You may be surprised when you arrive at the home of great guitarist Pat Metheny. please do not Look at what you’re doing as much as you do.
Metheny has won numerous awards and honors, winning 20 Grammy Awards, three gold albums, and is the only artist to win Grammy Awards in 10 different categories. But if you find it, good luck.
“I’m not very comfortable having awards and pictures and things like that around me,” Metheny said in an email interview. “This is an incredible honor for me, one I would never have expected or expected in a million years.
“But in general, I don’t think much about what surrounds music. My focus is almost entirely on ‘it’, not what surrounds ‘it’.” I’m always focused on what’s going to happen next or what’s happening right now. ”
Currently taking place is his solo Dream Box Tour, which opens March 9 at 8 p.m. at the Davidson Theater at the Riff Center (77 S. High Street, downtown Columbus). .
who was metheny He was named Guitarist of the Year in 1983, 1986-91, and 2007-16. He seems happy that there is an audience that listens to his music.
“I never imagined doing anything.” other “Part of it is because I started young, not so much what I’m doing,” he said. “To me, it all felt like one continuum.
“For me now, it’s pretty much the same as when I first started. I just want to understand music to the best of my ability.”
The Dream Box record, nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, was discovered almost exactly as planned. Metheny has unearthed a treasure trove of tracks he’s created over the years and saved in folders on his computer.
Metheny listened to these songs again during his 160-date world tour in 2022 and decided to give the nine songs another try.
The guitarist said he enjoyed sharing these songs during this solo tour.
“Honestly, this trend is dream box “The tour was a huge growth period for me,” he said. “I decided to do this tour with some trepidation in that I had never done anything like this before, and it turned out to be so much more than I had imagined. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to present it in Columbus.”
Columbus was very kind to jazz guitarists. Metheny keeps a collection of notes detailing each concert he performs, and Capital City consistently receives high praise.
“I’ve played a lot of great gigs in Columbus over the years,” he said. “For some reason, it’s always been a favorite place for me.
“(Keeping detailed notes on the show) is a good way for me to keep track of the details. Nothing explodes, no one gets hurt, and at the end of the night you’re like, ‘Well, I guess it was okay.’ It is a natural tendency to end. Shortly after the show starts, I remind myself of what I need to work on for the next night by replaying it in my head and writing detailed notes about it. ”
When asked what kind of things he writes down, Metheny said: “Most of my notes have nothing to do with anything other than all the reasons you might want to consider using a Locrian Natural 2 with a minor 7b5 chord instead of a straight Locrian…that.”
That may sound like an advanced guitar seminar formula, but there’s a reason for it. Metheny was a professor at the University of Miami at the age of 18 and at Berklee College of Music at the age of 19.
Richard Niles, author of The Pat Metheny Interview, said: TThe inner workings of his creativity revealed,” Bill Lee, head of the University of Miami’s music department, discovered Metheny playing guitar in a club and offered him a scholarship to school in Coral Gables, Florida. After spending a week on campus, Metheny confided to Lee that he had spent most of his teenage years mastering the guitar and was unprepared for the academic rigors of college. So Lee offered to teach the school’s recently introduced electric guitar course. He began teaching at Berkeley the following year.
Some may have felt uneasy because the professors were about the same age as the students and often younger than them. But in the music world, Metheny’s age didn’t seem to faze his students.
“I think this is still true in this area of music in general, age doesn’t matter,” he said. “The only thing I’m concerned about is the play.
“I think I always get more out of teaching than anyone else, by reacting to the way students express themselves in music and discovering things I didn’t even know I knew. I find myself saying that. But I don’t have that opportunity very often anymore.”
Despite all his success at the Grammys, the jazz guitarist rarely made it onto the pop music charts. He has one Top 40 single in America. Her collaboration with David Bowie, “This Is Not America” (from the 1985 film The Falcon and the Snowman), reached number 32 on the US charts and number 14 on the UK charts.
Metheny’s guitar and Bowie’s lyrics create an unforgettable vision of America.a small part of you/a little peace inside me I’ll die (this is no miracle)/This is not America/No flowers will bloom this season/I promise not to stare too much./(This is not America)/Because this is no miracle. ”
Almost 40 years after its release, the song carries a poignant message about America’s divisions.
“Working with Bowie was great. He was one of the most talented people I’ve ever met,” Metheny said. “It’s one of the really great protest songs. It’s resonated more than ever in the last six or seven years.”
Although the song has a very pessimistic vibe, Metheny is uplifted by what he’s seeing in music right now.
“[I’m]very optimistic. Music has a very special place in the scheme of things,” he said. “Culture is doing all sorts of things, and music can participate in or ignore those ups and downs. Good sound, soul, and a personal understanding of what music offers to an individual. With serious research into the view, anything is possible.”
Photo by Jimmy Katz