Pat Metheny

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Pat Metheny, Barcelona 2008

Pat Metheny (born August 12, 1954 in Lee's Summit , Missouri ; as Patrick Bruce Metheny , məˈθiːni ) is an American jazz guitarist . As a guest musician, solo artist and leader of various own formations, he established himself as one of the most influential and successful jazz musicians in the world since the mid-1970s. In addition to his own playing, his work with the Pat Metheny Group, with which he succeeded in creating an independent ensemble sound, also shaped the style.

Live and act

Pat Metheny, Antonio Sánchez and Gary Burton (from left to right) at the Milan Jazz Festival 2008
Pat Metheny 2010

Metheny started playing the trumpet when he was eight . At twelve, under the influence of Wes Montgomery , he switched to guitar. At the age of 14 he won a guitarist competition sponsored by jazz magazine Downbeat and then took part in a course with teachers like Marian McPartland . At the age of 15 he played with the jazz greats of Kansas City. At 18 he became a guitar lecturer at the University of Miami , and a year later at Berklee College of Music in Boston .

In the course of his career Metheny played with the jazz musicians Gary Burton , Jaco Pastorius , Herbie Hancock , Michael Brecker , Jack DeJohnette , Dave Holland , Ornette Coleman , Charlie Haden , John Scofield , Eberhard Weber and many others, but also with Joni Mitchell (1980 on Shadows and Light ) and pop musicians such as Bruce Hornsby and David Bowie ( This Is Not America from the film The Falcon and the Snowman ). Metheny has a special affinity for Brazilian musicians, for example he is represented on recordings by Celia Vaz, Leila Pinheiro, Tulio Mourao, Toninho Horta , Ricardo Silveira and Milton Nascimento . In addition, he has significantly influenced and promoted the careers of some women jazz musicians. So he worked u. a. with Silje Nergaard , Noa and Anna Maria Jopek .

Pat Metheny has received numerous awards for his achievements as a guitarist, composer and producer. Among other things, he received 20 Grammys - most recently in 2013 for his album Unity Band , released in 2012 . "Hardly any other guitarist has been able to set as many impulses over the decades as Pat Metheny, whose style initially stood for sound-emphasized fusion, but who was able to work his way lightly into the areas of bebop, harmolodic, free jazz, hardcore and even ambient." His brother Mike Metheny (* 1949), who is five years older than him, is a flugelhorn player and music journalist.

Private life

Metheny is married to the French-Moroccan photographer and gallery owner Latifa Metheny (Tria Gallery, New York City). They have two sons and a daughter.

style

Pat Metheny's compositions and improvisations are extraordinarily melodic. Still, it is difficult to categorize them. His recordings and projects show a wide variety of styles, from film music and the dense and well-arranged recordings of the Pat Metheny Group, to classic trio jazz standard recordings, to highly experimental recordings and free jazz (e.g. on the 1985 album Song X together with Ornette Coleman and especially in 2002 on the album Sign of 4 with Derek Bailey ).

Metheny plays a number of sometimes unusual guitars on his recordings and in concerts, for example his 42-string pikasso guitar . Since the Pat Metheny Group's album Offramp in 1981, he has also frequently used guitar synthesizers . In his honor, the guitar manufacturer Ibanez brought out the signature guitar model series PM.

The Pat Metheny Group

Milan Jazz Festival 2008

From 1978 to 2005 there was the Pat Metheny Group, which Metheny founded together with Lyle Mays (1953-2020) on the keyboard . The original line-up included bassist Mark Egan and drummer Danny Gottlieb . Since 1981 Steve Rodby has been a permanent member of the band as bassist and co-producer alongside Lyle Mays and Pat Metheny, which used various guest musicians on their tours.

In January 2005, Pat Metheny Group's last album, The Way Up , was released, a 68-minute, four-part suite by Metheny and Mays .

In 2010 the Pat Metheny Group gave several concerts in Europe with Mays as part of the Songbook Tour .

Metheny considered further activities possible in 2013:

"Lyle enjoys the civilian life in California and Steve has become one of the most sought-after producers in jazz, and both seem happy at this moment of their lives so there is no urgency to do something right now, although I'm sure that we will all do something again at some point. "

- Pat Metheny

Discography

Albums

Chart placements

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1978 Pat Metheny Group - - - - US123 (12 weeks)
US
as the Pat Metheny Group
1979 New Chautauqua - - - - US44 (22 weeks)
US
1979 American garage - - - - US53 (24 weeks)
US
as the Pat Metheny Group
1980 80/81 - - - - US89 (14 weeks)
US
1981 As Falls Wichita, so Falls Wichita Falls - - - - US50 (21 weeks)
US
Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays
1982 Offramp - - - - US50 (28 weeks)
US
as the Pat Metheny Group
Grammy
1983 Travels - - - - US62 (17 weeks)
US
as the Pat Metheny Group
Grammy
1984 Rejoicing - - - - US116 (9 weeks)
US
Guest musicians: Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins
1984 First Circle - - - - US91 (35 weeks)
US
as the Pat Metheny Group
Grammy
1985 The Falcon and the Snowman DE44 (6 weeks)
DE 		- - - US54 (10 weeks)
US
Soundtrack for The Falcon and the Snowman
as Pat Metheny Group
1987 Still Life (Talking) - - - - US86
gold
gold

(15 weeks)US
as the Pat Metheny Group
Grammy
1989 Letter from Home - - - - US66
gold
gold

(18 weeks)US
as the Pat Metheny Group
Grammy
1990 Question and Answer - - - - US154 (6 weeks)
US
Pat Metheny, Dave Holland & Roy Haynes
1992 Secret story - - - - US110
gold
gold

(17 weeks)US
1993 The Road to You - - - - US170 (2 weeks)
US
as the Pat Metheny Group
Grammy
1994 I can see your house from here - - - - US181 (2 weeks)
US
John Scofield & Pat Metheny
1995 We Live Here - - - - US83 (10 weeks)
US
as the Pat Metheny Group
Grammy
1996 "Quartet" - - - - US187 (1 week)
US
as the Pat Metheny Group
1997 Imaginary Day DE59
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(3 weeks)DE 		- - - US124 (4 weeks)
US
as the Pat Metheny Group
Grammy
2002 Speaking of Now DE24
platinum
platinum

(5 weeks)DE 		- - - US101 (3 weeks)
US
as the Pat Metheny Group
Grammy
2003 One quiet night DE74
platinum
platinum

(3 weeks)DE 		- - - US167 (1 week)
US
2005 The way up DE9
platinum
platinum

(4 weeks)DE 		- - - US99 (2 weeks)
US
as the Pat Metheny Group
Grammy
2006 Metheny Mehldau DE98 (1 week)
DE 		- - - -
2008 Day trip DE68 (2 weeks)
DE 		- - - -
2010 Orchestrion DE64 (1 week)
DE 		- CH83 (1 week)
CH 		- US114 (1 week)
US
2011 What's It All About DE53 (2 weeks)
DE 		- CH80 (1 week)
CH 		- US125 (1 week)
US
2012 Unity band DE65 (2 weeks)
DE 		AT75 (1 week)
AT 		- - US146 (1 week)
US
with Chris Potter , Ben Williams and Antonio Sánchez
Grammy
2014 Kin DE64 (1 week)
DE 		- - - US50 (1 week)
US
as Pat Metheny Unity Group
2020 From this place DE11 (3 weeks)
DE 		AT28 (1 week)
AT 		CH12 (3 weeks)
CH 		UK90 (1 week)
UK 		US92 (1 week)
US

More albums as Pat Metheny

More albums as the Pat Metheny Group

Compilations

as Pat Metheny

  • 1984: Live in Concert (with The Heath Brothers, The Dave Brubeck Quartet and BB King)
  • 1984: Works
  • 1988: Works II
  • 2004: Selected Recordings

Singles

Chart placements

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1985 This Is Not America DE5 (20 weeks)
DE 		AT5 (14 weeks)
AT 		CH6 (12 weeks)
CH 		UK14 (7 weeks)
UK 		US32 (12 weeks)
US
David Bowie and The Pat Metheny Group

More singles as Pat Metheny

  • 1979: New Chautauqua
  • 1981: It's for You (with Lyle Mays)
  • 1990: Question and Answer (with Dave Holland and Roy Haynes)
  • 1990: Change of Heart / Three Flights Up (with Dave Holland and Roy Haynes)
  • 1998: Across the Sky
  • 1999: Homecoming
  • 2002: As it Is (EP)

More singles as Pat Metheny Group

  • 1980: Two Folksongs (Tune Koot & Bie)
  • 1982: Are You Going with Me?
  • 1984: Yolanda, You Learn
  • 1984: The First Circle
  • 1987: Last Train Home
  • 1997: Follow Me
  • 1998: Across the Sky (Goldie Remix) (Remix by Goldie )
  • 2006: Slip Away
  • 2013: Are You Going with Me? (GU Rework) (Remix by Glenn Underground)

literature

  • Gero Günther: Pat Metheny on instinct. In: Mercedes magazine. 5/2008, pp. 23-28.
  • Mervyn Cooke: Pat Metheny: the ECM years, 1975-1984 , Oxford studies in recorded jazz, Oxford UP 2017

swell

  1. ↑ Wolf Kampmann (ed.), With the assistance of Ekkehard Jost : Reclams Jazzlexikon . 2nd, expanded and updated edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-15-010731-7 .
  2. ↑ guitarinternational.com Pat Metheny and Lee Ritenour 31 August, 2010
  3. ↑ dreamstime.com: Editorial Image: Pat Metheny Group at Umbria Jazz Festival
  4. ↑ patmetheny.com: Classic lineups and “What are you going to do next”?
  5. ↑ a b Chart sources: Singles (Pat Metheny Group) / Albums (Pat Metheny Group) / Albums (Pat Metheny) / UK / Billboard 200 (Pat Metheny Group) / Billboard 200 (Pat Metheny)
  6. ↑ US albums: Joel Whitburn : Joel Whitburn presents the Billboard Albums . 6th edition. Billboard Books, New York 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
  7. ↑ Awards: DE US
  8. ↑ Michael Rüsenberg: From This Place. In: jazzcity.de. Retrieved February 28, 2020 .

Web links

Commons : Pat Metheny  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Metheny, Pat
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Metheny, Patrick Bruce (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Lee's Summit , Missouri, USA