Photo courtesy Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny
When jazz guitarist Pat Metheny was born in 1954, his father and maternal grandfather already were amateur and professional trumpet players, respectively. Both Pat and older brother Mike took note and began following the family’s musical footsteps.
That changed in 1964 when Metheny saw The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. For his 12th birthday, he received his first guitar, a Gibson ES-140. Eventually, he discovered trumpeter Miles Davis and guitarist Wes Montgomery, twin influences who led the guitarist to a lifelong pursuit of jazz.
But this was not traditional jazz. Considered a musical prodigy from early on, Metheny has forged his own unique sound, a blend of strong rhythmic sensibility with the flexible articulation of horn players. The Grammy Award-winning guitar virtuoso, along with sidemen James Francies on keyboards and Joe Dyson on drums, will explore that unique sound October 14 at the Pabst Theater.
Metheny took time out of his current U.S. and European tour to discuss music, his newest albums and life during the COVID pandemic.
Side-Eye NYC (V.1.IV) was released in September. How does this album differ from your previous efforts?
It is similar to Travels or Trio>Live where I feel like it “just happens” to be live. It’s about half all-new music and feels like a new record to me more than a typical live recording. The places we performed were almost incidental, but not in a bad way. We were so focused on the music that even if there hadn’t been a crowd there, it would have been fine.
This is a really special band. Although I have led many trios, this is the first one that doesn’t have a bass player. That said, the amount of territory we cover is really expansive.
Your previous album, Road to the Sun, featuring the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and classical guitarist Jason Vieaux, leaned in a classical direction. How did your compositional approach differ compared to jazz?
I’m trying to get closer to understanding music in its broadest sense, what it means to me, and how it works. One great thing about being a musician and being able to stick around the planet for a while with a growing awareness of how the currency of music can stand as a measure of things, and that’s also fundamentally true to me personally.
My main job description over the years has been a bandleader who composes most of the music. A leader is well-served by taking advantage of the strengths, talents and skills of the folks chosen to join you along the way.
Regarding both the LAGQ and Jason, I was very aware not only of their playing, but also their incredible talents and abilities requiring notated, non-improvised material. That tradition mandates that the composer details every single aspect of what’s played on the page through notation that can be utilized not by just these performers, but eventually by other players in the future. That describes the beauty of written, through-composed music. I guess that would be a definition of what most folks would call “classical music.”
That’s not to say I haven’t written tons of highly notated music before this, but a key difference here is that for the most part, my previous focus has been on music designed to create environments for improvising, elaborate as the arrangements may have been at times. These pieces are distinct from that. I took on the task of saying that not only are these pieces for these players, for this performance, but at any point in the future, folks should be able to play these pieces and get the complete story.
You’ve named Miles Davis and Wes Montgomery as key jazz influences in your life. Who on the classical side has impacted you?
J.S. Bach, Steven Reich, Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel, Richard Wagner and Claude Debussy come to mind right away. There are many more.
What would you like your musical legacy to be?
Regarding “legacy” stuff, I don’t think about it. When there is some kind of special recognition given, I really appreciate it. There are certain honors that have come along that are unbelievable to me, that I never would have anticipated in a million years.
But my whole life is geared to enjoying what’s happening, and then moving on. If you come to my house you're not going to see one award on the wall. I really appreciate them and I feel honored and humbled by them, but my view is, "Okay, tomorrow is the next thing.” And really, what’s happening next is the only thing for me.
You’ve embarked on an extensive tour in an uncertain COVID world. What are your greatest concerns?
There is a hard, but simple truth. If audiences like live music, and want musicians to come and perform in Wisconsin, everyone needs to get vaccinated. Period. No person has the right to give me or my friends and family polio or smallpox or this one either. I’m pretty tired of all this stuff. In answer to your question, the biggest challenge we have on this tour is dealing with the 20% of our fellow Americans who are selfish assholes, trying to bring the rest of us down with them in the name of lies and stupid-ass bullshit.
I am generally an optimistic person. One of the best things about being a musician is that Bb is always Bb, no matter what is going on in the world. There is a truth in music that is transcendent in the way that fundamental things often are. And I really look forward to being at the Pabst again. It’s one of my favorite places to play on the planet!
