Pat Metheny Quotes

16 quotations by Pat Metheny

Whatever my recorded output is, it's a reflection of a general love of music.

The goal would be to always honor the music. That is the most important thing. I try to represent the high standards that have been set.

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

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

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.

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

It's more about conception and touch and spirit and soul than whether my hardware was in place.

I was totally involved in trying to figure out a way of doing things with my instrument that would fit the ideas that I had in my head.

I was able to work with the best musicians in Kansas City starting when I was really young.

I think I have a basic sound aesthetic that is in most of what I do.

I saw A Hard Day's Night 12 or 13 times.

I realized that equipment really had little to do with why I sound like the way I sound.

I hate the way chorus boxes sound.

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

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.

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