At 15, Pat received a scholarship to attend the summer music camps sponsored by Downbeat magazine. Metheny first took up guitar at age 12 and became entrenched in the study of jazz, particularly Wes Montgomery, at 14. Not bad for a 25-year-old kid from Lee's Summit, Missouri. Pat Metheny is without doubt the hottest ticket in jazz today. More importantly perhaps, those who voted predicted Pat Metheny to be the jazz artist most likely to assert an influence on the music of the Eighties. In a recent poll conducted by Musician, Player & Listener and voted on exclusively by professional musicians and people in the industry, Metheny took top honors in the category of Jazz Guitarist - not of the year, but of the past decade - placing above such giants as John McLaughlin and George Benson. At present it has sold in excess of 200,000 copies. By January, Metheny's first self-produced album, American Garage, released late last fall, had reached Number 1 on Billboard's jazz chart. Last summer, after recording PMG's second joint effort, Metheny and Mays went on tour as part of Joni Mitchell's all-star backup band, which included such jazz luminaries as Mike Brecker and Jaco Pastorius (a Metheny colleague from Pat's first solo LP, Bright Size Life). A highly personal statement, the album nonetheless hit high on the jazz charts and has sold over 120,000 copies to date. The band's combination of jazz chops, rock energy, and pop- and folk-flavored melodies apparently struck a chord, with jazz and non-jazz consumers alike the LP has sold more than 150,000 units thus far.Ī year later, Metheny's smile was simultaneously adorning the covers of Downbeat and Musician, Player & Listener magazines - sort of the artist's equivalent of appearing on the covers of Time and Newsweek in the same month - shortly before the release of Pat's first entirely solo effort, New Chatauqua. ![]() ![]() When The Pat Metheny Group was released in 1978 - featuring Lyle Mays piano, Mark Egan on bass, and Dan Gottlieb on drums - Metheny's cult following began to reach massive proportions. Three years ago, when Pat Metheny formed his own quartet, his name was know mostly to jazz guitarists, through his work with vibraphonist Gary Burton and his two albums under his own name on Manfred Eicher's ECM label. Dan Forte interviews the quartet, and Richard Vandivier analyzes Metheny's unique guitar style, on page 35. ![]() The Pat Metheny Group have taken jazz back to street level with their chart-topping LP, American Garage. Musicians' Industry, Volume 2, Number 2, March 15, 1980, - 41 THE PAT METHENY GROUP - JAZZ’S FOREMOST GARAGE BAND
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