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 themselv ...

, 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 or ...

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 progre ...

; and keyboardist and composer Lyle Mays, 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), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

and producer

Steve Rodby Steve Rodby (born December 9, 1954 in Joliet, Illinois) is an American jazz bassist and producer known for his time with the Pat Metheny Group. Biography Rodby was born in Joliet, Illinois, into a musical family. His father was a music teacher ...

, from 1981 to 2010, and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

Antonio Sanchez Anthony Sanchez, Antonio Sanchez or Tony Sanchez may refer to: Sports * Antón (footballer) (1914–2005), Spanish footballer born ''Antonio Sánchez Valdés'' * Antonio Sánchez (boxer) (1905–?), Spanish boxer * Antonio Sánchez (footballer, b ...

, from 2002 to 2010. Vocalist Pedro Aznar and drummer Paul Wertico 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 ''Bright Size Life'' is the debut album by Pat Metheny, released in 1976 on ECM. The album features Jaco Pastorius on bass and Bob Moses on drums. In 2020, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Li ...

,'' released in 1976, a trio album with bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius and drummer

Bob Moses Robert Moses (1888–1981) was an American city planner. Robert Moses may also refer to: * Bob Moses (activist) (1935–2021), American educator and civil rights activist * Bob Moses, American football player in the 1962 Cotton Bowl Classic * Bob M ...

. 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 t ...

,'' featuring Eberhard Weber on bass, pianist Lyle Mays, and drummer

Danny Gottlieb Daniel Richard Gottlieb (born April 18, 1953) is an American drummer. He was a founding member of the Pat Metheny Group and was co-founder of Elements with Mark Egan. Biography Gottlieb was born in New York City on April 18, 1953. He took lesso ...

. In 1977, bassist

Mark Egan Mark Egan (born January 14, 1951 in Brockton, Massachusetts, United States) is an American jazz bassist and trumpeter known for his membership in the Pat Metheny Group and the Gil Evans Orchestra. He is co-founder of the jazz fusion band, Elem ...

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 ''American Garage'' is the second studio album by the Pat Metheny Group, released in 1979 on ECM Records. The album represented the most collaborative writing session between Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays up to that point in the band's history. Acco ...

'' 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 advertise ...

'' magazine.

1980s

The Pat Metheny Group released the album ''

Offramp In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, using ...

'' in 1982. ''Offramp'' marked the first recorded appearance of bassist

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

/ Lyle Mays album ''

As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls ''As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls'' is a collaborative album by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays, released in 1981. The title makes reference to Wichita, Kansas, and Wichita Falls, Texas. The title track is just under 21 minutes. Throughout th ...

'' 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 pres ...

, 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 The Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance was an award given to a song or album for excellence in the jazz fusion genre, a combination of rock and jazz. It was given at the Grammy Awards, which began in 1958 under the name Gramophone Awar ...

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, Paul Wertico (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, s ...

multi-instrumentalist 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) ''Still Life (Talking)'' is an album by the Pat Metheny Group. It was released in 1987 on Geffen Records. It won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance and was certified gold by the RIAA on July 2, 1992. Track listing Personnel * ...

'' in 1987, was the Group's first release on new label, Geffen Records, 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. Havin ...

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 ''The Road to You'' is the second live album by the Pat Metheny Group that won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Performance. The songs were recorded during concerts in Naples, Bari, Pescara, and Jesi, Italy; and Paris, Marseille, and ...

'' 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: '' We Live Here'' in 1995, ''

Quartet In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...

'' 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 Contemporary Jaz ...

'' 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 A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

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 r ...

, 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 b ...

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 ''Speaking of Now'' is the tenth studio album by the Pat Metheny Group. It was released in 2002 by Warner Bros. In 2003 the group was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. ''Speaking of Now'' marks the first appearances of ...

'', marking another change in direction through the addition of younger musicians. Joining the core players (Metheny, Mays and Rodby), were drummer

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 o ...

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 i ...

-born trumpeter Cuong Vu from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

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; the C ...

. 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 David Alan Samuels (October 9, 1948 – April 22, 2019) was an American vibraphone and marimba player who spent many years with the contemporary jazz group Spyro Gyra. His recordings and live performances during that period also reflect his pr ...

) 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 Ma ...

'', 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, a ...

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 multi-instrumentalist 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 Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

albums are to be rereleased on the label. The Pat Metheny Group played at the

Blue Note Tokyo Blue Note Tokyo is a jazz venue in Aoyama, Tokyo, Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan. It is a branch of Blue Note Jazz Club in New York and located about 400 metres east of the Aoyama Gakuin University. It has been described as Tokyo's best venue for live jazz ...

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

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

– acoustic and electric guitars, guitar synthesizers (1977–2010) *

– bass (1977–1980) *

– drums (1977–1982) *

– 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) * Paul Wertico – 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