Pat Metheny facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Pat Metheny |
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Metheny in 2010
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Patrick Bruce Metheny |
| Born | August 12, 1954 Lee's Summit, Missouri, U.S. |
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| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1974–present |
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Pat Metheny (born August 12, 1954) is a famous American jazz guitarist and composer. He is known for his unique guitar playing style.
Pat Metheny led the Pat Metheny Group from 1977 to 2010. He also plays music in many other ways, like in small groups, duets, and by himself. His music mixes different kinds of jazz, including modern jazz, Latin jazz, and jazz fusion. He has won an amazing 20 Grammy Awards and has three gold albums. He is the only person ever to win Grammys in 10 different music categories!
Contents
Pat Metheny's Life and Music
Early Years and Learning Music
Pat Metheny was born in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Music was a big part of his family. His dad played trumpet, his mom sang, and his grandpa was a professional trumpet player. Pat first learned to play the trumpet from his older brother, Mike. They often played music together at home with their dad and grandpa.
Pat's parents loved Glenn Miller and swing music. They took him to concerts, but they did not think much of the guitar. Pat's interest in guitar grew around 1964 when he saw the Beatles on TV. For his 12th birthday, his parents let him buy a guitar.
Pat's musical journey changed when he heard the album Four & More by Miles Davis. Soon after, he loved Wes Montgomery's album Smokin' at the Half Note. He says the Beatles, Miles Davis, and Wes Montgomery had the biggest impact on his music.
When he was 15, Pat won a scholarship from Down Beat magazine to a jazz camp. There, guitarist Attila Zoller taught him. Zoller then invited Pat to New York City to meet other famous musicians.
While playing at a club, Pat was offered a scholarship to the University of Miami. After a short time, he realized he was better at playing guitar than studying. So, the dean offered him a job to teach guitar at the school!
In the early 1970s, Pat moved to Boston to teach at the Berklee College of Music. He worked with jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton and quickly became known as a very talented musician. He played on Gary Burton's albums from 1974 to 1977.
First Albums and Forming a Group
In 1974, Pat played on an album called Jaco. He did not even know he was being recorded! The next year, he joined Gary Burton's band.
Pat Metheny released his first album, Bright Size Life, in 1976. He played with Jaco Pastorius on bass and Bob Moses on drums. His next album, Watercolors (1977), was special because it was his first time playing with pianist Lyle Mays. Lyle Mays would become a very important partner for Pat.
Later that year, Pat and Lyle formed the Pat Metheny Group. Their first album together was called Pat Metheny Group (1978).
The Pat Metheny Group
The Pat Metheny Group started as a quartet. It included Pat Metheny on guitar, Danny Gottlieb on drums, Mark Egan on bass, and Lyle Mays on piano and synthesizer.
Their second album, American Garage (1979), became number 1 on the Billboard jazz chart. It even became popular on pop music charts!
From 1982 to 1985, the group released several albums. These included Offramp (1982), a live album called Travels (1983), and First Circle (1984). They also made a soundtrack album, The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), for a movie. On this album, they worked with David Bowie on the song "This Is Not America". This song was a hit in both the UK and the U.S.
Offramp was the first album with bassist Steve Rodby and Brazilian guest artist Nana Vasconcelos. On First Circle, Argentinian singer Pedro Aznar joined the group, and Paul Wertico became the new drummer.
After First Circle, Pat Metheny left ECM. He had been a very important artist for them.
The group continued to make music. Still Life (Talking) (1987) brought in new members like trumpeter Mark Ledford and vocalist David Blamires. Aznar returned for Letter from Home (1989).
After a few years, the group released a live album called The Road to You (1993). This album had live versions of songs from their studio albums and some new tunes.
Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays called their next three albums a "triptych" (a set of three related works). These were We Live Here (1995), Quartet (1996), and Imaginary Day (1997). These albums explored new sounds, moving away from their Brazilian-inspired music. They experimented with different rhythms and styles.
With Speaking of Now (2002), new musicians joined the group. These included drummer Antonio Sánchez, trumpeter Cuong Vu, and bassist Richard Bona.
On The Way Up (2005), harmonica player Grégoire Maret joined the group. This album is one long 68-minute piece of music, divided into four parts.
Pat Metheny's Solo Music
Pat Metheny has also released many albums by himself. His solo acoustic guitar albums include New Chautauqua (1979), One Quiet Night (2003), and What's It All About (2011).
He explored experimental sounds on Zero Tolerance for Silence (1994), which was a solo electric guitar album.
For the album Orchestrion (2010), Pat Metheny built special mechanical instruments. These allowed him to play and compose music like a one-person orchestra! In contrast, his album Secret Story (1992) uses big orchestral sounds, like those in movie soundtracks. He also made the soundtrack for the movie A Map of the World (1999).
Some of his recent solo albums include From This Place (2020) and Road to the Sun (2021), which features only guitars.
Unity Band
In 2012, Pat Metheny started the Unity Band. It included Antonio Sánchez on drums, Ben Williams on bass, and Chris Potter on saxophone. They released the album Unity Band (2012) and toured around the world. In 2013, they added Italian musician Giulio Carmassi and became the Pat Metheny Unity Group.
Other Music Projects
Pat Metheny has worked on many different projects outside of the Pat Metheny Group. He made an early album with Lyle Mays called As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls (1981). This album also featured Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos.
He also explored experimental jazz with albums like 80/81 (1980) and Song X (1986) with Ornette Coleman.
Pat Metheny has collaborated with many other musicians. In 1998, he recorded a guitar duet album with Jim Hall, who was a big influence on him. He also played with Polish singer Anna Maria Jopek on Upojenie (2002) and Bruce Hornsby on Hot House (2005). He has even played on albums by his older brother, Mike Metheny, who is a jazz trumpeter.
Musical Influences
When Pat Metheny was a young guitarist, he tried to sound like Wes Montgomery. But when he was 14 or 15, he decided it was better to find his own sound. He once said that Wes Montgomery's Smokin' at the Half Note is "the absolute greatest jazz-guitar album ever made."
Ornette Coleman's 1968 album New York Is Now! helped Pat find his own musical path. Pat has played Coleman's songs on many of his albums. He also worked a lot with musicians who played with Coleman, like Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins. He even made an album called Song X (1986) with Coleman himself.
Pat Metheny made three albums with Brazilian singer and percussionist Naná Vasconcelos. He lived in Brazil for a few years and played with many local musicians there. He also performed a tribute to Antônio Carlos Jobim.
He enjoys many pop music artists too, especially singer-songwriters like James Taylor. He even named a song "James" after him. He also likes Bruce Hornsby, Cheap Trick, and Joni Mitchell. He performed with Joni Mitchell on her live tour in 1980. Pat Metheny has also helped many singer-songwriters from around the world make recordings.
Two of Pat Metheny's albums, The Way Up (2005) and Orchestrion (2010), show the influence of American composer Steve Reich. Pat had previously played on Reich's album Different Trains (1987).
Pat Metheny's Guitars
The Pikasso Guitar
Pat Metheny plays a very special guitar called the 42-string Pikasso I. A Canadian guitar maker named Linda Manzer custom-made it for him. He uses it on several of his albums, including Quartet (1996) and Imaginary Day (1997). Linda Manzer has made many acoustic guitars for Pat, including a mini guitar and an acoustic sitar guitar.
Guitar Synthesizer
Pat Metheny was one of the first jazz guitarists to use the Roland GR-300 guitar synthesizer. He said that when you use it, "you have to stop thinking about it as a guitar, because it no longer is a guitar." He plays it as if he were a horn player, and he likes the "high trumpet" sound it makes.
Twelve-String Electric Guitar
Pat Metheny was one of the first to use the twelve-string guitar in jazz. During his 1975 tour with the Gary Burton "Quartet," he mostly played an electric twelve-string guitar. He used a twelve-string guitar on his first album, Bright Size Life (1976), and on later albums like Pat Metheny Group.
Hollow-Body Electric Guitars
When he was 12, Pat Metheny bought a Gibson ES-175 guitar. He played it for many years. After his first tour of Japan in 1978, he started working with Ibanez guitars. Ibanez has since made a line of PM signature model guitars, designed with Pat Metheny.
Pat Metheny's Family Life
Pat Metheny is the younger brother of jazz flugelhornist Mike Metheny. Pat lives in New York City with his wife, Latifa, and their three children. Latifa has even taken photos for some of his album covers.
Awards and Honors
Grammy Awards
Pat Metheny is the only person to have won Grammy Awards in ten different categories! He has won a total of 20 Grammys throughout his career. Some of his wins include:
- Best Jazz Instrumental Album for Unity Band (2013)
- Best New Age Album for What's It All About (2012) and One Quiet Night (2004)
- Best Contemporary Jazz Album for The Way Up (2006) and Speaking of Now (2003) with the Pat Metheny Group
- Best Rock Instrumental Performance for ""The Roots of Coincidence" (1999) with the Pat Metheny Group
- Best Jazz Fusion Performance for many albums with the Pat Metheny Group, including Letter from Home (1990) and First Circle (1985)
Other Awards
Pat Metheny has received many other awards and honors:
- He was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 2013.
- He received the Miles Davis Award in 1995.
- He has been named Guitarist of the Year many times by DownBeat and Guitar Player magazines.
- He received honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music in 1996 and McGill University in 2019.
- He was named an NEA Jazz Masters in 2017.
- He was elected into the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 2018.
Images for kids
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Metheny at KJAZ radio, Alameda, California, December 1980
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Left to right: Steve Rodby and Metheny
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Metheny with the 42-string Pikasso
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Metheny with the guitar synthesizer
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Metheny with his Ibanez PM signature model
See also
In Spanish: Pat Metheny para niños
