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Pat Metheny unlocked some secret on how to achieve a lucrative yet respectful career in contemporary jazz. His peers create either slicked-up smooth stuff and make a killing or labor for years in smoky clubs and record albums that don't sell too well outside the 30-block radius of New York's East Village. But the affable and distinguished Metheny has the best of both worlds. The guitarist can slum it with obscure cult artists or craft intricate modern jazz records with longtime companions such as keyboardist Lyle Mays, drummer Paul Wertico and bassist Steve Rodby as the Pat Metheny Group. On PMG's 12th album, Imaginary Day (Warner Bros.), the band introduces an Oriental sensibility to its distinctive soundscape compositions. Never one to express a matrimonial loyalty to his guitar, Metheny jams on a specially designed fretless classical, a 42-string pikasso guitar, an acoustic sitar guitar and other devices, decorating his songs with rich textures and otherworldly sounds. Before leaving for yet another tour, the 43-year-old guitarist spoke with WW from his New York City apartment. WW: How can the Pat Metheny Group sell hundreds of thousands of albums with each new release when jazz's popularity continues to wane? Pat Metheny: There's a couple of practical reasons: One is that we've toured relentlessly for 20-something years now. We've made the effort ourselves to go out and build up an audience. I feel that there are a lot of jazz groups that would be able to find a bigger audience if they were to do the kind of touring we have done. It just requires an incredible sacrifice in terms of your personal life. I saw you on Letterman a few years back, and you said that you didn't even have a home. Is that still true? About two years ago I finally got an apartment here in New York. I'm slightly more domesticated than I was at that time. But there was an eight-year period that I didn't live anywhere. I just constantly stayed moving, staying at hotels. If there was a little break in the tour I'd get a hotel in the city of my choice and hang out for three weeks until the tour started up again. How do you go about selecting players to round out the Pat Metheny Group? It's hard. It has to be people who have a strong connection to bebop who are willing to not ever play it. That narrows the field. On Imaginary Day, you use all sorts of strange stringed instruments. Is it because you find the guitar too limiting? I don't know about it being too limiting, but I have to admit that I've always been intrigued with expanding the parameters of what a guitar can be. When you think that it can include everything from a classical guitar player sitting on a stage playing completely acoustically to some guy playing in an arena with 17 stacks of Marshalls, and all points in between, it's an amazingly dynamic instrument. Part of my research has been trying to expand what the textural details of that instrument could be used for in improvisational settings. You've collaborated with avant-garde musicians like Ornette Coleman and Derek Bailey and with pop stars like Joni Mitchell and David Bowie. What are some of the pairings that worked really well? The high points have been collaborations with guys who were real heroes for me, like Sonny Rollins or Ornette Coleman. Anytime I get the chance to do anything with Herbie Hancock, it's an incredible thrill for me because he's probably my favorite overall musician in a lot of ways. The Pat Metheny Group developed a sound early on that stuck, and it's still unique. Can you explain how it came about? We try to play the music that we love. It's as simple as that. We try to play music that has a resonance to us and has meaning to us in the context of the lives that we've actually lived. The idea of idiom and style and all that has never had any kind of meaning to us. It's certainly never been a priority to be this, that or the other thing. We've always tried to play music that we've loved. The Pat Metheny Group has earned seven Grammy Awards. How does it feel to win? It's always nice. No argument about that. Any kind of recognition from fans and people who are listening to the music is great. On the other hand, I can't really say that I live and die by that type of thing. For me, the rewards that I've gotten are from playing music with the level of musicians that I've been able to consistently play with over the years. I wouldn't trade any of those moments for any of those awards. Have you ever had any criticism from traditionalists? Oh sure, I've been a controversial figure ever since I started making records because I've played by my own rules. I don't really believe in the idea of jazz as an idiom. That's certainly not a commonly shared belief. To me it's a verb, it's a process, it's a point of view and a way of being more than it's a style of music. To me, it's really important to play things that are of the time that I'm in and to try to explore music in a broad sense. There are people who really want jazz to be an idiom. I resist that. |
