Pat Metheny Unity Band

7:00 $100-50
Iconic Guitarist, with Chris Potter, Ben Williams, Antonio Sanchez

“…Metheny creates extraordinarily celestial sounds.” -Kansas City Star

“As a virtuoso guitarist, an expansive composer and, above all, an inveterate searcher, he knows how to bring human scale and feeling to the most outsize sort of spectacle.” -New York Times

With his first solo recording, Bright Size Life, in 1975, Pat Metheny essentially reinvented the classic “guitar sound” for a new generation of players. Over the past 40 years, Metheny has continued to change the game, winning 18 Grammy awards and creating his own place in modern music. 2012 brings us yet another new project from Metheny, featuring a stellar All-Star ensemble of Chris Potter on saxophone, Ben Williams on bass, and Antonio Sanchez on drums.

Metheny’s versatility is almost nearly without peer on any instrument. Over the years, he has performed with artists as diverse as Steve Reich to Ornette Coleman to Herbie Hancock to Jim Hall to Milton Nascimento to David Bowie. He has been part of a writing team with keyboardist Lyle Mays for more than twenty years – an association that has been compared to the Lennon/McCartney and Ellington/Strayhorn partnerships by critics and listeners alike. Metheny’s body of work includes compositions for solo guitar, small ensembles, electric and acoustic instruments, large orchestras, and ballet pieces, with settings ranging from modern jazz to rock to classical.

“one of the most studied (and copied) saxophonists on the planet” -Downbeat
Saxophonist Chris Potter burst onto the New York scene in 1989 as an 18-year-old prodigy with bebop icon Red Rodney (who himself had played as a young man alongside the legendary Charlie Parker). Potter has steered a steady course of growth as an instrumentalist and composer-arranger. A potent improviser with a warm, burnished tone, Potter has recorded 15 albums as a leader and appeared on over 100 recordings as a sideman. Potter’s acclaimed work with the Dave Holland Quintet and the Dave Douglas Quintet brought him to a wide audience, and with his recent Underground quartet he explores more expansive modal, mixed-meter composing.

A Washington D.C. native, bassist Ben Williams grew up listening to a diverse range of sounds including jazz, hip-hop, R&B, gospel, and classical. He is an esteemed student of music, graduating from the Duke Ellington School of Music and receiving a B.A. in Music Education at Michigan State University. Williams is pursuing a Master’s degree in Jazz Studies at the illustrious Juilliard School. He has performed and worked with musicians such as Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Roy Hargrove, Mulgrew Miller, Cyrus Chestnut, Ron Blake, Rodney Whitaker, Stefon Harris, Karriem Riggins, and many others. Williams was recently announced as iTunes “Jazz Breakthrough Artist of 2011.”

Since arriving in New York in the early 1990s, drummer Antonio Sanchez has been one of the most exciting and in-demand performers on the international jazz scene. He regularly records and tours with Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Kenny Werner, Charlie Haden, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and many others. He has been a member of Pat Metheny’s ensembles for several years.