SONG LIST*
M1 Bright Size Life (Pat Metheny), Bright Size Life, Pat Metheny, Released ECM, LP 1976, (4:55)
M2 Sirabhorn (Pat Metheny), Bright Size Life, Pat Metheny, Released ECM, LP 1976, (5:27)
M3 Unity Village (Pat Metheny), Bright Size Life, Pat Metheny, Released ECM, LP 1976, (3:38)
M4 Unquity Road (Pat Metheny), Bright Size Life, Pat Metheny, Released ECM, LP 1976, (3:36)
M5 So May It Secretly Begin (Pat Metheny), Still Life, Pat Metheny Group, Released Geffen Records, LP 1987, (6:24)
M6 Last Train Home (Pat Metheny), Still Life, Pat Metheny Group, Released Geffen Records, LP 1987, (5:38)
Pat Metheny is an American guitarist and composer. He has worked as a soloist, in duets and small jazz ensembles, and, for decades, with the Pat Metheny Group. His musical styles include Jazz Fusion, Jazz (both progressive and contemporary jazz) …..and also Latin Jazz. He was born in Lee’s Summit, Missouri in 1954. Lee’s Summit is a suburb on the southeast side of Kansas City.
His main influences have been other musicians, his musical family and the British Invasion.
Musicians influencing Metheny include trumpeter Miles Davis, Gary Burton on vibes, jazz guitarists Jim Hall and Wes Montgomery and Jazz Sax players John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. PAUSE
A major foundational influence for Metheny is his musical family. His father played trumpet, his brother Mike Metheny plays jazz trumpet, and Pat’s maternal grandfather was a professional trumpeter. Brother Mike taught Pat how to play the trumpet, and so trumpet is actually Pat Metheny’s first Musicians in the family. Metheny attributes his early success to the local musical environment he was brought up in – the years 1964-1972, in Kansas City. Much of this is described in his biography titled BENEATH MISSOURI SKIES. Seems like Metheny is destined to become a great trumpeter, with all that musical environment…. PAUSE
.. there was a bump in the road at age 10. The BRITISH INVASION was in full force. Metheny saw the Beatles perform on TV in 1964, probably the Ed Sullivan Show, because that year the Beatles appeared. The Beatles are what inspired Metheny to defect from Trumpet to Guitar.
Metheny persuaded his father to buy him a guitar for his 12th birthday. That first guitar was a Gibson ES-140. PAUSE
That’s a hollow-body guitar, built in ¾ scale for young players and small hands. It’s a scale model of the Gibson ES-175 hollow body. Metheny soon got bigger hands and acquired a Gibson ES-175 …and that guitar is featured on his early albums like those in this podcast episode… Metheny started playing in pizza parlors at age fourteen (that’s 1968). At age 15, Metheny won a scholarship from Down Beat Magazine to attend a jazz camp (1969). That camp led to a meeting with Jazz guitarist Jim Hall, and bassist Ron Carter. So, by the time he graduated from high school (1972) he was the first-call guitarist for Kansas City jazz clubs, private clubs, and jazz festivals. Metheny had A LOT of support from his musical environment. Even though he switched from trumpet to guitar.
Metheny briefly attended college at U of Miami in Florida, but quickly realized after practicing on guitar for years all day long… he was unprepared for a college program … He realized then he was first and foremost, a serious guitarist and composer.
Metheny moved to Boston to teach at Berklee College of Music at the age of 19, where he met Jazz Vibraphonist Gary Burton. Teaching Jazz Theory and Performance was in demand.
BIT BUCKET
and for those not familiar, the ES-175 is sought-after by jazz country and rock guitarists - - - these vintage guitars today sell for $3,000 to $25,000. Back in the day, made in Kalamazoo MI. How about that for your first guitar? I am jealous, my first guitar was a Kay (named after John Kay) and it was … a very basic and cheap and crude electric starter guitar. Metheny, on the other hand, got a wonderful instrument, because