Jazz Articles about Pat Metheny

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 ...

When Pat Metheny Sits Down...

by Gregory J. Robb
October 21, 2003

When Pat Metheny sits before the audience at New York's Beacon Theatre, on November 14, he will start the concert by playing an instrument that the native of Lee's Summit, MO left alone until 2001: the baritone guitar.Pat Metheny changed gears again with his 2003 release of One Quiet Night (Warner Jazz). The album features rewritten old material, new songs and improvisations. It is a distinctly different record. One Quiet Night contains no overdubs, no arrangements, no orchestrations--nothing ...

Pat Metheny: One Quiet Night

by AAJ Staff
October 15, 2003

Are you seated? For the first time in recent memory, Pat Metheny's new album is not an epic journey through musical style. One Quiet Night gives us a rare insight into the simple explorations of the baritone guitar by one of jazz music's masters. Metheny may not do something this emotionally simplistic again for some time.

Pat Metheny characteristically wanted another change. After the debut of his new group line up for last year's Speaking of Now, Metheny ...