The Side Eye of Pat Metheny: An Elevated Brow

Within days of the release of his most recent album, From This Place (Nonesuch), in stores, Pat Metheny and his band took a plane from the Asia-Pacific region to South America in mid-March 2020. Beginning the Latin American portion of their tour, the quartet from that record was playing two performances in Argentina, where the visiting guitarist was expected to meet President Alberto Fernández, a fan of Metheny and amateur musician. However, Fernández called off the scheduled meeting the night before. In a remote interview from his upstate New York home, Metheny remembered, “He got up the next morning and closed Argentina.” As COVID-19 spread over the globe, the other stops on that tour—Brazil, Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Cuba—were also canceled. “I performed my last show in early March in Auckland, New Zealand.

Early in March 2020, I performed my farewell engagement in Auckland, New Zealand,” Metheny said. “And there hasn’t been any work for me or any other musician since then, on any level.” Despite the fact that over a hundred of Metheny’s subsequent performances were canceled last year, his career nevertheless reached new heights. Recently released, the exquisitely arranged From This Place, which is Pat Metheny’s 15th album for Nonesuch, debuted at number one on Billboard’s Top 10 Albums, a first for the well-known jazz musician. A year after its release, in March of the following year, the album received a Grammy nomination after winning Album of the Year in the DownBeat Readers Poll in December. Road To The Sun, Metheny’s debut single, was released in the same month.

Side-Eye NYC (V1–IV), his most recent CD, was released on September 10 through Modern Recordings and is entirely different. The Side-Eye Trio, which Metheny founded in 2016 as a platform for emerging musicians, is included on the CD. He had already decided on the band’s name before he even began to assemble it. “Someone mentioned that the song ‘Side-Eye,’ which I never performed, would make a fantastic band name,” I said. So I figured I’d make use of that,” Metheny stated. More precisely, though, it has been difficult for Americans in the last few years to look at themselves during this utterly strange time without feeling a sense of disapproval.

Thus, I would think of a name, but this time, he added, the name had a mandate of sorts. “I’ve chosen to use up-and-coming, younger musicians who I think are fantastic.” And I think the group will evolve. It will consist of numerous distinct elements rather than just one. Because of this, I’m hoping to have a number of different variations of what that group can be, which is why this album is called “V1″—version one. As he freely acknowledges, Metheny doesn’t hesitate to experiment with his bands because, in his opinion, every ensemble is essentially the same no matter how they are put together. He claimed that all of his groups operate under his direction in a similar way,

“I’m going to locate guys who excel in the areas that I’m open to,” he declared. “After that, I’m going to make an effort to create a space where everyone can be happy and do what they do best—and then some.” Considering that one of my responsibilities has been to lead a group beyond its natural state. Metheny just stumbles a little bit when it comes to the “titles and names” for these groups. He admits that all of his groups may really be referred to as the Pat Metheny Group and notes that it can be “somewhat confusing” to navigate the various guises of his unique musical vision.