Pat Metheny

The core quartet, Chris Potter, Antonio Sanchez, Ben Williams and I, played over 100 concerts over the year that followed the release of our Unity Band record. Over the course of that period, the band became one of those rare combinations of players where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts - it gelled in every way, and that just seemed to beg for expansion and further research. – Pat Metheny

First Circle is a Grammy Award winning album by Pat Metheny Group released in 1984. On the album Pat Metheny is joined by Lyle Mays on piano and keyboards, Steve Rodby on bass, drummer Paul Wertico and vocalist and percussionist Pedro Aznar. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance in 1985. Pat Metheny has remarked that this is an important album in the Group's history for a number of reasons, among them being that the Group's core lineup on the album remained unchanged for over 15 years and it was the final Group album released on the ECM record label.

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.

Pat Metheny - The Unity Sessions finds the 20 time Grammy winning guitarist and the youngest member of the Downbeat Hall of Fame at the helm of one of his best bands ever as they wrap up a 150 date world tour with an intimate studio performance filmed in a small New York City theatre. Featuring new performances of music from the Grammy winning Unity Band record, the expansive Unity Group KIN recording, and touchstones from the entirety of Metheny's illustrious career, these are essential performances that serve as a rare visual documentation of some of the best music of Metheny's ever expanding career.

Song X is a collaborative studio album by American jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and saxophonist Ornette Coleman. It is a free jazz record that was produced in a three-day recording session in 1985. The album features mutual Metheny/Coleman collaborator Charlie Haden on bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums, and Coleman's son Denardo on various percussion instruments. It was recorded at The Power Station in New York City between December 12 and December 14, 1985. A remixed and remastered version was issued on CD in August 2005, titled Song X: Twentieth Anniversary. Six unreleased tracks were added prior to the original eight songs. In The Penguin Guide to Jazz (2004), Richard Cook and Brian Morton said the more adventurous recordings on Song X showcased the jubilant playing between Coleman and Metheny, who not only "powered his way through Coleman's itinerary with utter conviction, he set up opportunities for the saxophonist to resolve and created a fusion with which Coleman's often impenetrable Prime Time bands had failed to come to terms." In a review of the album's 2005 reissue, Christgau wrote in Blender that all six bonus tracks were "strong enough to justify kicking off with them, and the perfect warm-up to an album Metheny was right to construct exactly as he did."

Quartet (1996) is an album by the Pat Metheny Group. The album features Pat Metheny on guitar, Lyle Mays on keyboards, Steve Rodby on bass, and Paul Wertico on drums. Most of the tracks were loosely written or improvised, using several unusual instruments. The Group itself never played these songs live, though Metheny played "When We Were Free" with his trio and recorded a live version on the album Day Trip. "As I Am" was played during trio concerts with Michael Brecker. Metheny remarked in a podcast retrospective that the improvisational late-middle portions of, Quartet contain some of the darkest music the Group has ever recorded. He also stated that "When We Were Free" is a personal standout for him, especially Mays's piano solo.

"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.

The Pat Metheny Group is a jazz group founded in 1977. The core members of the group are guitarist and bandleader Pat Metheny, composer, keyboardist and pianist Lyle Mays (who was part of the group's inception in 1977), and bassist and producer Steve Rodby (joined in 1980). Other long-standing members include Paul Wertico who was the drummer for 18 years.