Pat Metheny was born in Lee's Summit, Missouri on August 12, 1954 into a musical family. Starting on trumpet at the age of 8, Metheny switched to guitar at age 12. By the age of 15, he was working regularly with the best jazz musicians in Kansas City, receiving valuable on-the-bandstand experience at an unusually young age. Metheny first burst onto the international jazz scene in 1974. Over the course of his three-year stint with vibraphone great Gary Burton, the young Missouri native already displayed his soon-to-become trademarked playing style, which blended the loose and flexible articulation customarily reserved for horn players with an advanced rhythmic and harmonic sensibility - a way of playing and improvising that was modern in conception but grounded deeply in the jazz tradition of melody, swing, and the blues. With the release of his first album, Bright Size Life (1975), he reinvented the traditional “jazz guitar” sound for a new generation of players. Throughout his career, Pat Metheny has continued to re-define the genre by utilizing new technology and constantly working to evolve the improvisational and sonic potential of his instrument.
Over the years, he has performed with diverse artists like Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, Milton Nascimento, Joni Mitchell and David Bowie, to name just a few.
He is the younger brother of trumpet and flugelhorn player artist.
Winner of twenty Grammy Awards:
- Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Vocal Or Instrumental for 54828
- Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Vocal Or Instrumental for 54813
- Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Vocal Or Instrumental for 54844
- Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Vocal Or Instrumental for 54870
- Best Jazz Fusion Performance for 54876
- Best Instrumental Composition for Change Of Heart on 230899
- Best Contemporary Jazz Performance (Instrumental) for 53902
- Best Contemporary Jazz Performance (Instrumental) for 378990
- Best Contemporary Jazz Performance for 169774
- Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual Or Group for 52876
- Best Contemporary Jazz Performance for 240843
- Best Rock Instrumental Performance for The Roots Of Coincidence on 240843
- Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual Or Group for 154436
- Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for (Go) Get It on 618893
- Best Contemporary Jazz Album for 381286
- Best New Age Album for 230901
- Best Contemporary Jazz Album for 366834
- Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group for 10211
- New Age Album for 353127
- Best Jazz Instrumental Album for 469386
