Metheny Reaps Success with a No-Compromise Attitude

Call Pat Metheny a skeptic. With a decade’s worth of achievements in hand, ranging from Grammy Awards and poll-winning performances in Down Beat, Cash Box, Playboy and Record World magazines to a string of chart-busting recordings, he still can’t quite believe it’s all happening.

“I find it really interesting,” said the guitarist-composer last weekend in a phone call from a tour stop in Santa Fe, N.M., “to hear my name mentioned in very commercial company--some of it not all that attractive to me. I mean, my musical references are Herbie Hancock’s sextet in the late ‘60s, Wes Montgomery playing with Wynton Kelly and Jim Hall--any time--and Sonny Rollins and ‘Trane.

“So, when I sometimes hear our record played on the radio right after Kenny G’s record, I have mixed reactions like, ‘Gee, I’m glad they’re playing our record,’ contrasted with, ‘Gosh, what did I do wrong?!’ ”

Hardly anything, if his recent activities are any indication. In the last year or so, Metheny, 35, has composed a dance piece for Les Ballet Jazz de Montreal, scored the music for an “American Playhouse” TV production, completed an 11-month world tour, which included 13 shows in the Soviet Union, premiered a composition written for him by Steve Reich and released a new Geffen Records album, “Letter From Home.” So much for comparisons with Kenny G.

Metheny, who performs with his group at the Wiltern Theatre tonight through Saturday, has his own thoughts about the reasons behind his success. “I guess the melodic nature of what I play helps,” he theorized. “I like melodies and they’re a basic part of my style. And I think my choice of the guitar as an instrument plays a part, too. It’s so much the symbol of our generation. We’ve all grown up hearing it.

“But the bottom line is that I’ve been at this for a long time. I’ve traveled a lot and built up a kind of grass-roots thing. I’ve been lucky that the people who’ve become fans seem to stick around for a while, hopefully because there’s something about the music they like.” He makes it clear, however, that he has does not intend to compromise his musical values for the sake of commercial success. Metheny’s pieces--the new album provides a number of good examples--are filled with shifting meters, sensuous Brazilian percussive accents and soaring improvisations: not exactly the stuff of everyday fusion jazz. His rigorously creative outlook recalls the everything-for-the-sake-of-the-music attitudes of the jazz players of a generation ago.

“Yeah,” he said, “I want to be able to play hip notes. I want to play with a good feel. I want to be able to get in there with the rhythm section and churn things around. And I see no reason for that kind of aesthetic level not to be achieved in the contemporary stylistic groove that I happen to use.

“Sure, I know it doesn’t make sense for me to go back and play Wes Montgomery tunes, much as I love them. Things are different now. I’ve got a Synclavier; I’ve got all these other technical resources.

“It’s 1989, it’s not 1969. The scene today is not as musically hip as it was 20 years ago, and I can’t put my head in the sand and pretend things aren’t different. But on the other hand, I can’t forget all the things that don’t change--all the things that I know are true about music, no matter what the style or the time.”

Metheny’s program this evening will feature the same group heard on “Letter From Home”: keyboardist Lyle Mays, drummer Paul Wertico, bassist Steve Rodby, percussionist Armando Marcal and all-purpose instrumentalist-vocalist Pedro Aznar. The continuity in the band has been remarkable. Metheny and Mays have been working together for 12 years; Wertico and Rodby have been with the them for more than seven years, and the other players for at least three.

Like so many other aspects of the Metheny career, his band’s longevity has evolved out of a determination to keep the music in the forefront. “Look,” he said, “I’m not real goal-oriented in the sense that I want to sell X number of records, and so forth. To me, this whole business of going around and playing tours and being moderately successful is still sort of amazing, because I never really planned on it. Especially because I haven’t really changed anything in order to get a big audience.

“I play real hard. The whole band does. There’s a lot of energy in the music, and I like to get it out to people. I’m not an introverted player. When I play I really want to play. I don’t hold back.”

“In one sense, I guess I’ve always been kind of backward. For some performers, the purpose of a gig is to get people to buy the record. To me, the recording is a way to get people to come to the gig. . . . Because when it comes right down to it, getting up there and playing is what it’s all about.”