vocals. On First Circle , Argentinian singer and multi-instrumentalist Pedro Aznar joined the group; as drummer, Paul Wertico replaced Gottlieb. Both Rodby and Wertico were members of
1786-477: The six-string work of resident guitarist Mick Goodrick . 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 . Ralph Towner was perhaps the first to use acoustic twelve-string guitar extensively in jazz ("The Moors", from Weather Report 's I Sing
1833-514: The textures in The Way Up are created from interlocking guitar lines; Steve Reich is credited on the CD as an inspiration, along with Eberhard Weber , and there are large open sections for solo improvisation and group interplay. On the group's 2005 tour (when its lineup was supplemented by Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Nando Lauria ), The Way Up was played in its entirety as the first half of
1880-547: The work of his experimental quartets ( see § Side projects ), Metheny further explored fringes of the avant-garde on Zero Tolerance for Silence (Geffen, 1994), a solo electric guitar outing. For the album Orchestrion ( Nonesuch , 2010) Metheny hand-crafted an array of elaborate, custom mechanical instruments which allowed him to compose and perform as a one-person orchestra. By contrast, his album Secret Story (Geffen, 1992) uses lush orchestral arrangements usually found in movie soundtracks, such as The Falcon and
1927-490: The year before. The second group album, American Garage (ECM, 1979), reached number 1 on the Billboard jazz chart and crossed over onto the pop charts. From 1982 to 1985, the Pat Metheny Group released Offramp (ECM, 1982), a live album, Travels (ECM, 1983), First Circle (ECM, 1984), and The Falcon and the Snowman (EMI, 1985), a soundtrack album for the movie of the same name for which they collaborated on
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1974-668: Was 15, Metheny won a scholarship from Down Beat magazine to a one-week jazz camp where he was mentored by guitarist Attila Zoller , who then invited him to New York City to meet guitarist Jim Hall and bassist Ron Carter . While playing at a club in Kansas City, Metheny was approached by Bill Lee , a dean at the University of Miami , and offered a scholarship. After less than a week at college, Metheny realized that playing guitar all day during his teens had left him unprepared for classes. He admitted this to Lee, who offered him
2021-470: Was also the group's first recording to win a Grammy Award , the first win of many for the group. In 1983, a live album titled Travels was released. It won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance in 1984, which also brought the release of First Circle , a popular album that featured compositions with mixed meters. With this album, the group featured a new drummer, Paul Wertico (replacing Danny Gottlieb). Wertico and Rodby had both played with
2068-425: Was four years before the release of the next group record, a live album titled The Road to You (Geffen, 1993). This release featured live versions of tracks from the two Geffen studio albums as well as previously unreleased tunes. The group integrated new instrumentation and technologies into its work, notably Mays' use of synthesizers. Metheny and Mays have referred to the next three Pat Metheny Group releases as
2115-542: Was introduced as a new group member, while Bona contributed as a guest musician. The album consists of a single 68-minute-long piece—split into four sections—based on a three-note motif: the opening B, A ♯ , F ♯ , and its later variation F ♯ , A, B. Metheny has recorded albums under his solo artist billing regularly throughout his career. His solo acoustic guitar albums include New Chautauqua (ECM, 1979), One Quiet Night (Warner Bros., 2003), and What's It All About (Nonesuch, 2011). Building on
2162-445: Was once in a relationship with Sônia Braga . Pat Metheny is the only person to have won Grammy Awards in ten different categories. Partial list of other (non-Grammy) awards and honors for Pat Metheny: The following is a partial list of Metheny's notable collaborators: Letter from Home (album) Letter from Home is the sixth studio album by the Pat Metheny Group . It was released in 1989 by Geffen Records . In 1990,
2209-492: Was unaware that he was being recorded. The next year he joined Gary Burton's band with guitarist Mick Goodrick . Metheny released his debut album, Bright Size Life ( ECM , 1976), with Jaco Pastorius on bass guitar and Bob Moses on drums. His next album, Watercolors (ECM, 1977), was recorded with Eberhard Weber on bass and Danny Gottlieb on drums, and significantly marked Metheny's first outing with pianist Lyle Mays , who would become his key collaborator in forming
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