Smokin' at the Half Note is the absolute greatest jazz-guitar album ever made. It is also the record that taught me how to play.
Pat MethenyRead
The guitar for me is a translation device. It's not a goal. And in some ways, jazz isn't a destination for me. For me, jazz is a vehicle that takes you to the true destination - a musical one that describes all kinds of stuff about the human condition and the way music works.
Interpretation
The guitar serves as a means to express deeper emotions and experiences through music rather than merely a goal.
In this quote, Pat Metheny conveys the idea that the guitar is not just an instrument for him but rather a medium through which he can explore and express the complexities of human experience and emotions. He sees jazz not as a final destination but as a journey that allows for deeper understanding and connection to the essence of music and human life.
In practice
In a speech about creativity at a music festival.
Smokin' at the Half Note is the absolute greatest jazz-guitar album ever made. It is also the record that taught me how to play.
The beauty of jazz is that it's malleable. People are addressing it to suit their own personalities.
...to me if it's anything, jazz is a verb-it's more like a process than it is a thing.
I think jazz is actually quite unforgiving in its disdain for nostalgia. It demands creativity and change at its highest level.
I can't really say enough about Chris Potter. He is one of the greatest musicians I have ever known, and every second I have been on the band stand with him has been an absolute pleasure.
There are musicians who go through their lives sort of shedding their skins. For me, I've always felt backward-compatible to Version 1.0.
I don't rely on my figure to sell records.
I listen to the radio and I like all kinds of music, you know, but I like to hear from people who have been there. Hank Williams has been there.
Hip hop is usually a bunch of guys talking to a bunch of guys, in my experience. It's homosocial, not homosexual, in that it's almost always all one gender in a room where it's being created. That locker-room environment has an impact on the language. I think the music suffers 'cause it allows an almost cartoonish level of misogyny.
It's like there was me, then the Beatles phase, and now I'm me again.
I've been writing a lot of road songs. Writing a lot of homesick songs. But once you start playing them out, it all ain't no secret anymore. Everyone knows how you feel.
It may be that when the angels go about their task praising God, they play only Bach. I am sure, however, that when they are together en famille they play Mozart.
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