Pat Metheny: Interview after concert at The National Forum of Music (2022)

foreign [Music] [Music] I've been really lucky because when I started playing professionally I was 14 in Kansas City with musicians that obviously were a lot older than me and even now I you know I played not that long ago with Roy Haynes who's 96 now but also I've always hired People based on what they can do and you know the the newer guys are really obligated in a lot of ways to do the same thing all of us have had to do in this music which is to learn the sort of language of it and then you know have something to talk about have something to say in it what's different now is that there's a lot more fluency there's lots more people who can kind of you know deal with the language but in fact it turns out there's not that many people who have a story to tell who who kind of have a way of bringing something to life in the music that is something important to them and that's really what I look for more than anything however I do need a very high degree of fluency because of the kind of music that I do which is quite complicated harmonically it has to be somebody who really has a deep understanding of Harmony and then also has the kind of understanding of Harmony where they can sort of forget the harmony too and that's a real small group of people in any generation I've always said it's like it can be people from anywhere on the planet at any age and if you're gonna say okay let's play fill in the blank of a tune and somebody goes one two one two three four from that moment on we're all in it together and nothing matters except what does it sound like [Music] my main job for all these years has been really the same I write a bunch of music and then I find the best people to play that music along the way I've had all these different identities the Pat Metheny group the trio the side eye the I mean honestly they're all the Pat Metheny group they all operate exactly the same way which is I'm going to write music that I'm interested in at a particular time and also be aware of who seems to be the best people I can get to play it and sort of a mix of those two things kind of sends me in a direction to write stuff that has an identity to it that is hopefully something distinct and in this case because I've sort of gotten so good at having these bands that have like it's specifically this person and specifically that person in some ways that locks me in and so I kind of wanted to write music where I could get a lot of different people to play it and the focus for me on this you know round has been trying to utilize the incredible talents of musicians that are new in New York younger guys from all over the place who have not necessarily had the opportunities to get the kind of attention of playing on an international level on a tour like this so you know I have a list of about 25 people who could be in this band and my plan I don't know if I'll actually get to it is to use all of them at some point and um that's sort of the general idea here but honestly you know people I think are always surprised at you know the different things that I do and also that they have a sort of connection with each other and that's good that's what's supposed to happen you know all of my favorite musicians historically had a kind of Sonic identity that they could bring you know into the air in lots of different ways so that's always been a goal for me too back Metheny I feel very privileged in a lot of ways to have been able to experience the transition that has happened here across you know many many decades at this point because I came here in the 80s you know when Poland was in black and white basically I mean it was a different country and to see that turn into what it is now has been an incredible journey for me and what has been consistent across all those years is the Deep musicality of the audience here [Music] the first time that I came here I think not many American bands had even come here it was rare especially to do a tour around the country so I think people would come to the Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw but we were able to really go around it's maybe not appreciated How Deeply ingrained good music is to the culture here of course it's connected to classical music but to me it goes beyond that because it's something I've seen you know like I say across now what would be three generations of audiences and that's really special and really unique and I feel very fortunate to have had that experience but especially that people continue to come to the concerts and that they follow the music and that more than anything it seems to have a place in you know some of their lives it's significant and that's a real privilege for me as a musician [Music] foreign [Applause]

Channel: Epic Generation

Views: 86,691

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Id: M6-qllw0xp0

Length: 7min 39sec (459 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 12 2022