Pat Metheny’s Single “Ole & Gard” from Upcoming Dream Box Release Available Today (May 12)

(May 2023) — Legendary American guitarist, composer and improviser Pat Metheny’s newest album, Dream Box, is scheduled for release on the BMG Modern Recordings label on June 16. Meanwhile, today sees the release of the album’s second single, “Ole & Gard” (May 12). Dream Box can be pre-ordered on CD, vinyl and digital formats. Comprising nine “found tracks” for “quiet electric guitar,” Metheny describes it as “a unique recording for me; it is essentially a compilation of solo tracks recorded across a few years that I only [re-]discovered while listening on tour.” The previously released single, “From the Mountains,” is also available. The full album will be available here.

Meanwhile, the guitarist has a host of tour dates lined up in the U.S. and Europe with his Side-Eye Trio. Launched in 2016 as a platform for up-and-coming players, this iteration features pianist Chris Fishman and drummer Joe Dyson. The Side-Eye tour begins in June and moves to Europe in July. Beginning in September, Metheny launches a fall tour in support of Dream Box with destinations throughout the U.S.

Metheny has already produced a catalogue of 50 recordings that have won 20 Grammys in twelve different categories, yet his “complex and restlessly curious musical sensibility” (The Guardian) continues to lead him in new directions. As he says in the Dream Box liner notes, he usually “live[s] on output, with little or no time for input,” but on tour that formula changes: traveling frees up hours, even if only on a bus or in a hotel room. It was thus while on tour that he began rummaging through his old recordings. He explains:

“I was surprised to find this program emerging as a coherent whole. I found that I had unintentionally gotten to a destination I had not planned for. … These nine tracks were my favorites and added up to something unique for me. I never played anything more than once. These are really moments in time, and in fact I have almost no memory of having recorded most of them. They just kind of showed up. Every track but one reflects a method of recording that began for me on the piece ‘Unity Village,’ way back on Bright Size Life: an initial harmonic part with a second track of melodic and improvisational material.”

Measured in terms of influence, Metheny’s catalogue is in a class by itself. New Chautauqua (1979) almost single-handedly defined an era of instrumental steel-stringed Americana that spawned legions of imitators. Zero Tolerance for Silence pushed the boundaries of modern music-making once again, and served as a companion piece to the Grammy-winning disc Secret Story. The Orchestrion Project – for which Metheny wrote the music and built a series of instruments to be controlled by his guitar, recording the results both in the studio and in a live concert – was so new in conception and execution that even a decade-plus later, it still stands apart from any previous ideas of what a solo performer might achieve alone onstage.

Alongside those projects was yet another stream of development: two back-to-back, Grammy-winning solo baritone guitar recordings: One Quiet Night and What’s It All About, the predecessors to Dream Box. Not only do they shine as pure solo guitar recordings, but they also introduced an entirely new tuning system that allowed Metheny to create an almost orchestral range, from bass to soprano, within the realm of a simple steel six-string guitar.

The title Dream Box has multiple meanings. “Box” is jazz slang for a hollow-body guitar, and Dream Box documents many different guitar sounds. But “Dream” is the key here, as in the dreaming of Metheny’s singular imagination and in the kind of “dream logic” that is hard to pin down but is absolutely coherent. In his own words: “Dreams in their broadest sense make up the vibe with this set. Music exists for me in an elusive state, often at its best when discovered apart from any particular intention.”

About Pat Metheny

Pat Metheny was born in Lee’s Summit, MO on August 12, 1954 into a musical family. Starting on trumpet at the age of eight, 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 redefine the genre by utilizing new technology and constantly working to evolve the improvisational and sonic potential of his instrument.

Metheny’s versatility is nearly without peer on any instrument. Over the years, 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. Metheny’s body of work includes compositions for solo guitar, small ensembles, electric and acoustic instruments, large orchestras, and ballet pieces and even the robotic instruments of his Orchestrion project, while always sidestepping the limits of any one genre.

As well as being an accomplished musician, Metheny has also participated in the academic arena as a music educator. At 18, he was the youngest teacher ever at the University of Miami. At 19, he became the youngest teacher ever at the Berklee College of Music, where he also received an honorary doctorate more than twenty years later, in 1996. He has also taught music workshops all over the world, from the Dutch Royal Conservatoire to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz to clinics in Asia and South America. He has been a true musical pioneer in the realm of electronic music, and was one of the very first jazz musicians to treat the synthesizer as a serious musical instrument. Years before the invention of MIDI technology, Metheny was using the Synclavier as a composing tool. He also has been instrumental in the development of several new kinds of guitars such as the soprano acoustic guitar, the 42-string Pikasso guitar, Ibanez’s PM series jazz guitars, and a variety of other custom instruments.

It is one thing to attain popularity as a musician, but it is another to receive the kind of acclaim Metheny has garnered from critics and peers. Over the years, he has won countless polls as “Best Jazz Guitarist” and awards, including three gold records for (Still Life) Talking, Letter from Home, and Secret Story. He has also won 20 Grammy Awards spread out over a variety of different categories including Best Rock Instrumental, Best Contemporary Jazz Recording, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, and Best Instrumental Composition – at one point winning seven consecutive Grammys for seven consecutive albums. In 2015 he was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame, becoming only the fourth guitarist to be included (along with Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery) and its youngest member. Metheny has spent much of his life on tour, often doing more than 100 shows a year since becoming a bandleader in the 70’s. At the time of this writing, he continues to be one of the brightest stars of the jazz community, dedicating time to both his own projects and those of emerging artists and established veterans alike, helping them to reach their audience as well as realizing their own artistic visions.

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Pat Metheny: Dream Box
Label: BMG Modern Recordings
Release date: June 16, 2023
Format: CD, vinyl and digital
1. The Waves Are Not the Ocean
2. From the Mountains
3. Ole & Gard
4. Trust Your Angels
5. Never Was Love
6. I Fall in Love Too Easily
7. P.C. of Belgium
8. Morning of the Carnival
9. Clouds Can’t Change the Sky

Pat Metheny: tour dates
Side-Eye with Chris Fishman & Joe Dyson
June 7
Lebanon, NH
Lebanon Opera House

June 8
Beverly, MA
The Cabot Performing Arts Center

June 9
Nashua, NH
Nashua Center for the Arts

June 10
Wilmington, DE
The Grand Opera House

June 11
Richmond, VA
The National

June 13
Cincinnati, OH
Memorial Hall

June 14
Saint Louis, MO
The Sheldon Concert Hall

June 15
Kansas City, MO
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

June 16
Champaign, IL
Virginia Theatre

June 17
Cleveland Heights, OH
Cain Park

June 18
Newark, OH
Midland Theatre

June 20
Highland Park, IL
Ravinia Festival

June 22
Munhall, PA
Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall

June 23
Rochester, NY
Rochester International Jazz Festival

June 24
New York, NY
Beacon Theatre

June 25
Saratoga Springs, NY
Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival

June 26
Washington, DC
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

July 5
Aarhus, Denmark
Musikhuset Aarhus

July 6 & 7
Copenhagen, Denmark
DR Koncerthuset

July 9
Rotterdam, Netherlands
North Sea Jazz Festival

July 10
Lille, France
Théâtre Sébastopol

July 12
Vienne, France
Jazz à Vienne – Théâtre Antique

July 13
Montreux, Switzerland
Montreux Jazz Festival

July 15
Sète, France
Jazz à Sète Festival – Théâtre de la Mer

July 16
Monte-Carlo, Monaco
Grimaldi Forum

July 17
Lucca, Italy
Piazza Napoleone

July 18
Udine, Italy
Castello di Udine

July 19
Bergamo, Italy
Lazzaretto

July 21
Marciac, France
Jazz in Marciac

July 22
Girona, Spain
Festival de la Porta Ferrada – Guixols Arena

July 24
San Sebastián, Spain
Kursaal Auditorium – Jazzaldia

July 26
Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
Tío Pepe Festival

Dream Box Tour
Sep 14
York, PA
Appell Center for the Performing Arts – Capitol Theatre

Sep 16
Portland, ME
State Theatre

Sep 17
Red Bank, NJ
Count Basie Center for the Arts

Sep 19
Ridgefield, CT
Ridgefield Playhouse

Sep 20
Hartford, CT
Infinity Music Hall

Sep 21
Boston, MA
The Wilbur Theatre

Sep 22
Glenside, PA
The Keswick Theatre

Sep 23
Stony Brook, NY
Staller Center for the Arts

Sep 25
Burlington, VT
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts

Sep 29
Indianapolis, IN
Indy Jazz Fest (Clowes Memorial Hall)

Sep 30
Royal Oak, MI
Royal Oak Music Theatre

Oct 3
Des Moines, IA
Hoyt Sherman Place

Oct 5
Milwaukee, WI
Marcus Performing Arts Center

Oct 6
Louisville, KY
The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts – Bomhard Theater

Oct 9
Nashville, TN
Ryman Auditorium

Oct 10
Memphis, TN
Minglewood Hall

Oct 11
Dallas, TX
The Majestic Theatre

Oct 12
Austin, TX
The Paramount Theatre

Oct 14
Albuquerque, NM
KiMo Theatre

Oct 15
Denver, CO
Paramount Theatre

Oct 16
Boulder, CO
Boulder Theater

Oct 18–21
Park City, Utah
Egyptian Theatre

Oct 27
Irvine, CA
Irvine Barclay Theatre

Nov 7
Portland, OR
Revolution Hall

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© 21C Media Group, May 2023