Pat Metheny Biography
12 August 1954, Lee's Summit, Missouri, USA. Although classed as a jazz guitarist, Metheny has bridged the gap between jazz and rock music in the same way that Miles Davis did in the late 60s and early 70s. Additionally, he played a major part in the growth of jazz's popularity among the younger generation of the 80s. Throughout his career, his extraordinary sense of melody has prevented his work from becoming rambling or self-indulgent.
Metheny's first musical instrument was a French horn, and surprisingly he did not begin with the guitar until he was a teenager. His outstanding virtuosity soon had him teaching the instrument at the University Of Miami and the Berklee College Of Music in Boston. He joined Gary Burton in 1974, and throughout his three-album stay, he contributed some fluid Wes Montgomery-influenced guitar patterns. Manfred Eicher of ECM Records saw the potential and initiated a partnership that lasted for 10 superlative albums. He became, along with Keith Jarrett, ECM's biggest-selling artist, and his albums regularly topped the jazz record charts. Metheny has also been one of the few jazz artists to make regular appearances in the pop album charts, such is the accessibility of his music. Metheny's early albums, 1976's Bright Size Life (featuring Jaco Pastorius), and 1977's solo Watercolors showed a man who was still feeling his way. His own individual style matured with Pat Metheny Group in 1978. Together with his musical partner (and arguably, his right arm), the brilliant keyboard player Lyle Mays, whose quiet presence at the side of the stage provided the backbone for much of Metheny's work, he initiated a rock band format that produced album after album of melodious jazz rock. Following a major tour with Joni Mitchell and Pastorius (Shadows And Light), Metheny released 1979's solo set New Chautauqua, on which he demonstrated an amazing dexterity on the 12-string guitar. The album made the US Top 50. He returned to the electric band format for 1980's American Garage, which contained the country-influenced "(Cross The) Heartland". The double set 80/81 featured Michael Brecker, Jack DeJohnette, Charlie Haden and Dewey Redman, and was more of a typical jazz album, featuring in particular the moderately avant garde "Two Folk Songs'. Nevertheless, the record still climbed the popular charts. During this time, Metheny constantly won jazz and guitarist polls. Mays" keyboards featured prominently in the band structure, and he received co-authorship credit for the 1981 suite As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls. Metheny had by now become fascinated by the musical possibilities of the guitar synthesizer or synclavier. He used this to startling effect on 1982's Offramp, notably on the wonderfully contagious and sexual "Are You Going With Me?". The double set Travels (1983) showed a band at the peak of its powers, playing some familiar titles with a new freshness. The short piece "Travels" stands as one of Metheny's finest compositions; the low-level recording offers such subtle emotion that it becomes joyously funereal. Rejoicing (1983) was a trio jazz album with Haden and drummer Billy Higgins that featured sensitive interpretations of music by Horace Silver and Ornette Coleman. First Circle (1984) maintained the standard and showed a greater leaning towards Latin-based music, though still retaining Metheny's brilliant ear for melody (the album won a Grammy Award in the Best Jazz Fusion Performance category). In 1985, Metheny composed the score for the movie The Falcon And The Snowman, which led to him recording "This Is Not America" with David Bowie. The resulting UK Top 20/US Top 40 hit brought Metheny many new young admirers. The concert halls found audiences bedecked in striped rugby shirts, in the style of their new hero. Ironically, at the same time, following a break with ECM, Metheny turned his back on possible rock stardom and produced his most perplexing work, Song X (1986), with free-jazz exponent Ornette Coleman. Reactions were mixed in reviews of this difficult album - ultimately the general consensus was that it was brilliantly unlistenable. Metheny returned to more familiar ground with Still Life (Talking) (1987) and Letter From Home, (1989) although both experimented further with Latin melody and rhythm. He enjoyed a particularly creative and productive time from 1989-90. Reunion was a superb meeting with his former boss Gary Burton. A few months later he recorded Question And Answer with Dave Holland and Roy Haynes. Additionally he was heavily featured, along with Herbie Hancock, on the excellent DeJohnette album, Parallel Realities. Metheny continued into the 90s with Secret Story (1992), an album of breathtaking beauty featuring gems such as "Above The Treetops" and the poignant "The Truth Will Always Be". Although the album may have made jazz purists cringe, it was a realization of all Metheny's musical influences. His second live album, The Road To You (1993), did not have the emotion of Travels. It was something to keep the fans quiet before he unleashed I Can See Your House From Here, an exciting recording with John Scofield, the guitarist who most regularly shared the honours with Metheny at the top of the jazz polls. The solo follow-up, Zero Tolerance For Silence (1994) could only be described as astonishing. For many the wall-of-sound guitar was a self-indulgent mess, and after repeated plays the music did not get any easier, but it needed to be appreciated what a bold move this thrash metal outing was. Metheny also found himself reviewed in the Heavy Metal press for the first (and last) time. The Pat Metheny Group outing We Live Here (1995) was a return to more traditional ground, and restored Metheny to his familiar position at the top of the jazz charts. It won a Grammy Award in 1996 for the Best Contemporary Jazz Album. In the late 90s, Metheny recorded acclaimed duet albums with Charlie Haden and Jim Hall. His 1999 offering A Map Of The World was a set piece of evocative beauty. The album, a series of 28 pieces inspired by the motion picture A Map Of The World, was misunderstood as being merely a movie soundtrack. It ranks as one of his finest works; delicate in parts, emotional in places, especially where the music is enriched by a full orchestra. On this album Metheny's dexterity as a guitarist takes second place to his brilliance as a composer. The subsequent trio album Trio->99 with Larry Grenadier (bass) and Bill Stewart (drums) was of an equally high standard. The attendant Trio->Live compiled the results of Metheny's first live trio work since the early 90s. The solo acoustic album One Quiet Night (2003) featured, in addition to some beautiful new material, cover versions of "Ferry Cross The Mersey" (Gerry And The Pacemakers), "My Song" (Keith Jarrett), and "Don't Know Why' (Norah Jones). Metheny then returned to the group format for 2005"s The Way Up. In 2006 he recorded with pianist Brad Mehldau and toured with him the following year. Metheny is able to comfortably move between pure jazz and the pop jazz that made his name. He is one of the very few artists who can do this with such success and modesty.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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