Metheny

Nonesuch Records releases a pair of new albums from guitarist, composer, and bandleader Pat Metheny on May 6, 2016. Metheny is well-known as a musical collaborator, and both records feature friends and colleagues with whom he has worked for years. The Unity Sessions is taken from a filmed performance with Pat Metheny Unity Group that was recently released on DVD; the set comprises 13 songs by Metheny, one he co-wrote with Ornette Coleman, and one well known standard by Ray Noble.

A young group openly acknowledging the influence of popular music. This cheerful, breezy jazz-rock from the Pat Metheny Group was recorded in 1979.. Includes the PMG signature tune “(Cross The) Heartland”.

Travels is the Pat Metheny Group's first live album, released in 1983. It won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance. Travels was recorded as part of the tour for the Group's studio album, Offramp, but also featured previously unrecorded and unreleased songs. The album consists of live material recorded in July, October, and November 1982, in Philadelphia, Dallas, Sacramento (California), Hartford (Connecticut), and Nacogdoches (Texas). The Group for this album consisted of Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby, Dan Gottlieb, and Nana Vasconcelos as special guest.

"Offramp" is the third album by the Pat Metheny Group, released in 1982. It won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance. The album contains the popular ballad "Are You Going with Me?". "Offramp" is the first studio album on which Metheny used a guitar synthesizer, a Roland GR-300 controlled with a Roland G-303 guitar synthesiser controller. The guitar synthesizer became one of Metheny's most frequently used instruments. "Offramp" is also the first Group album to feature vocals, which became a fundamental component of the band's sound.

Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny, due May 6, 2016, on Nonesuch Records, joins guitarist, composer, and bandleader Pat Metheny with a trio led by longtime Pat Metheny Group trumpeter Cuong Vu. The album comprises five tunes written by Vu plus one by Metheny and one by Andrew D'Angelo.

For a first attempt, it's a masterstroke! Released in 1976, Bright Size Life was Pat Metheny's first record as a leader. Just 21 years old, the American guitarist already showed a real maturity as a virtuosic composer and performer. He joined forces with Jaco Pastorius on bass and Bob Moses on a flexible and dynamic drum kit. These ideal accomplices allowed him to develop what would later become his trademark sound: a fluid and often lyrical style.

Metheny and The Metropole Orchestra recorded on 2003 North Sea Jazz Festival, The Hague, Nederlands Congres Centrum, July 12th 2003.