Pat Metheny & Charlie Haden
Biographies, Grammies and discographies, Concert at the Kaufleuten, Zurich, June 21, 2000.
Article added in July 2000
 

Photograph: Pat Metheny.
 
Biography of Pat Metheny
 
Pat Metheny was born in 1954 near Kansas City, Missouri. At the age of eight, he first played the trumpet like his older brother Mike (who is also a professional musician). In 1967, Pat switched to the guitar. As a teenager, he studied at and already worked for the University of Miami and the Boston's Berklee College of Music. At the age of nineteen, Pat joined Gary Burton's band. He worked with them from 1974 to 1977. He played on the albums of the vibraphonist. In 1976, Metheny recorded his first album, Bright Size (1976), in a trio together with Jaco Pastorious and Bob Moses. Since then, Pat has been considered one of the most innovative jazz musicians and composers who is not afraid of embracing other genres. With his lyric guitar play, he has won over a dozen of Grammies, even one in the rock music category (at right: list of the albums).
 
In magazines such as Downbeat and Jazziz he is regularly nominated as one of the best artists and composers (Best Electric Guitar, Best Jazz Fusion Group, etc.). Besides his world famous Pat Metheny Group with Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby and Paul Wertico, he also recorded and/or toured with Jack DeJohnette, Michael Brecker, Sonny Rollins, Abbey Lincoln, Gary Burton, Chick Corea and many more.
 
(P.S. Like Cosmopolis, Pat Metheny considers Brad Mehldau one of the great artists of our time. Metheny says that Mehldau has probably written and played the most important improvised piano music of the last twenty years). Sheet music by Pat Metheny.

Biography of Charlie Haden
 
Charlie Haden was born in Shenandoah, Iowa, in 1937. From the age of two to fifteen, he sang on the radio and later on television almost every day with his family's country and western group. As a teenager, he learned to play the bass. After graduating from high school, Haden moved to Los Angeles where he worked with Art Pepper, Dexter Gordon and others. In 1957, Haden met Ornette Coleman and became the bass player in his new and revolutionary quartet (together with Don Cherry and Billy Higgins). They introduced unseen harmonic and rhythmic liberties into jazz.
 
Joachim Berendt wrote in The Jazz Book that Haden "revolutionized the harmonic concept of bass playing in jazz. He was the first bassist who consistently avoided playing changes or following pre-established harmonic schemes, but instead created a solid harmonic foundation out of the passage of independent melodies. In technical terms, Haden isn't a virtuoso. His virtuosity lies on a higher level - in an incredible ability to make the double bass 'sound out.' Haden cultivates the instrument's gravity as no one else in jazz; with an unfathomably dark resonance and an earthiness of timbre, endowing even apparently 'simple' lines with an affecting quality. He is a master of simplicity [...]."
 
Besides Coleman, Haden also recorded with John Coltrane, Archie Shepp and Pee Wee Russell. In 1966, he began touring with Keith Jarrett and, in 1969, together with composer and arranger Carla Bley, he formed the Liberation Music Orchestra (which included eleven musicians).
 
In 1976, Charlie Haden, Don Cherry, Dewey Redman and Ed Blackwell formed the Old And New Dreams-group. Ten years later, Haden recorded together with Jack DeJohnette, Ornette Coleman and Pat Metheny Song X, which won the Down Beat Readers' and Critics' Polls. In 1987, Haden was part of Michael Brecker's album which also won the two Down Beat Polls. The same year, Charlie went on tour with the reunited original Ornette Coleman Quartet. Together, they recorded the album All Languages. Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra completed its trilogy of recordings with the 1991 release of Dream Keeper which won both the Down Beat Critics' and Readers' polls as "Album of the Year" as well as earning a Grammy nomination.
 
Haden's first experience as a small group's leader came in 1987 with the Quartet West (Ernie Watts, Allan Broadbent, Larance Marable). Their third album, released in 1992, was included in Time Magazine's list of the Top Ten Albums of 1992 and was nominated for a Grammy as Best Small Group Jazz Recording of the year. The group's fourth album, Always Say Goodbye (1994) was nominated for two Grammies and selected in the Down Beat Critics Poll as the Album of the Year. Quartet West was named "Acoustic Jazz Group of the Year" in the 1994 Down Beat Readers Poll and in the 1995 Down Beat Critics Poll.
 
Charlie Haden is not only a composer, bandleader and bass player, but, in 1982, he also founded the jazz studies program at California Institute of the Arts.

Concert review - Kaufleuten, Zurich, June 21, 2000
 
The fundament of the concert at the Kaufleuten Zurich was the album Beyond The Missouri Sky (a CD I have never listened to). Recorded by the duo Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny in 1997, it was awarded a Grammy the same year for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance (get it from Amazon.com).
 
Metheny began the evening with an almost mind-expanding solo on his guitar, after which he was joined by bassist Charlie Haden. Unfortunately, until the end of the concert, it remained unclear why Metheny did not play solo all the way, since Haden's performance not only paled in comparison, he simply did not fit into the lyric and emotional soul and folk sound created by Metheny. With his bass, Haden even destroyed from time to time the magic atmosphere created by Metheny which was often similar to the warmth of George Benson's play. By the way, the concert had nothing to do with Metheny's new album Trio 99-00. Jazz-purists may have been disappointed. The vast majority of listeners at the Kaufleuten enjoyed the intimate evening and remained completely silent in order not to interfere with the subtle magic. Haden let shine through his origins in a Midwestern-country family, Metheny enchanted the public with his soulful sound, even adding a touch of bossa nova in a few tunes.
 
Metheny and Haden played Tournaround by Ornette Coleman and Lonely Woman by Horace Silver in versions which fitted perfectly into the evenings concept. Wisely, the duo did not interrupt the concert with a break but played through and therefore managed to maintain the atmosphere. Only one question remains: When will Pat Metheny offer us these quiet, introspective and magic tunes on a solo album?
 

Added on May 30, 2003: For the album Speaking of Now (Warner, 2003), Pat Metheny was awarded his seventh Grammy so far. Get it from Amazon.de, Amazon.com , Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon Canada.

Sheet music of jazz classics - Jazz trumpet sheet music - Piano jazz sheet music.

New, added in February 2008: Pat Metheny Trio: Day Trip, Nonesuch, 2008. Order the CD from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr or Amazon.de.


Added on May 30, 2003: Pat Metheny: One Quiet Night. Warner, May 2003. Get the CD from Amazon Canada, Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk.

Grammies won by Pat Metheny:


Gary Burton, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes & Dave Holland. Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, 1999, Like Minds. Order the CD from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com or bestellen bei Amazon.de

Pat Metheny Group (Lyle Mays, Pat Metheny, Steve Rodby, Paul Wertico), Best Contemporary Jazz Performance, 1998, Imaginary Day. Order the CD from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com or bestellen bei Amazon.de

Pat Metheny Group (Lyle Mays, Pat Metheny, (Steve Rodby, Paul Wertico). Rock, 1998, The Roots Of Coincidence.


Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny. Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, 1997, Beyond The Missouri Sky. Order the CD from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com or bestellen bei Amazon.de

Pat Metheny Group (David Blamires, Luis Conte, Mark Ledford, Lyle Mays, Pat Metheny, Steve Rodby, Paul Wertico). Best Contemporary Jazz Performance, 1995, We Live Here. Order the CD from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com


Pat Metheny Group (Pedro Aznar, Armando Marsal, Lyle Mays, Pat Metheny, Steve Rodby, Paul Wertico). Best Contemporary Jazz Performance (Instrumental), 1993, The Road To You. Order the CD from Amazon.co.uk


Pat Metheny. Best Contemporary Jazz Performance (Instrumental), 1992, Secret Story. Order the CD from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com or bestellen bei Amazon.de

Pat Metheny. Best Instrumental Composition, 1990, Change Of Heart performed by Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Roy Haynes.

 
Pat Methany Group (Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby, Pedro Aznar, Paul Wertico, Armando Marcal). Best Jazz Fusion Performance 1989, Letter From Home. Order the CD from Amazon.com or bestellen bei Amazon.de

Pat Metheny Group (Pat Mentheny, Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby, Pedro Aznar, Paul Wertico). Best Jazz Fusion Performance, 1987, Still Life (Talking). Order the CD from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Pat Metheny Group (Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby, Pedro Aznar, Paul Wertico). Best Jazz Fusion Performance, 1984, The First Circle. Order the CD from Amazon.co.uk or bestellen bei Amazon.de


Pat Metheny (Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Mark Egan, Dan Gottlieb). Best Jazz Fusion Performance, 1983, Travels. Order the CD from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com or bestellen bei Amazon.de


Pat Metheny. Best Jazz Fusion Performance, 1982, Offramp, with the Pat Metheny Group. Order the CD from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com or bestellen bei Amazon.de.

Newer CDs by John Metheny


Pat Metheny Trio. Trio 99-00, 2000. Get it from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com. Check our review article.


Jim Hall, Pat Metheny: Jim Hall & Pat Metheny, 1999 (studio- and live-recordings). Get it from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Amazon.de.


Soundtrack for the film A Map Of The World 1999  with Sigourney Weaver (film based on the book by Jane Hamilton). Pat Metheny with orchestra and soloists. Get it from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Amazon.de. - Sheet music by Pat Metheny.