Music instructor shares tribute to Pat Metheny

 “His songs sound relaxing, like you could put your feet up and sip cocoa. But meanwhile, they are full of time signature changes, odd phrases and key changes – insanely difficult for the performers,” Carey said.

Metheny’s unusual ability was evident at the age of 13 when he became a union player in Kansas City. Just five years later, in 1972, he became the youngest faculty member of the University of Miami, when his professor Joe Diorio quickly realized that the scholarship student should be teaching, instead of taking, guitar classes.

Later, Metheny moved from Florida to Boston to work with the country’s foremost living jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton, which launched the guitarist’s career.

The music of Metheny, known for its Brazilian polyrhythms, has earned 20 Grammy awards. He has been the leader of 42 albums, assisted on many more and is in demand for film scores in addition to touring more than 150 days a year.

Although Metheny hailed from a family with three classical trumpet players, he relished innovation and was quoted as saying, “The beauty of jazz is that it’s malleable …. Jazz is more like a verb. It’s more like a process than it is a thing.”

“Sometimes he worked folk music into his jazz numbers which I wouldn’t allow my students to do, but it works for him,” Carey said.