Jazz guitar master Pat Metheny and his quartet set to play at Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts

Jazz guitar master Pat Metheny and his quartet set to play at Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts

Image: Pat Metheny The innovative Pat Metheny Trio with Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez and Quartet with special added guest David Sánchez will take the stage on Thursday, Nov. 3, at 8 p.m. at Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.

Celebrating more than 30 years as one of the world's top jazz guitarists, Metheny had been touring recently with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Antonio Sanchez as a trio. That changed this summer when he played a searing set with saxophonist David Sánchez at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

"It was a fantastic set. We were all having so much fun playing off each other," Metheny said. "I knew that my next tour in the fall had to have as many dates with David as possible."

The Quick Center will present all four performers, who will play some tunes as a trio, some as a quartet and some as extended duet sections. Sánchez's addition means many more musical possibilities for the ensemble.

"With the four of us together on stage, watch out," Metheny said.

Born in Kansas City in 1954, Metheny began playing the trumpet by the time he was eight, but switched to the guitar at age 12, showing a master's prowess at a remarkably young age. Just three years later, he started playing in clubs with some of the city's top jazz musicians. By the time he was 19, he had made a name as the youngest teacher ever at both Berklee College of Music and the University of Miami.

Metheny first burst on the international music scene in 1974, with a three-year stint with vibraphone great Gary Burton. The young Missourian played with a loose, flexible articulation usually found in horn players, displaying a rhythmic and harmonic sensibility that would soon become his trademark.

Metheny's versatility and creativity are legendary and he's shared them with artists as diverse as Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock and David Bowie. His decades-long writing partnership with keyboardist Lyle Mays has been compared to the teams of John Lennon and Paul McCartney and Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.

A musical innovator, Metheny was one of the first jazz musicians to treat the synthesizer seriously and he has been instrumental in the development of several new kinds of guitar, including the 42-string Pikasso, the soprano acoustic and Ibanez's PM-100 jazz guitar.

Metheny's contributions have not gone unnoticed. He has won countless "Best Jazz Guitarist" polls and awards, and has three gold records for "(Still Life) Talking," "Letter from Home," and "Secret Story." He has 15 Grammys, including an unprecedented seven consecutive Grammys for seven consecutive albums.

McBride, a Philadelphia native, is one of the most acclaimed acoustic and electric bassists currently on the jazz scene. Pairings with Chick Corea, Kathleen Battle, D'Angelo, Diana Krall and Sting speak to his passion for musical diversity as well as his own versatility.

A graduate of Philadelphia's High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, he studied at the Juilliard School, but left to start playing the New York clubs, eventually joining Roy Hargrove's first band, the Benny Green Trio and Ray Brown's Superbass. In 1992, McBride was named Rolling Stone magazine's "Hot Jazz Artist." Since then he's released several solo recordings and has been featured on more than 200 recordings, touring and recording with Chaka Khan, Isaac Hayes, David Sanborn and many others.

Born in Mexico, Antonio Sanchez discovered his first drum set at the age of five and, as a teen, started performing with rock, jazz and Latin bands on the Mexico City scene. A magna cum laude graduate of Berklee, he was the "first call" drummer for some of New England's most active recording studios before he'd even finished his studies. Soon afterwards, he started touring with Dizzy Gillespie's United Nation Orchestra and later recorded the Grammy-nominated album "Motherland" with Danilo Perez.

While playing a double bill with Perez, he caught Metheny's ear and became the drummer with both the Trio and the Pat Metheny Group, which won a Grammy for "Speaking of Now" soon after he joined.

Born in Puerto Rico, David Sánchez is well known for his mix of straight-ahead jazz and Afro-Latin influences. Sánchez's creative style is steeped in the Cuban and Brazilian traditions, while drawing on legendary saxophonists Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker.

His breakout album, "Obsesión," produced by Branford Marsalis, won Sánchez his first Grammy nomination in 2001. Since moving to the United States in 1998, he's been a sought-after player, touring and recording with Eddie Palmieri, Charlie Haden and Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

Tickets are $50 and $45. For tickets, call the Quick Center box office at (203) 254-4010 or 1-877-ARTS-396. For more information, visit www.quickcenter.com.

Posted On: 10-06-2005 10:10 AM

Volume: 38 Number: 57