His first Australian tour since 1985, Pat Metheny will be delivering multi-instrumental jazz performances with his ambitious group, the Pat Metheny Unity Band.
Lead by the progressive jazz legend himself, the Pat Metheny Unity Band features long-time collaborative drummer Antonio Sanchez, legendary saxophone player Chris Potter, bassist Ben Williams and multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi as the most recent addition.
Releasing his first album in 1975, Metheny's prolific 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.
Standing at the forefront of contemporary jazz for almost 40 years, Metheny has continued to redefine the genre by utilizing new technology and constantly working to evolve the improvisational and sonic potential of guitar.
It's your first tour in Australia for almost 30 years. What was your experience like last time?
It was great. I did have the chance to play at a couple of festivals in Adelaide and Perth a few years back, but yes, this is the first time in a while. I am really happy to get the chance to play here again.
What can the Australian audience expect from a Pat Metheny show in 2014?
This band is really special, easily one of the best bands I have ever had. We have been playing together for a few years now, and this year already we have played almost 140 cities around the world. We can play just about anything from throughout my catalog, but we are mostly focusing on the music of the last two Unity projects. But there are surprises mixed in as well.
What do you enjoy about playing with the Unity Band as opposed to solo shows?
In many ways, my main occupation over all these years, even before being “a guitar player” has been that of bandleader. Coming up with a concept for a band or a project, finding and hiring the right people and then writing music for it and finally getting it to become a viable live performing unit have been the consistent elements of my focus over all these years regardless of whatever context the music winds up in. Because I have also been the primary composer of the music that my various bands have played, I have always had specific needs to fill to get that particular set of music to sound the best that it can. In a lot of ways, I see the whole thing from 'Bright Size Life' until now as one long trip, one long record, one long composition with a varying cast of characters that come and go to create a kind of exposition on the evolution of the basic premise that I laid out a long time ago on that first record.
That said, I love being around musicians who can really contribute. To me being a bandleader is kind of like being a curator - you are making a certain set of demands of the musicians around you that are based on your own sense of what it is that they do best. Among the many things about the Unity Band experience that made it such a life changing thing for me was the fact that everyone could really be themselves and each person is able to contribute in a way that lines up exactly with what the music that I gave them asked for without a whole lot of adjustment in any way. Also, it is just a great group of people. There is very little drama or insecurity, just music - which at this point in life is really important to me.
You are all virtuosic musicians, which can sometimes be counterproductive for a band. What ties it all together and what do you have in common?
One of the main jobs that I have when I put together a certain group of musicians is to be something like a curator of the available things that we can do together. With musicians at this level, everyone is not only capable of getting direction and making their own statements within the range of things that fit those directions, but they actually thrive on it. Me too, this setting is very specific from tune to tune as to what is really deep to the spirit of the piece and I have to find a way to work within that as well.
You have won countless awards throughout your career. Is this kind of recognition still important to you?
When there is some kind of special recognition along the way, I really try to appreciate it, and I do. There are certain honors like that one that are unbelievable to me, that I never would have anticipated or expected in a million years.
At the same time, because I do live my life playing so much, I could say it like this; on a Tuesday, I played a gig and I played some stuff the best I've ever played it. I finally got to the point on that solo on that fourth tune that I'd been hoping I'd get to all tour long. I finally did it. Then the next night is Wednesday, and it doesn't matter what I played on Tuesday. The people that are coming for the Wednesday gig don't care what I played on Tuesday because they weren’t there and tonight it is Wednesday and I've got to play that fourth tune again and I hope I don't mess it up.
My whole life is geared to enjoying stuff while it's happening and then moving on. If you come to my house you're not going to see one award or anything on the wall. I really appreciate it. I feel honoured and humbled by it all, but my thing is, "Okay, tomorrow is the next thing," and really, that's the only thing for me - what’s happening next.
From all of your collaborations with a diverse range of musicians, who has surprised you the most?
If you see that list of musicians that I have worked with, that is also a list of my favourite players. I have been so lucky to work with so many of the best players on the planet, from all different generations. It is impossible for me to single any one out.
Have you drawn a lot of criticism from purists over the years because of your use of musical technology?
Pretty much anyone who is a “purist” about anything having to do with music would be not anyone I would really pay any attention to. To me, music is all about creativity and a kind of open exploration.
Your freedom within genres is another potential cause for debate. Do you feel that it is important or necessary to put a label on the music you make?
I really just try to honestly represent in sound the things I love about music. I am not a huge fan of the whole idea of “genre” or styles of music kind of to start with. To me, music is one big universal thing. The musicians who I have admired the most are the ones who have a deep reservoir of knowledge and insight not just about music, but about life in general and are able to illuminate the things that they love in sound. When it is a musician who can do that on the spot, as an improviser, that is usually my favourite kind of player. I feel like I am a musician in this broad sense first. And all the subsets of the way music often gets talked about in terms of the words people use to describe music is basically just a cultural/political discussion that I have found that I am really not that interested in in the same way I am interested in the spirit and sound of music itself.
As far as sound goes, I always try to let the music at hand decide what direction I go in in terms of orchestration. I am pretty happy to play in a really dense way, or a really sparse way, or really loud or really soft or all over the dynamic range, really inside the chords or outside the chords, it kind of doesn’t matter too much for me - it is whatever seems to sound best for what is happening at that particular moment.
When you hear the music your kids listen to, can you recognise any influence percolating from the artists who inspired you as a kid?
I really encourage them to just love what they love - they can sort the influence part of it out later as they grow as listeners. I think each generation has a similar trajectory in that they branch out from what first strikes them into other related areas as they get exposed to other things.
Have you been lucky enough to personally get to know any of your musical heroes? And is it true what they say- that you should never meet your heroes?
Pretty much everyone I have ever played with is a hero to me. Great musicians are for the most part the most interesting people I have met, so I feel very lucky to have had the chance to be around great players at every stage since I was a really young kid.
Pat Methney Australian Tour
Mon 20th Oct – QPAC (Brisbane)Wed 22nd Oct – Hamer Hall (Melbourne)
Thurs 23rd Oct – Canberra Theatre
Fri 24th Oct – Sydney Opera House
