Pat Metheny: Stories beyond Words

"Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny has been on some of the biggest stages in the business with his band, the Pat Metheny Group, and has stood next to some of jazz's most celebrated artists, from Herbie Hancock to Ornette Coleman, from Chick Corea to Jaco Pastorius. This book by jazz musician and lover Bob Gluck is a loving exploration of Metheny's long and fruitful career, helping readers understand his musical evolution. Gluck is an erudite connoisseur and musician, offering transcriptions and analysis of the music as it's played, all while getting into the feel of a musician's playing, writing, and improvising. Neither biography nor chronological record of Metheny's musical output, this book instead captures Metheny's self-conception as a musician, the threads that unite and distinguish his creative process. Gluck argues that despite the long and varied nature of Metheny's career, his music is the product of a single vision with distinct throughlines. Each chapter addresses an element of Metheny's work. including melody, musical form, music as narrative, the expansive use of guitar and other musical technologies, longform through-composition, the integration of improvisation and composition, and orchestration's relationship to composition and improvisation. Gluck also addresses Pat Metheny's self-understanding as a musician transcending categorization and genre boundary setting assigned by critics and the marketplace. Metheny's music shows the traces of musical movements that are easily accessible and intellectual; he was influenced by the Beatles' melodic conception just as he was affected by the high level of complexity often found within bop and post-bop streams of jazz. Taking Metheny's music as a point of departure, Gluck presents us with rich interview material and a comprehensive analysis of Metheny's style and influence, inviting us to think about how musicians conceptualize their creative process and ultimately turn ideas into sounds"--