The Man Machine
February 8, 2010 | Posted by NE Admin 
The Man Who Plays With Himself
9 Feb – Pat Metheny
20:00, BOZAR, Centre for Fine Arts
Pat Metheny was born in Kansas City 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. Since then, he has performed with artists as diverse as Steve Reich to Ornette Coleman to Herbie Hancock to Jim Hall to Milton Nascimento to David Bowie. Over the years, Metheny has won countless polls as “Best Jazz Guitarist” and awards, including three gold records, 17 Grammy Awards including an unprecedented seven consecutive Grammies for seven consecutive albums.
He will be stretching himself with a highly unusual performance at BOZAR, with his “Orchestrion” a machine that is, in his words, “a method of developing ensemble-oriented music using acoustic and acoustoelectric musical instruments that are mechanically controlled in a variety of ways, using solenoids and pneumatics. With a guitar, pen or keyboard I am able to create a detailed compositional environment or a spontaneously developed improvisation, with the pieces on this particular recording leaning toward the compositional side of the spectrum. On top of these layers of acoustic sound, I add my conventional electric guitar playing as an improvised component.”
With this, he is taking an entirely new approach to the idea of a musician playing solo. Citing his heritage as a 20th Century musician, Metheny, says that he has always been interested in technology, right from when he first plugged in an electric guitar and his background in jazz. He explains, “One of the inspiring hallmarks of the jazz tradition through the decades has been the way that the form has willfully ushered in fresh musical contexts, resulting in new performance environments for players and composers. This pursuit of change, and the way that various restless souls along the way have bridged the roots of the form with the new possibilities of their own time, has been a major defining element for me in the music’s evolution at every key point along the way.”
This technology means that his robot musicians can perform in a way that the human body can never do, but as each step in programmed by the composer, it still keeps a human feel. Metheny says that it is like performing with many versions of himself. In any case, with his reputation for high quality music and a love of the inventive, this concert will be something very different and should be entertaining and exciting.
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