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" If we are going to list guitar influences, the biggest one by far is Wes Montgomery. Also, Gary Burton was obviously huge for me in a number of ways. But beyond that, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard. "

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" I'm triggering acoustic instruments. I'm literally beating, smacking, hitting, blowing, doing physical things. It's an incredibly exciting way to make music. "

Pat Metheny

Things

Way

Music

" I think jazz is actually quite unforgiving in its disdain for nostalgia. It demands creativity and change at its highest level. "

" The pianist Cecil Taylor is extremely melodic; the guitarist Derek Bailey is extremely melodic, and Ornette Coleman. "

" I used to love going and playing jam sessions, doing things spontaneously. I can't do that anymore. Everything you do is documented, nothing is casual anymore. "

" I don't know if I would qualify as mainstream. I think I have managed to function pretty successfully on the fringes of the music world and have been able to play exactly what I have wanted the way I have wanted. "

" There are musicians who go through their lives sort of shedding their skins. For me, I've always felt backward-compatible to Version 1.0. "

Pat Metheny

Always

" Somehow, trumpet is the reference point for me - it was actually my first instrument. "

" One of the things jazz has always excelled at is translating the reality of the times through its musical prism. "

" A lot of jazz artists think people should like what they're doing just because it's jazz. I don't buy that. "

" I think I represent a more left-wing view of what jazz is. "

Pat Metheny

Think

Jazz

" I was deep in the zone of practicing almost constantly. "

" I love playing and working on music. It is something that I feel really lucky to be able to spend my life doing. And I don't sleep much! "

" What I look for in musicians is a sense of infinity. "

" I have three young kids and a great family. I love hanging out with them more than anything. "

" From 1962 to 1965, the guitar became this icon of youth culture, thanks mostly to the Beatles. "

" When talking about writing, I often use the analogy of archaeology. There are these great tunes all around. Your skill as a musician allows you to pick them out without breaking them. "

" There are some musicians who are talented and see themselves as some kind of natural geniuses or something because of a certain amount of natural ability. But that is often rarely the case over the long term. "

" Someone who knew me when I was 14 said I was the oldest 14-year-old on the planet. Now I'm a 14-year-old who is 60. "

Pat Metheny

Someone

Said

" No two notes are ever the same volume. With the guitar, you really have to model in your mind this wider thing; you're trying to create the illusion of a bigger dynamic range. "

" Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that. "

" The first thing I learned was the theme from Peter Gunn. "

" I don't worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about jazz. "

" The beauty of jazz is that it's malleable. People are addressing it to suit their own personalities. "

" My older brother Mike is an excellent trumpet player. By the time he was 12, he was playing around Kansas City in classical situations. He was already an amazing talent. "

" People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds. "

" If you come to my house, you won't see a wall of trophies or things like that. I'm sort of 'on to the next thing' all the time. "

Pat Metheny

Wall

House

" The guitar for me is a translation device. It's not a goal. And in some ways, jazz isn't a destination for me. For me, jazz is a vehicle that takes you to the true destination - a musical one that describes all kinds of stuff about the human condition and the way music works. "

" For me, let's keep jazz as folk music. Let's not make jazz classical music. Let's keep it as street music, as people's everyday-life music. Let's see jazz musicians continue to use the materials, the tools, the spirit of the actual time that they're living in, as what they build their lives as musicians around. "

" I'm always trying to find 'connections' between things. That art is the juxtaposition of a lot of things that seem unrelated but add up to something recognizable. "

" I would always contend that talent is an element, but over the long run, ultimately, a minor part of it all; it is mostly hard work. "