SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
For years, Pat Metheny couldn't find the right guitar strings. He had a specific need - nylon strings for an unconventional tuning on a baritone guitar. Last fall, he found them on Amazon, and they arrived on the first day of a big tour. Naturally, he tried them out that night.
PAT METHENY: It was like somebody ripped open a universe inside this other universe.
(SOUNDBITE OF PAT METHENY SONG, "EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO ME/SOMEWHERE")
METHENY: I first was playing one tune, then two, then three, and I would take the instrument home every night after the gig and play it on the bus for a couple hours.
DETROW: After decades of being known as one of the world's best jazz guitarists, Metheny had unlocked a new sound. And he also found himself doing something else for the very first time, talking to the audience between songs.
METHENY: I don't think I've ever really talked on the microphone other than - thank you; so-and-so's on bass, so-and-so's on drums; good night.
DETROW: But now, he was chatty, talking about that guitar and the many other instruments that he's played throughout the many phases of his career. It's been quite a career. He has won 20 Grammys across 10 different categories. He once built a stage full of musical robots to play along with him and toured with them around the world. But his latest record is just him and that nylon string baritone guitar.
(SOUNDBITE OF PAT METHENY SONG, "LA CROSSE")
DETROW: The album is called "MoonDial." And since he's been in such a nostalgic mood onstage lately, we figured we would catch up with Metheny to look back on his career. We started in 1972, when Metheny left Kansas City to go study electric guitar at the University of Miami. He only lasted a few days before dropping out, but he was already so talented that the dean just offered him a job instead.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
METHENY: I mean, it's kind of funny to say I was 18 at that time, but I had already played hundreds of gigs and was, you know, really a kind of professional player around Kansas City, at least. So they hired me to teach, which I did for a year and a half. And then, during that year is when I met Gary Burton, the great vibes player who was my No. 1 hero, and he offered me a chance to then come to Berklee and teach at Berklee, which I did the next year.
I mean, it's one of those things that we talk about now, it looks great in the press kit and all that. At the time, you know, for me, I was just trying to find good notes and talk to people about good notes, you know? And it's just the same as it is for me now. You know, It's like we're all just trying to find what makes music do what it does and understand.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DETROW: Do you remember what your goals for yourself were at that point in terms of the kind of musical career you wanted to have, in terms of the kind of things you wanted to do?
METHENY: You know, I know people talk about career and all that stuff a lot. I mean, I just wanted to understand. It was really that. I mean, you know, I'm exactly that generation where, you know, I saw The Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
DETROW: Yeah.
METHENY: Electric guitar got on my radar, much to my parents' horror. And at the same time, not long after that, my older brother Mike, who's a great musician, great trumpet player, brought home a Miles Davis record, "Four & More." And, man, I mean, in 10 seconds, I was like, whatever that is, I want to understand what that is.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
METHENY: And my relationship to music has always been that. I'm a fan. And when I'm a fan of music, I want to know, well, how does that work? What is that? What's going on there? It's always been that for me, and I've never really worried too much about the other stuff.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DETROW: I think a lot of people think of you as a jazz guitarist, but there's a lot of stuff that you've done that, you know, as we were kind of thinking about this conversation, we said are - is almost uncategorizable. How do you define your sound when you're asked a question like this or when you're onstage kind of connecting the dots of your career for audiences right now?
METHENY: You know, in a way from very early on, I didn't really understand what people were talking about when they would say jazz, rock, classical, this, that or the other thing. There wasn't a sense for me of, like, this is that kind of music. This is that kind of music. It was really more like this music is on a record. And that included, like, my parents' Henry Mancini records and getting, you know, an Ornette Coleman record from the dollar bin at the TG&Y. I mean, it's just one thing for me. Now, having said all that, you know, the tradition that has evolved over the last hundred years in the realm of improvisation, that is a very particular thing that for me is central. I mean, pretty much everything I've ever done is sort of like, how can I set up an environment to get to what I want to get to as an improviser?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DETROW: You know, in the late '70s, you started the Pat Metheny Group, and it was this interesting sound that broke a lot of ground. Did you have a specific vision for that group at that time, or was that just a natural outgrowth of what you were working on at that period?
METHENY: You know, it was a funny thing for me. When it came to the point where I was in a position to start my own group, it really wasn't my first choice of a thing to do. But the scene at that time was really kind of more like rock in a way. I mean, and I love that music, like the Mahavishnu Orchestra. But it was, like, kind of backbeat oriented and, you know, like, very kind of almost distorted guitar stuff, which, you know, was great. But my thing was really inspired in a lot of ways, more by, like, you know, the Miles Quintet of the '60s, where there was a lot of stuff happening with the chords. And that's always been kind of my favorite thing. And it just kind of led to the point where as I looked around and - like, what are the other gigs that I might do? - for what I was interested in, there wasn't any choice for me but then to start my own band.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
METHENY: And a lot of the later stuff was really just sort of orchestration. You know, I got very interested in synths around that time. And I sort of have grown up in an era where musical instrument technology has evolved a lot. And right then, at the point that I left Gary and started my band, for the first time, there were synths that, you know, really started to sound pretty good. And that opened up a whole lot of possibilities that remain interesting to me to this day.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DETROW: So technology, I mean, as you're saying, that's been this through line of your career. You've always been really aggressive about experimenting with new forms. There was that famous album you did with a bunch of robots, you know? I'm wondering, have you thought about - at this moment, where everyone is figuring out artificial intelligence and what it means, have you thought about working with AI in any way as a musician?
METHENY: Well, you know, my trajectory as a musician has really paralleled the technology that has evolved across the last 50 years. I mean, I often joke my first musical act was to plug it in. You know, I mean, knobs and wires and electricity are like what mouthpieces and reeds are for other instruments.
DETROW: Yeah.
METHENY: You know, that's part of it for me. So I've always been right inside it, which - OK so that leads us to the AI moment. I have no fear of any of this stuff. You know, for me, it's like, OK, and we've got more tools now because I believe so thoroughly in the power of humanity. In the world of music, there is no anybody even close to being able to AI soul. And the soul part of it and the communicative nature of what music uniquely offers is going to always reign supreme, in my opinion, because it's something that goes beyond what one and zero might ever offer. And that's where I get to live every night. And I understand what that is on a personal level to the point where I have no fear of anything that's going to encroach on that.
DETROW: And sometimes maybe the best way in is just you and one guitar, like this latest album.
METHENY: Sometimes that's the exact thing you need to tell that story.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
METHENY: And then there's other times when, you know, I mean, I'm working on another record, what I call, like, Steven Spielberg-type record, that's, you know, the exact opposite of the story that is told best by one instrument.
DETROW: Yeah.
METHENY: And so it just depends on what chapter you're in and the novel of the whole thing because for me, it all is one big, long story.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DETROW: Pat Metheny's new album is "MoonDial." It's out now. Thank you so much for talking to us.
METHENY: My pleasure. I always enjoy the show. Of course, I'm a longtime listener. Happy to be part of it.
DETROW: Well, we're all longtime listeners of you, as well, so this was really fun. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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