An in-depth exploration of the style and influence of Pat Metheny, a truly distinctive musical voice of our time.

Guitarist and composer Pat Metheny, among the most acclaimed visionary musicians of our time, has for five decades toured with his many creative musical projects, most prominently the Pat Metheny Group, while collaborating with artists as celebrated as Charlie Haden, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman, and Steve Reich. Metheny’s career-long crossing of musical genres has produced a style that transcends categorization, while maintaining his strong foundation in jazz, revealing the productive ends of embracing musical horizons.
 
Bob Gluck, whose perspective as pianist, composer, and educator has illuminated the music of Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis in his two previous books, now focuses his lens on the music of Pat Metheny. Neither a biography nor chronological record of Metheny’s musical output, Pat Metheny: Stories beyond Words instead captures Metheny’s self-conception as a musician and the threads that unite and distinguish his creative process. Drawing upon a wealth of new interviews and close readings of musical examples, Gluck offers a bird’s eye view of Metheny’s musical ideas. Among these are the metaphor of storytelling, the complementarity of simplicity and complexity, and the integrated roles of composer, performer, and band leader.
 
Much like Metheny’s signature style, this book is accessible to a wide range of readers, presenting new clarity, musical insight, and historical perspective about the legacy of Metheny’s groundbreaking music.