Pat Metheny - The Broadcast Collection (Live) (2019)

Since arriving on the jazz scene as an adolescent in the mid-'70s with Gary Burton, guitarist, composer, and bandleader Pat Metheny has established himself as one of the most original jazz musicians in the world. He has won 20 Grammy Awards, and is the only artist to do so in ten different categories. A consummate stylist and risk-taker, he melds a singular, euphoric sense of harmony with Latin and Brazilian sounds, rock, and global folk musics into progressive and contemporary jazz. His 1976 ECM debut, Bright Size Life with bassist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Bob Moses, and the self-titled Pat Metheny Group two years later, resonated with audiences and critics for their reliance on euphoric harmonies and compelling rhythmic ideas. 1981's As Falls Witchita, So Falls Witchita Falls, with longtime musical partner, keyboardist Lyle Mays, topped the jazz charts. The Pat Metheny Group won their first Grammy for Best Jazz Fusion Performance for 1982's Offramp. The Metheny Group and Ornette Coleman cut Song X as the guitarist's Geffen debut in 1986. The PMG earned consecutive gold record certifications in 1987 for Still Life (Talking) and Letter from Home in 1989. 1992's Secret Story offered a dazzling collaboration between PMG, the Pinpeat Orchestra, the London Orchestra, the Choir of the Cambodian Royal Palace, and Toots Thielemans. (All 13 PMG albums charted inside the Top 200.) Metheny's 2011 solo guitar album, What's It All About, took home a Grammy in the Best New Age Album category. The guitarist's Unity Band, with Chris Potter on saxophone and bass clarinet, Ben Williams on bass, and Antonio Sánchez on drums, won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental album in 2013. Metheny expanded the group into a quintet for the following year's Kin. Along with earning continued accolades, including being named a 2018 NEA Jazz Masters, the guitarist has remained highly active, touring in a quartet with pianist Gwilym Simcock, Sanchez, and bassist Linda May Han Oh (as heard on 2020's From This Place). He also collaborated with guitarist Jason Vieaux and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet on 2021's Road to the Sun.