Words matter. These are the best Pat Metheny Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I was deep in the zone of practicing almost constantly.
When talking about writing, I often use the analogy of archaeology. There are these great tunes all around. Your skill as a musician allows you to pick them out without breaking them.
The pianist Cecil Taylor is extremely melodic; the guitarist Derek Bailey is extremely melodic, and Ornette Coleman.
I’m always trying to find ‘connections’ between things. That art is the juxtaposition of a lot of things that seem unrelated but add up to something recognizable.
There are some musicians who are talented and see themselves as some kind of natural geniuses or something because of a certain amount of natural ability. But that is often rarely the case over the long term.
I’m triggering acoustic instruments. I’m literally beating, smacking, hitting, blowing, doing physical things. It’s an incredibly exciting way to make music.
Somehow, trumpet is the reference point for me – it was actually my first instrument.
People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds.
I love playing and working on music. It is something that I feel really lucky to be able to spend my life doing. And I don’t sleep much!
I think jazz is actually quite unforgiving in its disdain for nostalgia. It demands creativity and change at its highest level.
I don’t know if I would qualify as mainstream. I think I have managed to function pretty successfully on the fringes of the music world and have been able to play exactly what I have wanted the way I have wanted.
Listening is the key to everything good in music.
My older brother Mike is an excellent trumpet player. By the time he was 12, he was playing around Kansas City in classical situations. He was already an amazing talent.
I hate the way chorus boxes sound.
What I look for in musicians is a sense of infinity.
If you come to my house, you won’t see a wall of trophies or things like that. I’m sort of ‘on to the next thing’ all the time.
Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.
If we are going to list guitar influences, the biggest one by far is Wes Montgomery. Also, Gary Burton was obviously huge for me in a number of ways. But beyond that, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard.
I think I represent a more left-wing view of what jazz is.
I have three young kids and a great family. I love hanging out with them more than anything.
I didn’t want there to be a computer on stage. When I see people with computers on stage, I think, ‘Are you sending e-mail?’ That’s so corny.
I was able to work with the best musicians in Kansas City starting when I was really young.
I saw A Hard Day’s Night 12 or 13 times.
I think I have a basic sound aesthetic that is in most of what I do.
The beauty of jazz is that it’s malleable. People are addressing it to suit their own personalities.
I used to love going and playing jam sessions, doing things spontaneously. I can’t do that anymore. Everything you do is documented, nothing is casual anymore.
Whatever my recorded output is, it’s a reflection of a general love of music.
I don’t worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about jazz.
It’s more about conception and touch and spirit and soul than whether my hardware was in place.
The first thing I learned was the theme from Peter Gunn.
I would always contend that talent is an element, but over the long run, ultimately, a minor part of it all; it is mostly hard work.
There are musicians who go through their lives sort of shedding their skins. For me, I’ve always felt backward-compatible to Version 1.0.
One of the things jazz has always excelled at is translating the reality of the times through its musical prism.
Someone who knew me when I was 14 said I was the oldest 14-year-old on the planet. Now I’m a 14-year-old who is 60.
The guitar for me is a translation device. It’s not a goal. And in some ways, jazz isn’t a destination for me. For me, jazz is a vehicle that takes you to the true destination – a musical one that describes all kinds of stuff about the human condition and the way music works.
