Pat Metheny’s concerts in Buenos Aires were the first to be suspended due to the pandemic in March 2020. His Latin American tour began in Argentina An evening with Pat Metheny. Now, time gives him revenge. him and the audience.
“We had flown from Singapore to Argentina, where the tour that followed through Brazil, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Cuba began. We were to be received by the president, Alberto Fernández. They had welcomed us as heroes after a long time without visiting the country. We were watching CNN and we saw how the panic was increasing; Well, long story short, we’re back in the US with the tour suspended, “the musician said.
One of the most influential guitarists on the jazz scene, Pat Metheny – 68 years old with a career of over 50 – will perform on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 at the Gran Rex, with Gwilym Sincock on piano and keyboards, Linda May Ho on double bass and Antonio Sánchez on drums. . They will tour the guitarist’s work and his latest work with this quartet, From this place (2020).
By the way, this year it launched Side Eye New Yorkwith another formation.
Her vitality and talent defy categorization, e his ability to combine rock and pop elements with a shrewd jazz style has produced one of the most interesting proposals within the genre.
Aznar and Metheny
Theirs was a meeting of two authentic talents: the first contact was established by Aznar, in 1980, during the Monterrey International Jazz Festival, in Rio de Janeiro, where he played with Serú Girán. After the concert He brought Metheny a demo with several home recordings. Pat had been delighted with the group’s performance.
Next year, Aznar wins a scholarship to Berklee College Of Music and leaves Serú Girán and travels to Boston study. In 1982 she records her first solo album, driving a locomotive, which he presented in September, in Opere. that same month receives Metheny’s invitation to join his groupreplacing the percussionist Nana Vasconcelos.
Metheny had already decided that Aznar would be part of the band and, after a near audition, the Argentine went on tour to do 40 concerts between the United States and Europe.
It was in two phases of the Pat Metheny Groupbetween 1983 and 1985, and between 1989 and 1992, and participated in First circle, The Hawk and the Snowmanthe beautiful Letter from home Y The way to you.
The Beatles and the arrival of the guitar
But Meteni he hasn’t always been a guitarist. It all started when she was ten, when she first heard the Beatles and exchanged the historic family trumpet for the electric guitar. At home there were three generations of jazz trumpeters: his maternal grandfather, Delmar; his father, Dave, and his brother Mike.
Everything in his familiar world was the trumpet, which was his first instrument and in which all his relatives placed high expectations. Patrick (Pat) has shown an uncommon talent from his earliest years and promised to become a true musical prodigy.
Born in August 1954, in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, he couldn’t resist the quality of the Beatles and the unique energy of their music, and he adopted the guitar to his family’s bewilderment who, at least, breathed calmly when, thanks to two albums (Four and moreof the Miles Davis quintet, e Smoke on the half noteby Wes Montgomery) confirmed that jazz would be his path.
From the age of 10 Metheny studied guitar, but apparently without a firm belief in what his calling was. Only at 12, when his parents gave him a Gibson ES-140, he decided to be a musician and then developed a real passion for the instrument.
“When I look back I recognize my first time as a fan since I was 13-19, where the only thing that interested me was playing. I felt like I had a lot to do, a lot to digest, and I really needed to do it that way. To some extent I think he was trying to make up for the time he didn’t use to study, “the musician said in an interview.
At the age of 15, Metheny won a scholarship from the magazine pessimistic to participate in a jazz camp, led by guitarist Attila Zoller, who invited him to New York to listen to the exquisite guitarist Jim Hall with his trio, in which he played the double bass player Ron Carter. Those experiences were central to his story.
Between the ages of 15 and 17, he traveled the 32 kilometers almost every night separating the Lee Summit from Kansas City, where begins to be an almost permanent presence on stage of clubs.
“When I took the stage in Kansas City I was with musicians older than me, that sometimes they played a melody I didn’t know, in a key where I didn’t feel comfortable and in a difficult time for me, that was a whole message to keep learning. I had to come back the next day, at the same time and do better, “said the musician.
While playing there as a teenager, University of Miami dean Bill Lee offered him a scholarship. After a few weeks of studying, Metheny admitted that she couldn’t keep up with his studies. He explained to Lee that by playing all the time he had neglected his studies of him. The problem was solved when they offered him the electric guitar chairrecently opened.
Soon after, he moved to Boston to teach at Berklee College of Music, where he became the youngest full professorship to this day. I was 18 years old.
For Metheny today there is a more important factor than the simple act of practicing and that is the composition and the melody.
“I hope one day I can concentrate on the guitar again; I love the instrument the same way I felt in my first ten years; I think if I could spend a year or so working on it, with the information and maturity I have, I could make a lot of progress, ”said this musician with true modesty.
Despite his love for the guitar, don’t forget the trumpetan absolute presence in the home of his childhood: “For me it occupies a special place. I think in terms of the trumpet most of the time while I play, both in terms of phrasing and content. It’s been a long time since that time Freddie Hubbarda young trumpet player, he captured my imagination. “
“In any case, Clifford Brown and Miles Davis are my main instrument heroes. I think that the love for the sound of the trumpet manifests itself in that permanent search for my music to have an element of breath “, explained the musician during an interview with the magazine. Jazziz.
away from drugs
One problem Metheny has always stayed away from is drugs. “I started playing professionally when I was young and I got to see the many ways musicians approach their day. My experience has shown me that as the night progresses, and alcohol and drug use increased, music got worse. I think it was the best of the worst examples. “
“I’ve never had much interest in changing my pace. Now I see people who have had intercourse with substances and I feel the real benefits in the way I have lived. I have no moral problem with everyone finding the best way to get to whatever they are looking for. But I prefer to stay away from people who consume alcohol or drugsHe added during his program PM-Radial.
a prolific career
Pat Metheny, who has just been invited to join Downbeat Hall of Famehas one of the most prolific careers in jazz, with more than 50 albums and an almost permanent presence since the 1990s in various clubs, theaters and festivals around the world.
His platinum lyricism, prairie sound and relaxed virtuosity have become popular with compositions such as Dance stage, Saint Lawrence and that long-toned poem called As Wichita falls, so falls Wichita falls.
He recorded with Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Jaco Pastorius, Jim Hall, Joni Mitchell, Gary Barton, John Zorn, Michael Brecker, Dewey Redman, David Bowie and Charlie Haden, among others. He has won three gold albums and 20 Grammy Awards in ten different categories.
Some guitarists, according to Metheny
Wes Montgomery: One of the most inspired and coherent improvisers; he is my favorite guitarist and one of my great personal heroes.
John Scofield: I love his phrasing, his touch, his harmonic sense and his sense of humor. His playing is such a natural and beautiful extension of him as a person.
Derek Bailey: It has a unique and very deep melodic refinement. Its ability to hold a certain type of melodic tension for long periods is absolutely unique. His touch and sound are totally identifiable.
John Abercrombie: A guitarist who excels in everything he does. Besides being a great soloist, he is a great accompanist.
George Benson: The sleeping giant. If George recorded a guitar trio every year, the world would be a better place. To my knowledge he has never done one; we really need it. Plus, he’s one of my favorite singers.
Jimi Hendrix: To me, Jimi looked like Albert Ayler or Dewey Redman or Pharaoh Sanders; he is a true storyteller who could use raw emotion in extended doses. Like Wes, he is a musician who always plays better in hindsight. Everything he touched was true.
Django Reinhardt: Together with Wes, the best pure improviser of all time on instrument and sound. Simply glorious and so personal.
Information: Pat Metheny will perform on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9, at 8:30 pm, at Gran Rex, Corrientes 857. Tickets from $ 3500 via Ticketek.com.ar
Source: Clarin
