Striking the right chords

Pat Metheny returns to the Phillips Center for a performance tonight with his Unity Group. (Courtesy of Pat Metheny)

By Travis Atria, Correspondent
Published: Thursday, February 6, 2014 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, February 5, 2014 at 12:34 p.m.
Please don’t call Pat Metheny a jazz musician.
Facts
Pat Metheny Unity Group
What: Multiple Grammy Award-winning guitarist performs with band 
When: 7:30 tonight
Where: Phillips Center, 3201 Hull Road
Tickets: $30-$55, $10 UF students
Info: 392-2787, Ticketmaster.com
The world-famous, 20-time Grammy Award-winning guitarist is most famous for playing jazz music, but he’s not very comfortable with that or any other label.

“When people start talking about styles of music, my eyes kind of glaze over a little bit,” says Metheny, who will perform at the Phillips Center tonight. “It’s really a cultural, political, fashion decision. It’s not really a musical thing. You’re putting yourself in this group or this category. What I like about the musicians in my sphere is that no one’s thinking about jazz. Everyone’s thinking about music. I don’t think about rock and blues and classical. I think about B, and F, and C. When I hear Bartok, I hear Herbie Hancock. It’s just music for me.”

Still, Metheny has become something of a legend in the jazz guitar world since his debut 1976 album, “Bright Size Life.” And, he learned from the greats.


“My history comes from jazz or whatever that word is to describe music that is primarily about improvisation that has developed over the last hundred years,” he says. “People like Wes Montgomery, people who were playing through a single amp, sitting on a stage, who had a single sound. For me, that was my approach. That core has remained the dominant element of my life as a musician.”
Read more: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2014140209814