The Pat Metheny Group was an American jazz band founded in 1977. The core members of the group were

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

, composer and

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues o ...

Pat Metheny Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progr ...

; and

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical ins ...

and composer

Lyle Mays Lyle David Mays (November 27, 1953 – February 10, 2020) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and member of the Pat Metheny Group. Metheny and Mays composed and arranged nearly all of the group's music, for which Mays won eleven Grammy Awa ...

, who was in the group at its inception. Other long-standing members included

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low bra ...

and producer Steve Rodby, from 1981 to 2010, and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western bands that play rock, pop, jazz, or R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeeping and embellishing the musical timbre. The drummer' ...

Antonio Sanchez, from 2002 to 2010. Vocalist Pedro Aznar and drummer

Paul Wertico Paul Wertico (born January 5, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American drummer. He gained recognition as a member of the Pat Metheny Group from 1983 until 2001, leaving the group to spend more time with his family and to pursue other musical in ...

were also long-time members. In addition to a core quartet, the group was often joined by a variety of other instrumentalists expanding the size to six or eight musicians.

History

1970s

Founder

first emerged on the jazz scene in the mid-1970s with a pair of solo albums. First was '' Bright Size Life,'' released in 1976, a trio album with bass guitarist

Jaco Pastorius John Francis Anthony "Jaco" Pastorius III (; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987) was an American jazz bassist, composer and producer. He recorded albums as a solo artist and band leader and was a member of Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. ...

and drummer Bob Moses. The next album, released in 1977, was ''

Watercolors Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

,'' featuring Eberhard Weber on bass, pianist

, and drummer Danny Gottlieb. In 1977, bassist Mark Egan joined Metheny, Mays, and Gottlieb to form the Pat Metheny Group. ECM released the album ''Pat Metheny Group'' in 1978 with songs co-written by Metheny and Mays. '' Pat Metheny Group'' marked Mays' first use of the Oberheim synthesizer, which became an integral part of the Group's sound. The group's second album, '' American Garage'' in 1979 reached No. 1 on the jazz chart at ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' magazine.

1980s

The Pat Metheny Group released the album '' Offramp'' in 1982. ''Offramp'' marked the first recorded appearance of bassist Steve Rodby in the group (replacing Mark Egan), and also featured

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian "guest artist" Naná Vasconcelos. Vasconcelos had appeared on the

album '' As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls'' in 1981, and his performance on percussion and wordless vocals marked the first addition of Latin-South American music shadings to the Group's sound. ''Offramp'' was also the group's first recording to win a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

, the first win of many for the group. In 1983, a live album titled '' Travels'' was released. It won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance in 1984. 1984 brought the release of '' First Circle'', a popular album that featured compositions with mixed meters. With this album, the group had a new drummer,

(replacing Danny Gottlieb). Wertico and Steve Rodby having both played with the Simon & Bard Group. A soundtrack album '' The Falcon and the Snowman'' followed in 1985. It featured the song " This Is Not America", a writing and performing collaboration with

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

which reached #14 in the British Top 40 and #32 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1985. The South American influence would continue and intensify on ''First Circle'' with the addition of

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish ( masculine) or ( feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines ...

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where a ...

Pedro Aznar. This period saw the commercial popularity of the band increase, especially thanks to the live recording ''Travels''. ''First Circle'' would also be Metheny's last project with the ECM label; Metheny had been a key artist for ECM but left over conceptual disagreements with label founder Manfred Eicher. The next three Pat Metheny Group releases would be based around a further intensification of the Brazilian rhythms first heard in the early '80s. Additional South American musicians appear as guests, notably Brazilian percussion player Armando Marçal. '' Still Life (Talking)'' in 1987, was the Group's first release on new label,

Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and ...

, and featured several tracks which have long been popular with the group's followers, and which are still in their setlist. In particular, the album's first tune, "Minuano (Six Eight)", represents a good example of the Pat Metheny group compositional style from this period: the track starts with a haunting minor section from Mays, lifts off in a typical Methenian jubilant major melody, leading to a Maysian metric and harmonically-modulated interlude, creating suspense which is finally resolved in the Methenian major theme. Another popular highlight was "Last Train Home", a rhythmically relentless piece evoking the American Midwest. The 1989 release '' Letter from Home'' continued this approach, with the South American influence becoming even more prevalent in its

bossa nova Bossa nova () is a style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a "different beat" that altered the harmonies with the introduction of unconventional chords and an innovativ ...

and

samba Samba (), also known as samba urbano carioca (''urban Carioca samba'') or simply samba carioca (''Carioca samba''), is a Brazilian music genre that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century. Havi ...

rhythms.

1990s

Metheny then again concentrated on other solo and band projects, and four years went by before the release of the next record for the next Pat Metheny Group. This was a live set recorded in Europe entitled '' The Road to You'' in 1993, and it featured tracks from the two Geffen studio albums alongside new tunes. By this stage, the group had integrated new instrumentation and technologies into its sound, including Mays' addition of midi-controlled synthesized sounds to acoustic piano solos, accomplished via a pedal control. Mays and Metheny refer to the following three Pat Metheny Group releases as the

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divide ...

: '' We Live Here'' in 1995, '' Quartet'' in 1996, and ''

Imaginary Day ''Imaginary Day'' is the ninth studio album by the Pat Metheny Group. It was released in 1997 by Warner Bros. Records. The album was strongly inspired by world music from Iran and Indonesia, and won the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Contemporar ...

'' in 1997. Moving away from the Latin style which had dominated the releases of the previous decade, these albums included hip-hop drum loops, free-form improvisation on acoustic instruments, and symphonic signatures, blues and

sonata Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cant ...

schemes. On some tunes from this era, the band also experimented with

thrash metal Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to ...

, and

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

from parts of the world unexplored by the band in the past.

2000s

After another hiatus, the Pat Metheny Group re-emerged in 2002 with the release '' Speaking of Now'', marking another change in direction through the addition of younger musicians. Joining the core players (Metheny, Mays and Rodby), were drummer Antonio Sanchez from

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

-born trumpeter Cuong Vu from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

and bassist, vocalist, guitarist, and percussionist

Richard Bona Richard Bona (born 28 October 1967) is a Cameroon-born American multi-instrumentalist and singer. Early life Bona Penda Nya Yuma Elolo was born in Minta, Cameroon, into a family of musicians, which enabled him to start learning music from a y ...

from

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...

. Following the group's 2002 tour, Bona left to concentrate on his solo career, but appeared as one of two guest artists (the other being mallet cymbalist Dave Samuels) on the group's final release, 2005's ''

The Way Up ''The Way Up'' is the eleventh and final studio album by the Pat Metheny Group. It was released in 2005 and won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album in 2006. It is the last Pat Metheny album to feature long-time collaborator Lyle ...

'', together with a new group member: Swiss-American harmonica player Grégoire Maret. ''The Way Up'' is a large-scale concept record which consists of a single 68 minute-long piece (split into four sections only for CD navigation). Metheny has said that one of the inspirations for the labyrinthine piece was a reaction against a perceived trend for music requiring a short attention span and which lacks nuance and detail. Many of the textures in ''The Way Up'' are created from interlocking guitar lines --

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, ...

is credited on the CD as an inspiration, along with Eberhard Weber, and there are large open sections for solo improvisation and group interplay. On the group's 2005 tour (when its lineup was supplemented by Brazilian

Nando Lauria), ''The Way Up'' was played in its entirety as the first half of the concert. The final performance of the piece was at a free show for more than a hundred thousand people at the close of the 2005 Montreal Jazz Festival. Their final album, ''The Way Up'' was released through Nonesuch Records. It is planned that all of Metheny's Geffen and Warner Bros. Records albums are to be rereleased on the label. The Pat Metheny Group played at the Blue Note Tokyo in January 2009 in its core quartet of Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby and Antonio Sanchez. This quartet version of the group later toured the jazz festivals of Europe in the summer of 2010 as part of the "Songbook Tour". These concerts featured music from all eras of the group but no new material.

Members

Past members

– piano, synthesizers (1977–2010, died 2020) *

– acoustic and electric guitars, guitar synthesizers (1977–2010) * Mark Egan – bass (1977–1980) * Danny Gottlieb – drums (1977–1982) * Steve Rodby – bass guitar, acoustic bass (1981–2010) * Naná Vasconcelos – vocals, percussion (1980–1982, 1986, died 2016) * Pedro Aznar – vocals, percussion, melodica, guitars, saxophone, miscellaneous instruments (1983–1985, 1989–1991, 1992) *

– drums (1983–2001) * Armando Marçal – percussion, vocals (1987–1992, 1995–1996) *David Blamires – vocals, miscellaneous instruments (1986–1988, 1992, 1994–1997) * Mark Ledford – vocals, miscellaneous instruments (1987–1988, 1992, 1994–1998, died 2004) * Luis Conte - percussion (1994-1995) * Nando Lauria – guitar, vocals, percussion and miscellaneous instruments (1988, 2005) *Philip Hamilton – vocals, miscellaneous instruments (1997–1998) *Jeff Haynes – percussion (1997–1998), * Antonio Sánchez, – drums, percussion (2001–2010) *

– percussion, vocals, electric bass, acoustic guitar, miscellaneous instruments (2002–2004) * Cuong Vu – trumpet, vocals, guitar, miscellaneous instruments (2001–2005) * Grégoire Maret – harmonica, vocals, miscellaneous instruments (2003-2005)

Timeline

ImageSize = width:1000 height:450 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:100 top:10 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1977 till:30/12/2010 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4 columnwidth:120 ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1977 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1977 Colors = id:g value:green legend:Guitars id:key value:purple legend:Keyboard id:b value:blue legend:Bass id:dr value:orange legend:Drums id:voc value:red legend:Vocals id:tpt value:gray(0.5) legend:Trumpet id:har value:lightpurple legend:Harmonica id:perc value:claret legend:Percussion id:misc value:black legend:Miscellaneous PlotData = width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,–4) bar:Pat Metheny from:24/06/1977 till:25/07/2010 color:g bar:Lyle Mays from:24/06/1977 till:25/07/2010 color:key bar:Mark Egan from:24/06/1977 till:01/08/1980 color:b bar:Steve Rodby from:01/03/1981 till:25/07/2010 color:b bar:Danny Gottlieb from:24/06/1977 till:01/12/1982 color:dr bar:Paul Wertico from:01/01/1983 till:01/01/2001 color:dr bar:Antonio Sanchez from:01/01/2001 till:25/07/2010 color:dr bar:Antonio Sanchez from:01/01/2001 till:25/07/2010 color:perc width:3 bar:Nana Vasconcelos from:01/03/1980 till:01/12/1982 color:voc bar:Nana Vasconcelos from:01/03/1980 till:01/12/1982 color:perc width:3 bar:Nana Vasconcelos from:01/10/1986 till:01/12/1986 color:perc bar:Pedro Aznar from:01/01/1983 till:01/11/1985 color:voc bar:Pedro Aznar from:01/01/1983 till:01/11/1985 color:perc width:3 bar:Pedro Aznar from:01/01/1983 till:01/11/1985 color:misc width:7 bar:Pedro Aznar from:01/02/1989 till:01/08/1991 color:voc bar:Pedro Aznar from:01/02/1989 till:01/08/1991 color:misc width:3 bar:Pedro Aznar from:01/02/1989 till:01/08/1991 color:g width:7 bar:Pedro Aznar from:02/06/1992 till:01/09/1992 color:voc bar:Pedro Aznar from:02/06/1992 till:01/09/1992 color:misc width:3 bar:David Blamires from:01/10/1986 till:01/03/1988 color:voc bar:David Blamires from:01/10/1986 till:01/03/1988 color:misc width:3 bar:David Blamires from:01/04/1992 till:01/05/1992 color:voc bar:David Blamires from:01/04/1992 till:01/05/1992 color:misc width:3 bar:David Blamires from:01/01/1994 till:01/05/1997 color:voc bar:David Blamires from:01/01/1994 till:01/05/1997 color:misc width:3 bar:Mark Ledford from:01/02/1987 till:01/03/1988 color:voc bar:Mark Ledford from:01/02/1987 till:01/03/1988 color:tpt width:3 bar:Mark Ledford from:01/02/1987 till:01/03/1988 color:misc width:7 bar:Mark Ledford from:01/04/1992 till:01/05/1992 color:voc bar:Mark Ledford from:01/04/1992 till:01/05/1992 color:tpt width:3 bar:Mark Ledford from:01/04/1992 till:01/05/1992 color:misc width:7 bar:Mark Ledford from:01/01/1994 till:01/09/1998 color:voc bar:Mark Ledford from:01/01/1994 till:01/09/1998 color:tpt width:3 bar:Mark Ledford from:01/01/1994 till:01/09/1998 color:misc width:7 bar:Armando Marçal from:01/02/1987 till:01/03/1988 color:perc bar:Armando Marçal from:01/02/1989 till:01/08/1992 color:perc bar:Armando Marçal from:01/04/1995 till:01/06/1996 color:perc bar:Luis Conte from:01/01/1994 till:01/03/1995 color:perc bar:Armando Marçal from:01/02/1987 till:01/03/1988 color:voc width:3 bar:Armando Marçal from:01/02/1989 till:01/08/1992 color:voc width:3 bar:Armando Marçal from:01/04/1995 till:01/06/1996 color:voc width:3 bar:Luis Conte from:01/01/1994 till:01/03/1995 color:perc bar:Nando Lauria from:01/11/1988 till:01/12/1988 color:voc bar:Nando Lauria from:01/11/1988 till:01/12/1988 color:misc width:3 bar:Nando Lauria from:01/01/2005 till:01/08/2005 color:g bar:Nando Lauria from:01/01/2005 till:01/08/2005 color:voc width:3 bar:Philip Hamilton from:01/10/1997 till:01/09/1998 color:voc bar:Philip Hamilton from:01/10/1997 till:01/09/1998 color:misc width:3 bar:Jeff Haynes from:01/10/1997 till:01/09/1998 color:perc bar:Richard Bona from:01/01/2001 till:01/01/2005 color:voc width:3 bar:Richard Bona from:01/01/2001 till:01/01/2005 color:b width:5 bar:Richard Bona from:01/01/2001 till:01/01/2005 color:misc width:7 bar:Richard Bona from:01/01/2001 till:01/01/2005 color:perc bar:Cuong Vu from:01/01/2001 till:01/08/2005 color:tpt bar:Cuong Vu from:01/01/2001 till:01/08/2005 color:voc width:3 bar:Cuong Vu from:01/01/2001 till:01/08/2005 color:g width:5 bar:Cuong Vu from:01/01/2001 till:01/08/2005 color:misc width:7 bar:Grégoire Maret from:01/01/2003 till:01/08/2005 color:har bar:Grégoire Maret from:01/01/2003 till:01/08/2005 color:misc width:7 bar:Grégoire Maret from:01/01/2003 till:01/08/2005 color:voc width:3 * This timeline reflects active members of the band, at either times they recorded or times they toured with the band. Members may have left the band by the time albums they performed on were released. Minor contributors to albums who did not tour with the band are not included.Recording dates listed in album liner notes were consulted.

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Soundtracks

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Pat Metheny home pagePat Metheny SongbooksBookingBand member biographies
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Metheny Group, Pat American jazz ensembles from Missouri Jazz fusion ensembles Grammy Award winners ECM Records artists Geffen Records artists Warner Records artists Nonesuch Records artists Musical groups established in 1977