An Evening with Pat Metheny

The Lobero continued its very-much-requited love affair with jazz on Sunday, October 28, with a visit from master guitarist and composer Pat Metheny. At the helm of his current quartet, which features Gwilym Simcock on piano, Linda May Han Oh on bass, and Antonio Sanchez on drums, Metheny presented a program unlike any he has played before this current tour. Ordinarily, the artist only reaches back to his earliest material at the end of a set; for this special Evening with Pat Metheny presentation, he chose to go there over and over again, opening solo with his Pikasso guitar and then flowing into the Brazilian-influenced tune “So May It Secretly Begin” from his 1987 Pat Metheny Group album Still Life (Talking).

The band played continuously for more than two hours, with most of the material coming from Metheny’s catalog of the 1970s and 1980s. There was plenty of excitement for guitar aficionados, as Metheny trotted out not only his trusty Ibanez signature model but also the 42-string experimental Pikasso built for him by Canadian luthier Linda Manzer and the Roland G-303 synthesizer guitar that allows him to sound at times like a trumpet or an electric violin.

The show also contained a surprise cameo from vocalist Tierney Sutton, who sang a new Metheny composition with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman (“The Way We Were,” “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”), who were in the audience. Metheny is a special artist, without question the greatest jazz guitarist of our time, and it is always a privilege to spend a night with him in the Lobero, which he said he considers his “living room.”