Jazz Articles about Pat Metheny

The Pat Metheny Group: The Way Up

by AAJ Staff
January 18, 2005

From the opening sounds of traffic in Manhattan to the ascending coda, the Pat Metheny Group's The Way Up is a penetrating 68-minute statement about the search for meaning.

Pat Metheny has been a clear voice in jazz since the release of his classic treatise, Bright Size Life, produced when he was 22 years old. The spoken word of a young man in love with his life, it promised of yet untold eloquence. His brilliance has not remained ...

Anna Maria Jopek and Friends with Pat Metheny: Upojenie

by Mark Sabbatini
June 22, 2004

How many Pat Metheny fans know “Tam. Gdzie Nie Siega Wzrok" is one of his most popular songs?

I'm willing to bet less than one fan in 1,000 recognizes the title, yet nearly any listener would immediately recognize it as one of most intriguing versions of “Follow Me" (from Imaginary Day ) he's performed.

That's the lure of Upojenie, an album recorded in Warsaw by the guitarist with a group of Polish musicians led by singer ...

Pat Metheny / Kenny G: The Jazz Soul of P.D.Q. Bach

by Jack Bowers
April 1, 2004

In a move that has left the jazz world buzzing and their legions of fans traumatized in shock and disbelief, erstwhile polar opposites and outspoken adversaries Pat Metheny and Kenny G have recorded together for the first time, choosing as their common ground the singularly uncommon music of the opprobrious nineteenth/eighteenth century composer P.D.Q. Bach.At a media event held to trumpet the partnership (Pat’s brother, Mike, played lead trumpet) the former combatants were in a conciliatory mood. “It’s ...

Pat Metheny: Rarum IX: Selected Recordings

by Norman Weinstein
March 9, 2004

ECM's Rarum series, where artists choose their own peak recordings, has resulted in an occasionally refreshing departure from a conventional “Greatest Hits" package. Yet this Metheny retrospective seems only minutely different from a “hits" package, though it is a vast improvement over Works, the label's previous anthology of popular Metheny.

Here is a 70 minute slice of Metheny primarily as jazz/pop synthesizer, with lots of pretty synth washes and power chords, with even a soupçon of crowd cheers ...

Pat Metheny Trio at The Capitol Theatre in Cleveland

by C. Andrew Hovan
March 8, 2004

Pat Metheny Trio The Capitol Theatre Columbus, OH April 2000Much like a modern-day Ellington, guitarist and composer Pat Metheny has kept his working group together for many decades now and utilizes it as a workshop for developing his compositions, always tailoring his work, like the maestro, for the persons involved. Pushing the comparison further, Metheny also thrives on the many and various “sidebars" that he dabbles in from time to time. His latest trio project ...

Pat Metheny Solo and Trio

by C. Andrew Hovan
December 8, 2003

Pat Metheny Solo and Trio Severence Hall Cleveland, Ohio November 9, 2003

It might serve useful to consider Pat Metheny’s chameleon-like activity as a musician akin to the trend-setting ways of Miles Davis. Like Davis, Metheny prefers to keep his sights on new horizons as opposed to recreating a known formula over and over again. While its true that the Pat Metheny Group remains at the center of his work, the guitarist chooses to ...

A Fireside Chat with Pat Metheny

by AAJ Staff
October 29, 2003

I recall first listening to Song X and marveling at its sheer density. Often noted as what Pat Metheny should have, would have, could have been, Song X has long been an unwarranted foil for one of improvised music's most enigmatic figures. Critical dogmas have long burdened Metheny, whose versatility has liberated him from convention, playing with Ornette Coleman and Charlie Haden ( Song X ), Dewey Redman and Michael Brecker (80/81), Derek Bailey and Gregg Bendian ( The Sign ...