Pat Metheny Quotes
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The first thing I learned was the theme from Peter Gunn.
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Listening is the key to everything good in music.
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Whatever my recorded output is, it's a reflection of a general love of music.
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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.
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I was deep in the zone of practicing almost constantly.
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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.
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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.
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One of the things jazz has always excelled at is translating the reality of the times through its musical prism.
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People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds.
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The reality of music itself, which is the fabric of life for me, is where most of my attention is.
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The pianist Cecil Taylor is extremely melodic; the guitarist Derek Bailey is extremely melodic, and Ornette Coleman.
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For me, let's keep jazz as folk music. Let's not make jazz classical music. Let's keep it as street music, as people's everyday-life music. Let's see jazz musicians continue to use the materials, the tools, the spirit of the actual time that they're living in, as what they build their lives as musicians around.
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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.
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From 1962 to 1965, the guitar became this icon of youth culture, thanks mostly to the Beatles.
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'The Unity Band' project has been life-changing for me. I have led many groups of talented musicians, but this is unlike anything else.
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I'm triggering acoustic instruments. I'm literally beating, smacking, hitting, blowing, doing physical things. It's an incredibly exciting way to make music.
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I realized that equipment really had little to do with why I sound like the way I sound.
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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.
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Somehow, trumpet is the reference point for me – it was actually my first instrument.
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A lot of jazz artists think people should like what they're doing just because it's jazz. I don't buy that.
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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.
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I don't worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about jazz.
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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.
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Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.