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Home , Bob Moses (musician), Bright Size Life, Dewey Redman, Linda Manzer, Mick Goodrick, Pat Metheny

Press Release For immediate distribution

The second part of the Invitation series: Lots of music & lots of musicians on a variety of stages!

Montreal, Tuesday, May 10, 2005 — The Festival International de de Montréal will be dedicating the second part of its Invitation series to master guitarist Pat Metheny who’ll be appearing in a variety of venues with a variety of equally brilliant musicians, somewhat like he did when he came to town for the 1988 Festival.

For this 26th edition, Montreal’s honorary native son will deliver no fewer than 5 performances, with his regular companions Antonio Sanchez and , as well as a few with whom he’s rarely had the chance to perform, including David Sanchez, , Me’shell Ndegeocello, Ron Blake and Chris Dave. You can also catch him performing A Quiet Night, Beyond the Sky, a brilliant work first presented here in 1997 which the two have agreed to re-create especially for the Festival. Pat will also join the Quartet with and Antonio Sanchez, before ending the series in the Gesù theatre, first in duet with and then re-visiting ‘80/81’ with , John Menegon and Matt Wilson. And that isn’t counting guest appearances (some by appointment, some by surprise) including a visit with Paolo Fresu at the concert on July 6 in the Théâtre Maisonneuve at Place des Arts. Get set for the visit we’ve been dreaming of all these years. Five Times Metheny Jazz Beat TD Canada Trust series, Tuesday, July 5, 9:30 p.m., at Spectrum PAT METHENY TRIO featuring Antonio Sanchez and Scott Colley For a certain group of his fans, there is no setting that defines Pat Metheny the musician as clearly as his trio playing. Scattered among the chronology of his vast recorded output are three of the most revered, studied and influential guitar trio of our time; , recorded in 1975 with Metheny's first working band, featuring and drummer – a record that literally had the effect of changing the entire language of practically overnight and reclaiming it for a new generation of players; Rejoicing, recorded in 1984 with Metheny's working trio of that time, featuring bassist and drummer ; and Question And Answer, an incendiary meeting of three of the most quick thinking improvisers of the era – on drums, with the incomparable joining in on bass.

The trio presented here is an incarnation of Pat’s latest, with bassist Scott Colley filling in for regular Christian McBride. Scott has been one of the most in-demand in jazz for the past 10 years playing extensively with , , Andrew Hill and many others. Antonio Sanchez is certainly one of the most spectacular drumming talents to emerge in jazz in many years. In addition to his work with the he has been involved in projects with Miguel Zenon, , Danilo Perez and many others.

The trio will visit music from throughout the Metheny trio repertoire as well as playing some new pieces.

Jazz Beat TD Canada Trust series, Wednesday, July 6, 9:30 p.m., at Spectrum PAT METHENY AND FRIENDS; FRESH ENCOUNTERS featuring David Sanchez, Enrico Rava, Scott Colley, Antonio Sanchez & Me’shell Ndegeocello, Ron Blake and Chris Dave For all the old friends that Metheny will join up with during this years Montreal residency, this program will showcase him alongside a diverse and intriguing cast of musicians whose skills and talents Metheny has admired from a distance while never or rarely having had the chance to perform with.

“David Sanchez is one of my absolute favourite tenor players” says Metheny. “With David, there is clarity and passion that informs every idea that he plays. He has the kind of kinetic power and energy that we recognize in so many of the post-Coltrane players, but there is a gracefulness and spirit to it that is unique. We have talked about playing together for many years, but somehow we have just never found the time or the opportunity to make it happen. This will be an especially exciting encounter – Antonio Sanchez was a member of David’s excellent working band for several years, so they already have a great hook-up. I am really looking forward to the chance to play with David!”

“Enrico Rava is a poet, a storyteller and a giant of melody” offers Metheny about the most celebrated Italian jazz musician of all time. “I have known Enrico since our shared early days at ECM where we occasionally did tours opposite each other, and I always loved his playing and his records. But we never had the chance to play together until a few years ago at a small Italian festival in a tiny Sardinian fishing village. It was an amazing concert and ever since then, whenever there has been any chance to do anything with Enrico, I jump at it. It seems that we have a special rapport somewhere deep. We did a few duets one night that were so satisfying. When I hear Enrico, it makes me dream – he has that special, rare communicative quality that so few modern jazz musicians seem to possess. I also think that he and David together...... well, let’s see what happens!”

“Somehow Me’shell captures the sound of the future that reminds of everything ancient that made us who we are today” Metheny muses on the great Me’Shell Ndegeocello. “I have loved her music since she first came on the scene with “Plantation Lullabies”. But last summer, I heard her on a tour she was doing around Europe with a group of musicians playing mostly instrumental music that totally blew my mind. There were a lot of great bands touring that summer, but to me, what those guys were doing under Me’shell was the hippest thing I heard all year. It reminded me a lot of Herbie’s period which has always been some of my favorite music, but with Me’shell’s incredible bass playing and the totally killing drumming of Chris Dave, it was addressing all the stuff that has happened in the 30 years since Mwandishi as well. Ron Blake, who was featured on Me’shell’s tour, has been one of the best tenors around New York for years, we all love his work in the Christian McBride Band and in everything else he does, and he and I again have always wanted to hook up. When I met Me’shell recently she expressed an interest in wanting to play. I was thrilled and we are happy to be able to present our first meeting together under the guise of this series.”

Les Grands Concerts TD Canada Trust series, Thursday, July 7, 6:00 p.m., at Théâtre Maisonneuve of the PdA PAT METHENY AND CHARLIE HADEN – ONE QUIET NIGHT, BEYOND THE MISSOURI SKY There is a large scale, big canvas kind of quality to much of Pat Metheny’s work; records like Secret Story or a few of his Pat Metheny Group records reveal an artist who is looking to fill up large swaths of white space with an infinity of color. But not far below the surface, even in the most ambitious works, lies a reservoir of deep quiet. For all the ripping and burning that can go on in a Metheny solo, there is also the equal possibility of a single well placed note with lots of space around it, a simple, almost childlike melody ready to appear in contrast or emerging out of the most challenging of harmonic or textural environments.

With the release of “Beyond the Missouri Sky” in 1996, Metheny finally laid bare a full, unrestrained dose of this quiet area of his musical personality. With his best friend Charlie Haden, the two Missouri natives crafted a work that revealed a beauty that was universal through their shared reflections on their rural Midwestern roots. The record became a cult hit; it has sold hundreds of thousands of copies around the world and remains one of the most popular and most loved jazz records of the past decade.

Says Metheny: “Charlie is one of the greatest musicians on the planet. From the first time I heard him playing with Ornette (Coleman), he has been my favourite bass player. The fact that we have become such close friends is one of the blessings of my life. I love Charlie like a brother. That record was literally us sitting around and talking a little, and then playing some and then and then talking some more. It all just went together. After awhile, I said, “Charlie, we’re playing all ballads, don’t you think we should pick up the tempo a little?” He said “No!!” We laughed, and kept playing ballads. And he was so right. That record showed me so many things about the way that I played that I didn’t even know about – but Charlie knew.”

Beyond the Missouri Sky was the first record that Metheny focused entirely on acoustic guitar. In 2001, not long after the events of September 11th, Metheny offered a set of reflective, mostly improvised solo guitar pieces performed on a specially tuned acoustic built for him by Canadian luthier . Music from both records will be performed on this concert.

Les Grands Concerts TD Canada Trust series, Friday, July 8, 6:00 p.m., at Théâtre Maisonneuve of the PdA EXPLORING THE MUSIC OF THE CLASSIC GARY BURTON QUARTET; A REUNION featuring Gary Burton, Pat Metheny and Steve Swallow with Antonio Sanchez Pat Metheny on the Gary Burton Quartet; “From the time I first heard the Gary’s Quartet in 1968, that became my favourite band. To me, it was perfect music. The balance of the instrumentation was unique and ideal, with both the vibes and the guitar able to play both single and polyphonic lines, the bass and the drums were up front and active right in there with the front line. And as much as critics get it wrong about “” being the record that changed it all, musicians and those who were actively following the scene at the time and those with an accurate view of history know that the Burton band had been deep into that general area of research for several years already. The difference was that in addition a curiosity about the rhythm feels of the time, Gary and Swallow were playing music that at its core still involved song forms and advanced jazz harmony. But, like Miles later on, they were also addressing what was going on in the world around them on a social level that gave their music the kind of resonance that, in my opinion, jazz is particularly well suited to deliver.”

Metheny himself first played with Burton in 1973 at the age of 18 and became a member himself of the band in 1974. “Joining that band was the rough equivalent for me of getting to join ” Metheny jokes. “It was the greatest thing that could have ever happened to me, a dream come true. And the time that I spent in that band (1974-77) was the most important learning period in my life as a musician. Standing next to Gary each night for those 3 years, listening to him and having to follow him was an education in itself. Steve Swallow encouraged me to write music and gave me fantastic ideas about how to think about writing in general as well as being one of the most truly unique improvisers ever in jazz. And Bob Moses became a close friend and an always challenging and engaging playing partner for me inside the Burton band as well as in the other things we did together when Gary wasn’t working.”

This concert will mark the first time that Gary Burton and Steve Swallow have performed together live since Burton formally disbanded the Quartet in 1987 ending their 21 year run as the core of the Quartet. It will be the first time Burton, Swallow and Metheny have all three performed together since 1977. The three will be joined on this occasion by drummer Antonio Sanchez.

Jazz dans la nuit series, Friday, July 8, 10:30 p.m., Gesù-Centre de créativité (Double bill) PAT METHENY AND MICK GOODRICK; DUETS Prior to and during their shared tenure in Gary Burton Quintet of the mid 1970’s, Pat Metheny and Mick Goodrick created a sensation around the Boston of that era with their now legendary duet performances. Lines would form around the block in anticipation of their appearances and tapes of these performances from more than 25 years ago are traded with the fervour of jazz Deadheads to this day. Pat says about Goodrick “Mick was easily the best guitarist I had ever been around, and we had an instant rapport from the first time we ever played together. His skills on the instrument are so complete and so advanced and his musicality as an improviser has him transcending the instrument at every turn. We have had the chance to play together now and again over the years and each time we do it is like we take up on a conversation that we began more than 30 years ago now.”

Mick Goodrick has made a number of his own recordings over the years including the classic ECM record “In Pas(s)ing” and has performed extensively internationally with Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra and Jack Dejohnette’s Directions and many others. He has written several important books that are deemed essential materials for serious musicians including “The Advancing Guitarist” and a series of recent books on diatonic voice leading that Metheny calls “as important as any books written about music since Slonimsky”.

80/81 REVISITED: PAT METHENY AND DEWEY REDMAN with John Menegon and Matt Wilson In 1981, after the incredible success of his first few records as a leader on the German ECM label, Pat Metheny released an that furthered his reputation as a musical visionary while inadvertently confounding critics who thought they had the young guitarist pegged. The “80/81” project brought together an unlikely cast of jazz veterans who, directed by Metheny’s ingenious compositions and conception for the record, made an album whose impact on the scene continues to this day. At the core of this collaboration was the pairing of Metheny with two contrasting, but equally singular saxophone voices of the time; Michael Brecker and the great Texas tenor Dewey Redman.

Says Metheny: “I had always loved Dewey’s playing with Ornette and had gotten to know him a little bit during the time he was playing with and I was with Gary Burton and we used to do concerts opposite each other. I am not alone in thinking that Dewey made be one of the most underrated improvising musicians of all time. He has the capacity to play extended solos that never lose a narrative thread, spinning line after line of pure melodic invention with a voice that is as easily identifiable as Lester Young or Joe Henderson. Dewey can as easily invoke a sense of freedom in complex, difficult harmonic terrain as he can offer a post-Coleman take on the blues; and his unmistakable sound and spirit always make it uniquely his own”.

This will be the first time Metheny and Redman have performed together live since their extensive touring in the early 80’s as part of a quartet that then included bassist Charlie Haden and drummer . For this concert they will be joined by the rhythm section from Redman’s current band; bassist John Mehegan and drummer Matt Wilson.

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Source: Festival International de Jazz de Montréal – (514) 523-3378

Media Information: Myriam Achard, Media Relations Director - (514) 523-3378, ext. 535 ; [email protected] Marie-Eve Boisvert, Press Attachée - (514) 523-3378, ext. 666 ; [email protected] Sophie Desbiens, International and Travel Media Relations – (514) 523-3378, ext. 613 ; [email protected]

Public Information: Bell Info-Jazz Line – (514) 871-1881 or toll free 1-888-515-0515 ; www.montrealjazzfest.com