KC-area jazz legend talks about his hometown, influences and all those Grammys
When you’re 71 years old and you’ve won 20 Grammy Awards in an unmatched 13 categories, you’ve earned the right to slow down a bit. But don’t tell that to Pat Metheny.
The legendary jazz guitarist from Lee’s Summit continues to keep his foot on the musical gas pedal, touring the nation and the world with only a rare day’s rest. Metheny will spend a month performing in Europe over the summer and now is in the midst of a U.S. stretch from March 17 to April 17 in which he is playing 25 dates in 17 states.
One of those will be April 4 at the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts. He also will perform April 16 at the Missouri Theatre in Columbia.
His schedule is so busy that instead of granting a phone interview for this story, he requested that he answer questions submitted by email. Fittingly, he wrote his responses while on a tour bus traveling from Savannah, Georgia, to Memphis, Tennessee.
“Doesn’t get much more on-the-road than that I guess,” he wrote.
Metheny said he most recently returned to Lee’s Summit just before this tour in support of “Side-Eye III+,” his first major studio album in six years, began March 2. He indicated that he probably plays more overseas than in the United States these days, while living in New York City and Woodstock, New York.
Here are Metheny’s responses to 10 other questions.
You still have a strong connection to Lee’s Summit with the Metheny Music Foundation (which has assisted Lee’s Summit music students since 2007) and family members living there. How important was it to your development?
I would say that almost everything about growing up in Lee’s Summit and its proximity to Kansas City has been central to all that has happened in my life musically and otherwise.
Do you have any idea how many venues you’ve played in KC area? Do you remember the first?
Wow, there are a bunch of them. I definitely remember the first real KC gig — there was a place called “The Flaming Pit” … where we had a trio gig four nights a week. The first kind of “major” KC gig for me was playing at a place called Armour East with Gary Sivils (it was around 35th and Main).
You played at the Kauffman Center in June 2023. How special is it to perform there?
Any chance to come back to KC, playing or not, is special for me. And it is great to see a place like the Kauffman Center thriving.
You did some teaching very early in your career (as the youngest teacher ever at 18 at the University of Miami, and again at year later at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston). You’ll meet with students while you’re in Columba later in April. Is teaching something you want to get back into?
I do enjoy teaching, but it is difficult for me to find time to do everything. Same with film scoring — I used to do a lot of that, too — I finally got to the point where I realized I should focus on a few specific things — namely being a composer/bandleader with all that comes with that. That is more than a full-time thing for me.
How meaningful was it to be included in the inaugural group inducted into Kansas City Jazz Walk of Fame in 2014?
That is such an incredible honor, and I am really grateful to be included. I only wish I could have been there for that moment — I was on the road in Europe when it happened.
How important are your Grammy accomplishments (39 nominations and 20 wins in 13 categories over four decades) to you?
Anything that has ever happened around the music is far beyond anything I ever imagined or envisioned. I always do my best to take a moment to appreciate the peripheral things that happen in the category of “career” stuff.
But, honestly, my goal has always been to try to understand music and to try to be a good musician at the standards that have been set by the musicians I admire the most. If you come to my house, you won’t see any awards on the wall or anything like that, just a bunch of instruments and a lot of manuscript paper. I still don’t feel anywhere close to where I would like to get to as a musician, but I do feel like I have made a lot of progress, so that’s good.
Who has been your most memorable collaboration?
Definitely having a great wife for 30 years now — and three fantastic kids!
Who has been your most important influence?
Some of the Kansas City musicians who gave me a chance to be around them when I was young are at the top of the list — especially Tommy Ruskin (drums), Paul Smith (piano) and Gary Sivils (trumpet). Tommy in particular has a direct influence on pretty much every note I play. He was one of the greatest drummers of all time.
Do you consider “Last Train Home” your most important song? If not, what is? And why?
I am not a good judge of things like that. That said, the room my crib was in for the first years of my life (on Market Street in Lee’s Summit) was in the back of the house, literally 25 yards from the main Kansas City-St. Louis train tracks … so the train thing is pretty deep with me.
You’ve got a long and busy schedule this year. Apparently, you’re not ready to slow down at 71?
Any time I get to play is a real privilege. I feel very lucky to be a musician.
Pat Metheny in KC
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 4
Where: Muriel Kauffman Theatre, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, 1601 Broadway Blvd.
Tickets: $60.50-$70.50 (limited availability)
Information: kauffmancenter.org
