Like Django Reinhardt or Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny is that relatively rare thing: a jazz guitarist who has become a household name. ‘Jazz’ doesn’t begin to cover his remit, though, since this Lee’s Summit, Missouri-born virtuoso is similarly well-versed in fusion, Latin music, progressive jazz, synthesised music, film scoring and more.
Metheny started out on trumpet, but eventually convinced his parents to gift him a Gibson ES-140 guitar for his 12th birthday after being wowed by The Beatles on US TV. “Up until then the guitar was the only instrument they flatly refused to have in the house,” he tells Prog, “so you can imagine the appeal!” At 15, Metheny won a scholarship to jazz camp with venerable US jazz journal DownBeat sponsoring him, and at 19 he became the youngest-ever teacher at Boston, Massachusetts’ prestigious Berklee College Of Music.
