With yet another Grammy nomination, Pat Metheny talks music, COVID, his KC upbringing
Guitarist Pat Metheny earns the distinction of being the only artist to ever win Grammy Awards in 10 different categories.
At Sunday’s 63rd Grammys, the Lee’s Summit native once again finds himself nominated, his 38th time. This one is for best arrangement for instruments and vocals. He’s sharing the nomination with pianist Alan Broadbent for the elegant title track to Metheny’s latest album “From This Place,” which he performs with guest vocalist Meshell Ndegeocello. (Ironically, she’s been nominated in nine categories but has never won.)
It’s yet another impressive collaboration for the veteran Metheny, whose past musical partners have ranged from jazz legends Jaco Pastorius and Ornette Coleman to pop icons Joni Mitchell and David Bowie. NPR said the record “has the journeying spirit of the Pat Metheny Group and the fiery improvisational exchanges of his more recent jazz sessions. It’s also a stretch beyond those horizons into textures and atmospheres not often heard in jazz.” (The prolific Metheny will have a more classical-leaning album coming out this month, titled “Road to the Sun.”)
Because of the pandemic, the relentless innovator couldn’t tour to promote an album — for the first time since the 1970s — and the glitzy Grammy ceremony must convert into a Zoom-centric affair. But Metheny has not let that distract him from the commitment to his craft.
He recently spoke to The Star about awards shows, his KC-area upbringing and maintaining his career during isolation.
Q: How has the pandemic affected your musical output?
A: This is the first time I have stayed in one place for this long since being in high school in Lee’s Summit. It has made me realize why most people like civilian life. The main headline for me is that everyone in my family has remained healthy in all of this. Musically, I get up at 4 or 5 every morning and work on music, just as always. I can’t wait to go to bed so I can get up the next day.
How often do you go to the Grammys ceremony? Do you have any standout memories from attending?
I went twice. I am not really as into the stuff around the thing as the thing itself. That said, I really appreciate that people have checked out the music I have been involved in over the years.
You are reportedly the only person to win Grammys in 10 categories. What would be the least likely category for which you could win a Grammy?
To me, music is one big thing that has no categories. So sometimes I am not really even sure what people are talking about when it comes to things like that.
People often focus on your instrumental prowess. How do you rank as an arranger?
I would say that any instrumental skills that have showed up along the way are mostly a reflection of a conception of music that I hear before I am able to actually play it. The lines between improvising and composing are very blurry for me — they are related activities that happen at wildly different temperatures.
And then being a bandleader who has written most of the music I have played over the years naturally falls into the category of how that music gets played, sometimes as formal arrangements but more often in the dozens of ways that are required to get to the result that I hope to present.
You’ve got a long history of collaborations. What was unique about working with Meshell Ndegeocello?
I have known and admired her for years, and I have played on a few of her records, and we have done occasional things together. She is one of the greatest artists of our time. People don’t realize what a great ballad singer she is sometimes. The song “From This Place” needed her voice.
How did your Kansas City upbringing foster your musical sensibilities?
Everything that has happened in music for me came directly from the opportunities that I had as a kid to be around the amazing musicians that made up the KC jazz community of the early ’70s. If it wasn’t for Gary Sivils, the most important leader of that era and one of the greatest musicians KC has ever produced, my life would have been very different. He hired me for the first time when I was 15 or 16, and I was lucky to work in his various bands until I left a couple years later. In a lot of ways, I owe everything to Gary.
Do you get back to the KC area very often?
Not as much as I would like. My brother, Mike, is an incredible musician, and he still lives in the area.
What was the first concert you ever went to in KC?
I think it might have been to watch my brother, Mike, perform the Purcell “Trumpet Voluntary” at a church, or maybe him with the American Legion Band. I remember my folks going to lots of concerts, including hearing Marilyn Maye who was their favorite — mine too. The 1968 KC jazz festival was an important one for me. Wes Montgomery was on that one, just a few months before he died. It was not long after the riots. A lot of things came into focus for me that day.
Does it seem like there are not as many guitar heroes now as there were when you were growing up? Should fans of the instrument be worried?
One of the best things about being a musician is that B-flat is always B-flat no matter what is going on in the world. There is a truth in that that is transcendent in the way that fundamental things often are. I have never worried too much about the culture of the moment. The level of music I aspire to understand doesn’t really fit into any particular era, although it is often formed by current events. I always just try to keep my focus on the standard set by what the best musicians have done throughout history. I have a sense that most of the folks who might appreciate the music are probably not on the planet yet.
As a 66-year-old, what is some advice you would have given to your younger self?
If you can’t play it in all 12 keys, you don’t actually know the tune. That fits for a lot of other things in life, too.
Jon Niccum is a filmmaker, freelance writer and author of “The Worst Gig: From Psycho Fans to Stage Riots, Famous Musicians Tell All.”
Where to watch
The 63rd Grammy Awards were set for Jan. 31, but a spike in COVID-19 forced a delay. Now Trevor Noah will host at 7 p.m. Sunday, March 14, on CBS. Many awards will be presented in the Premiere Ceremony, to be streamed live on Grammy.com starting at 2 p.m.
The Kansas City nominees
Guitarist Pat Metheny, who grew up in Lee’s Summit, was nominated for a Grammy Award for best arrangement for instruments and vocals for the album “From This Place.”
But he’s not the only musician with Kansas City ties who is up for a Grammy Award on Sunday:
▪ Leading the pack is Charles Bruffy and the Kansas City Chorale for their “Requiem for Fallen Brothers” by Russian composer Alexander Kastalsky. The album is up for two Grammys: best choral performance and classical producer of the year (for frequent Chorale collaborator Blanton Alspaugh).
▪ Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s recording of Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” and “The Perfect Fool” also nabbed a producer of the year nod, for David Frost.
▪ Grammy perennial Joyce DiDonato, the international opera star who grew up in Prairie Village, is nominated for best opera recording for Handel: “Agrippina.”
▪ Kansas Citian Logan Richardson plays his alto saxophone on Gerald Clayton’s “Happening: Live at the Village Vanguard,” which is up for best jazz instrumental album.