PAT METHENY – SIDE-EYE III+

Pat Metheny (guitars), Chris Fishman (keyboards), Joe Dyson (drums), Jermaine Paul (bass)

Pat Metheny is probably the most influential and charismatic Jazz guitarist of recent decades. In a career spanning more than half a century, he has achieved something that very few musicians can say they have truly accomplished: the constant reinvention of the sound of his instrument while remaining true to his identity. His music, luminous and complex, is a seamless back-and-forth between melodic warmth and harmonic exploration, between the freest improvisation and the most detailed composition.

Born in 1954 in Kansas City into a family of musicians, Metheny began playing the trumpet at the age of eight, till he discovered, at the age of twelve, that the guitar was going to be the instrument he would definitively make his own. While still a teenager, he was already playing with the best Jazz musicians in his hometown, absorbing the pulse of the blues and the swing tradition that would come to mark his style forever. At just twenty, he made the leap onto the international scene alongside vibraphonist Gary Burton. Since then, his name has been associated with a new way of understanding what the Jazz guitar is: such smoothness and flexibility in his touch when he performs, with rhythmic and harmonic sensibility ahead of its time. And boundless curiosity.

His debut album, Bright Size Life (1975), was revolutionary. In that album, Metheny redefined the language of modern guitar and opened up a new musical horizon that inspired entire generations. From then on, his career took off in multiple directions: from experimenting with technology and synthesizers, to the composition of works for large orchestras, ballets and small chamber ensembles. Metheny’s versatility knows no bounds. He has collaborated with figures as diverse as Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, Milton Nascimento, David Bowie or the late Lyle Mays, with whom he formed one of the most prolific creative partnerships in the history of modern Jazz. Together they founded the Pat Metheny Group in 1977, a band that pushed the boundaries of the genre with its own unique aesthetic, winning seven consecutive Grammy Awards, something no other artist has achieved.

Throughout his career, Metheny has received more than twenty Grammy Awards in a dozen different categories, reflecting the breadth of his musical universe. Beyond awards though, what truly defines Metheny is his indefatigable search for new forms of expression. He has pioneered the use of the Synclavier and experimental guitars such as the 42-string “Pikasso”. He has conceived automated orchestra projects (Orchestrion). And, in recent years, in albums such as Dream Box (2023), he has continued to explore intimate, poetic ground.

Metheny has combined performing and composing with intense work as teacher throughout his career. At the age of 19, he became the youngest professor in the history of Berklee College of Music. Since then he has taught, as well as conducted workshops all over the world, firmly believing as he does that musical knowledge only makes sense when it is shared.

In his concert at the Kursaal Auditorium, Metheny will present his Side Eye III project. Side Eye is a platform for nurturing and supporting new generations of musicians, a rotating ensemble of artists who perform new works and revisit old music by Pat Metheny. Side Eye III+, the latest chapter in this project, will bring three emerging musicians to us, whose quality has already been clearly shown to the world: Chris Fishman (1997), a pianist, composer and producer from Los Angeles, who has performed with the likes of Flying Lotus, Louis Cole and Mac Demarco; Joe Dyson (1990), a drummer born in New Orleans, who started playing at the age of two and was trained by important musicians in his city; and Jermaine Paul (2001), a young Californian bassist who has already worked with artists such as MC Hammer, Macy Gray, Jaden Smith, Julius Rodriguez, Barbara Morrison and Munyongo Jackson.

At 71, Pat Metheny remains a tireless innovator, a creator who does not repeat formulas. Consistent and coherent, he is living proof that Jazz, in addition to being a musical style, is also a way of understanding the world.