Revered US guitarist Pat Metheny has been confirmed as the recipient of the PRS for Music Gold Award at this year’s Jazz FM Awards, which take place next Monday on 30 April at Shoreditch Town Hall, London. Widely acclaimed as one of the all-time jazz guitar greats, Metheny’s extraordinary recording career began in 1974 on pianist Paul Bley’s album Jaco, named after the iconic bassist Jaco Pastorius, who also appeared on the album and on Metheny’s 1976 acclaimed debut on ECM, Bright Sized Life, which also featured drummer Bob Moses. The guitarist went on to win 20 Grammy Awards over a vast recording legacy that continues today with a new album scheduled for later this year. Metheny will be at the awards ceremony to present an award and collect the prestigious Gold Award. Previous recipients of this award include pianist Ramsey Lewis and The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts.

Cécile McLorin Salvant also won the International Jazz Act of the Year Award.

See the full list of winners here

Pat Metheny on TKA

Cécile McLorin Salvant on TKA

National Endowment for the Arts – Each year the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) honors individuals whose talent and dedication have made an impact on jazz in this country. In celebration of the 2018 NEA Jazz Masters—Todd Barkan, Joanne Brackeen, Pat Metheny, and Dianne Reeves—the NEA, in collaboration with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, hosts a free concert in honor of the honorees on Monday, April 16, 2018 at 8:00 p.m. ET in Washington, DC. The concert, which was also webcast live, brought together many stars of the jazz world in performances that highlighted the NEA Jazz Masters’ careers.

In addition, on Sunday, April 15 at NPR’s headquarters, the 2018 NEA Jazz Masters took part in a listening party that allowed the audience to hear directly from the NEA Jazz Masters about the music that plays important roles in their lives and careers. To close the NEA Jazz Masters celebration, on Tuesday, April 17, Dianne Reeves visited Howard University to give a master class, which was also open to the public to observe.

Read more about the NEA Jazz Masters here

Pat Metheny on TKA

Adam McCulloch for JAZZWISE MAGAZINE – In these turbulent times small things can provide a reassuring sense of constancy. So Pat Metheny‘s arrival on stage clutching a 48-string guitar, in a striped t-shirt and jeans, with the smile of a man in his element etched on his face, relayed a sense of ‘all is well with the world’, a glowing feeling that persisted for the next two and a half hours and beyond.

This was the opening day of the EFG London Jazz Festival – an occasion that always means making a tough choice: the big opening Jazz Voice bash at the Royal Festival Hall, Manu Dibango at Ronnie’s, Groove Warriors at the Bull’s Head, Michael Janisch Band at Rich Mix, Tomasz Stanko at Cadogan Hall… But Metheny was the stellar billing: a multi-Grammy Award and Downbeat Poll winner whose gigs over the past 40 years have been marked not only by incredible musicianship, adventurous technology and great tunes but by a ferocious commitment to continued musical searching.

Joined for the current cycle of gigs by Brit Gwilym Simcock on piano, Malaysian-born, Australian-raised Linda May Han Oh on bass and 15-year Metheny associate Antonio Sánchez, from Mexico City on drums, Metheny’s tune choices were similar to those of the Ronnie Scott’s sets last year: lesser known PMG tracks, picks from his 1976 debut Bright Size Life, various Trio albums and the 1992 masterpiece Secret Story. Without a new album to promote this was Metheny enjoying himself with old tunes and finding fresh ways of playing them.

Read the full review on Jazzwise Magazine

Pat Metheny on TKA

Jazz guitar and deep compositions are Pat Metheny’s bag. He’s been at it for decades, growing as a player and as a writer while bringing equally monstrous musicians along for the ride. When stage hands pulled away the cloth for the show’s second half, an array of items — bells, drums, an accordion, a xylophone, bottle organs — were housed in casings that gave the stage a steampunk jazz look. And they weren’t just for show.

Read the full article on THE ROANOKE TIMES
Pat Metheny on TKA 

Pat Metheny, one of the world’s leading jazz guitarists, has assembled a typically unusual band for his current tour. The five-man Unity Group could well be the only one on America’s summer concert circuit that peps up its performances with an orchestrion. The orchestration may not be to all tastes, but its use in these concerts is emblematic of Mr. Metheny’s fresh approach to contemporary jazz, which shows no signs of wilting after more than four decades.

Read the full article on THE ECONOMIST
Pat Metheny on TKA