Pat Metheny performs at The Bushnell
Pat Metheny, winner of 15 Grammy Awards, comes to The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts' Mortensen Hall on Wednesday, November 5, 2003 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Accenture Jazz Series. The concert is part of the Pat Metheney Solo and Trio Tour, also featuring Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez. Tickets are available now at The Bushnell Box Office, located at 166 Capitol Avenue in Hartford, or by calling (860) 987-5900. Tickets are also available online at www.bushnell.org.
The Pat Metheny Group has become one of the most active and popular touring acts of any kind in any genre, relentlessly playing and selling out concerts in more than 40 countries around the world. The Pat Metheny Trio is a slight variation on this grouping, featuring jazz guitar great Pat Metheny, acclaimed electric and acoustic bassist Christian McBride and Pat Metheny Group drummer Antonio Sanchez. During the Pat Metheny Solo and Trio Tour, Metheny will take stage first with a solo baritone guitar to perform introspective compositions from his critically acclaimed One Quiet Night CD. McBride and Sanchez will then join him onstage, bringing forth their muscular brand of jazz.
About Pat Metheny Pat Metheny was born in Kansas City on August 12, 1954 into a musical family. Starting on trumpet at the age of 8, Metheny switched to guitar at age 12. By the age of 15, he was working regularly with the best jazz musicians in Kansas City, receiving valuable on-the-bandstand experience at an unusually young age. Metheny first burst onto the international jazz scene in 1974. Over the course of his three-year stint with vibraphone great Gary Burton, the young Missouri native already displayed his soon-to-become trademarked playing style, which blended the loose and flexible articulation customarily reserved for horn players with an advanced rhythmic and harmonic sensibility-a way of playing and improvising that was modern in conception but grounded deeply in the jazz tradition of melody, swing, and the blues. With the release of his first album, Bright Size Life, in 1975, he reinvented the traditional "jazz guitar" sound for a new generation of players. Throughout his career, Metheny has continued to redefine the genre by utilizing new technology and constantly working to evolve the improvisational and sonic potential of his instrument.
Metheny's versatility is almost nearly without peer on any instrument. Over the years, he has performed with artists as diverse as Steve Reich to Ornette Coleman to Herbie Hancock to Jim Hall to Milton Nascimento to David Bowie. He has been part of a writing team with keyboardist Lyle Mays for more than 20 years-an association that has been compared to the Lennon-McCartney and Ellington-Strayhorn partnerships by critics and listeners alike. Metheny's body of work includes compositions for solo guitar, small ensembles, electric and acoustic instruments, large orchestras, and ballet pieces, with settings ranging from modern jazz to rock to classical.
As well as being an accomplished musician, Metheny has also participated in the academic arena as a music educator. At 18, he was the youngest teacher ever at the University of Miami. At 19, he became the youngest teacher ever at the Berklee College of Music, where he also received an honorary doctorate more than twenty years later, in 1996. He has also taught music workshops all over the world, from the Dutch Royal Conservatory to the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz to clinics in Asia and South America. He has also been a true musical pioneer in the realm of electronic music, and was one of the very first jazz musicians to treat the synthesizer as a serious musical instrument. Years before the invention of MIDI technology, Metheny was using the Synclavier as a composing tool. He has also been instrumental in the development of several new kinds of guitars such as the soprano acoustic guitar, the 42-string Pikasso guitar, Ibanez1s PM-100 jazz guitar, and a variety of other custom instruments.
It is one thing to attain popularity as a musician, but it is another to receive the kind of acclaim Metheny has garnered from critics and peers. Over the years, Metheny has won countless polls as "Best Jazz Guitarist" and awards, including three gold records for (Still Life) Talking, Letter from Home, and Secret Story. His 15 Grammy Awards are spread out over a variety of different categories, including Best Rock Instrumental, Best Contemporary Jazz Recording, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, and Best Instrumental Composition. The Pat Metheny Group won an unprecedented seven consecutive Grammies for seven consecutive albums. Metheny has spent most of his life on tour, averaging between 120-240 shows a year since 1974.
Ticket and Performance Information Pat Metheny will perform with Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez as part of the Accenture Jazz Series on Wednesday, November 5, 2003 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available by calling (860) 987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. Tickets are also available at The Bushnell Box Office, located at 166 Capitol Avenue in Hartford. Ticket prices are $28.00-$42.00. Groups of 10 or more should call (860) 987-5959. The Box Office TTY number is (860) 987-6097.