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Kristen Gleason
Director for Community Relations and Education
434·979·1922 ext. 103
kristen@theparamount.net

For Immediate Release

November 1 , 2005

Critically-acclaimed jazz guitarist and 16-time Grammy® Award-winner Pat Metheny has participated in just about every avenue of modern music-making possible, obliterating stylistic boundaries at every opportunity. Metheny's constant redefining of the jazz genre continues in his current tour with the Pat Metheny Trio and Quartet, which makes a stop at The Paramount Theater on Thursday, November 10.

Featured on the concert with Metheny are some musicians who are pretty heavy hitters on their own -- bassist Christian McBride, arguably the most acclaimed acoustic and electric bassist emerging from the jazz world in the last decade; drummer Antonio Sanchez, whose drumming is in demand worldwide with leading jazz orchestras and ensembles; and saxophonist David Sánchez, well-known to jazz cognoscenti for his mix of straight-ahead jazz with Afro-Latin influences.

Pat Metheny's versatility is almost nearly without peer on any instrument. Over the years, he has performed with artists as diverse as Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, Milton Nascimento, and 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, and large orchestras, with settings ranging from ballet pieces to modern jazz , rock, and classical. Metheny’s Grammy wins have been spread out over a variety of categories including Best Rock Instrumental, Best Contemporary Jazz Recording, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, and Best Instrumental Composition, and he has been awarded three gold records for (Still Life) Talking, Letter from Home, and Secret Story.

In just the last decade, Christian McBride's renown on the bass has exploded. While jazz lies at the root of his accomplishments, his passion for musical diversity has led him to work with everyone from Chick Corea to Pat Metheny, Kathleen Battle, D'Angelo, Diana Krall, to Bruce Hornsby, Quincy Jones, and Sting. McBride's wide musical versatility is highlighted by two recent projects -- the underground success of The Philadelphia Experiment, a hip-hop jazz funk project championed by jamband and college audiences, and the world-wide pop success of Sting's All This Time. McBride was named artistic director of the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Summer Program in 2000, and the University of Richmond's summer jazz program and the Dave Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific in 2001. He is also the newly appointed Co-Director of The Jazz Museum in Harlem.

Antonio Sanchez's drumming has taken him from Mexico City to Boston to the international jazz scene. A graduate of the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City and Boston's Berklee College of Music, it was the drum chair in Dizzy Gillespie's United Nation Orchestra that launched him internationally, and Danilo Perez’s acoustic trio (with which he recorded the Grammy nominated album Motherland) that brought Sanchez to Pat Metheny's attention. Sanchez is a member of both the Pat Metheny Group and Trio, and is featured on Speaking of Now (which won the 2003 Best Contemporary Jazz Album Grammy) and The Way Up, released January 2005. Sanchez's awards include the Buddy Rich Memorial Scholarship, The Zildjian Award, The Boston Jazz Society Scholarship Achievement Award, and Berklee's Most Outstanding Performer Award.

Saxophonist David Sánchez cites the bomba and plena rhythms of Puerto Rico, Cuban and Brazilian traditions, and artists Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, and John Coltrane as among his biggest early influences. A member of New York City’s swirling jazz scene by the late 80s and early 90s, Sánchez was invited to join the United Nations Orchestra by Dizzy Gillespie in 1991. Following three critically-acclaimed recordings, his album Obsesión, produced by Branford Marsalis, would garner the saxophonist his first Grammy nomination, to be repeated with the recording Melaza (also Latin Grammy-nominated). Sánchez's most recent recording, Coral, is the most ambitious manifestation to date of his continuing expansion of the frontiers of mainstream jazz to incorporate Afro-Latin influences.

The November 10 concert at The Paramount will begin at 8 pm. Seats are $49, $46, and $43. A special Patron ticket is also available for $75. For tickets and further details, contact The Paramount's Box Office at 434.979.1333.  Tickets may also be purchased online. For more information about each of the artists, please visit www.patmethenygroup.com, www.christianmcbride.com, www.antoniosanchez.net, and www.davidsanchezmusic.com.

-- ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION FOLLOWS --

Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny was born in Kansas City on August 12, 1954 into a musical family. Starting on trumpet at the age of 8, Metheny switched to guitar at age 12. By the age of 15, he was working regularly with the best jazz musicians in Kansas City, receiving valuable on-the-bandstand experience at an unusually young age. Metheny first burst onto the international jazz scene in 1974. Over the course of his three-year stint with vibraphone great Gary Burton, the young Missouri native already displayed his soon-to-become trademarked playing style, which blended the loose and flexible articulation customarily reserved for horn players with an advanced rhythmic and harmonic sensibility -- a way of playing and improvising that was modern in conception but grounded deeply in the jazz tradition of melody, swing, and the blues. With the release of his first album, Bright Size Life (1975), he reinvented the traditional "jazz guitar" sound for a new generation of players. Throughout his career, Pat Metheny has continued to re-define the genre by utilizing new technology and constantly working to evolve the improvisational and sonic potential of his instrument.

As well as being an accomplished musician, Metheny has also participated in the academic arena as a music educator. At 18, he was the youngest teacher ever at the University of Miami. At 19, he became the youngest teacher ever at the Berklee College of Music, where he also received an honorary doctorate more than twenty years later (1996). He has also taught music workshops all over the world, from the Dutch Royal Conservatory to the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz to clinics in Asia and South America. He has also been a true musical pioneer in the realm of electronic music, and was one of the very first jazz musicians to treat the synthesizer as a serious musical instrument. Years before the invention of MIDI technology, Metheny was using the Synclavier as a composing tool. He has also been instrumental in the development of several new kinds of guitars such as the soprano acoustic guitar, the 42-string Pikasso guitar, Ibanez's PM-100 jazz guitar, and a variety of other custom instruments.

It is one thing to attain popularity as a musician, but it is another to receive the kind of acclaim Metheny has garnered from critics and peers. Over the years, Metheny has won countless polls as Best Jazz Guitarist and awards, including three gold records for (Still Life) Talking, Letter from Home, and Secret Story. He has also won sixteen Grammy Awards spread out over a variety of different categories including Best Rock Instrumental, Best Contemporary Jazz Recording, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, Best Instrumental Composition. The Pat Metheny Group won an unprecedented seven consecutive Grammies for seven consecutive albums. Metheny has spent most of his life on tour, averaging between 120-240 shows a year since 1974. At the time of this writing, he continues to be one of the brightest stars of the jazz community, dedicating time to both his own projects and those of emerging artists and established veterans alike, helping them to reach their audience as well as realizing their own artistic visions.

Christian McBride
Christian McBride was born on May 31, 1972 in Philadelphia. Having two working bassists in the family was to be a major influence on him. There was his father, Lee Smith, who played bass for everyone from local Philly Soul superstars like the Delfonics and Billy Paul, to Cuban conguero and Mongo Santamaria. Then there was his great uncle, Howard Cooper, who played bass with members of the jazz avant-garde, including Sun Ra and Khan Jamal.

At the age of 13, Christian began causing a buzz around the local Philly jazz scene, sitting in with as many local musicians as possible. While attending Philadelphia's fertile High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (C.A.P.A.), McBride found himself in the company of other young talents such as members of what would become the first recognized Hip-Hop band (The Roots), vocalists Boyz II Men, organist Joey DeFrancesco, vocalist/songwriter Amel Larrieux, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, and singer/songwriter Marc Nelson (now a member of Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds' camp). Upon graduating in 1989, McBride was awarded a partial scholarship to attend the world-renowned Juilliard School in New York City.

McBride was already so good, so versatile, and in-demand, that he never had a chance to settle into his Julliard studies. He joined Bobby Watson's band, Horizon, and started working around New York at clubs such as Bradley's and the Village Gate with real hard-core New York stalwarts as John Hicks, Kenny Barron, Larry Willis, and Gary Bartz. He left school to join Roy Hargrove's first band. Other high-profile gigs followed with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's band, the Benny Green Trio, and the one that solidified Christian's place in the jazz canon, Ray Brown's phenomenal Superbass. In 1992, McBride was named Rolling Stone magazine's "Hot Jazz Artist." The next year, he truly proved it as a member of guitarist Pat Metheny's "Special Quartet" which included the late, great drum master, Billy Higgins, and the then, up-and-coming saxophonist, Joshua Redman.

In addition to all of his solo recordings throughout the last decade, McBride has been featured on over 200 recordings and has toured and/or recorded with artists such as David Sanborn, George Duke, McCoy Tyner, Bobby Hutcherson, Chaka Khan, Joe Henderson, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, Milt Jackson, Peabo Bryson, Ray Brown, Natalie Cole, George Benson, Benny Golson, Johnny Griffin, and Issac Hayes. McBride has graced the big screen playing his bass in director Robert Altman's 1940's period piece, Kansas City (1996), as well as recording on its two soundtracks.

McBride's first album as a leader, Gettin' To It, was one of the biggest selling jazz records of 1995. The crown jewel of the CD is Neal Hefti's Splanky, which features Christian in a three-way bass-off with his two father figures, Ray Brown and Milt Hinton. Each subsequent album has met with unbridled success. Vertical Vision, his latest album, is a solid blast of his kaleidoscopic fusion, and features the Christian McBride Band. A live album by the Christian McBride Band (with special guests) is planned for release by Rope-A-Dope in 2006.

In 2003, Pat Metheny tapped McBride and Antonio Sanchez to be the latest members in his acoustic trio format. The deep affinity between these three jazz powerhouses created concerts of high intensity and contained a wide breadth of jazz improvisation around and within standards, non-standards, and hits from the Metheny canon. The performances of this incarnation of the Pat Metheny Trio blew away audiences the world over. A live album is scheduled for release by Nonesuch in 2006. Christian currently resides in New York City.

Antonio Sanchez
Antonio Sanchez was born in Mexico City November 1, 1971. At age five, he discovered an irresistible attraction towards the drumset. After a few years of private study, he started performing in a wide variety of musical situations ranging from rock to jazz and Latin to fusion with several bands in Mexico City's music scene. At age seventeen he enrolled in the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City, where he pursued a degree in classical piano and composition. Besides his instrumental studies he completed courses on traditional harmony, counterpoint, arranging, vocal ensembles and composition while keeping busy with intensive drum practice.

In 1993, Sanchez earned a scholarship to pursue Jazz Studies at Boston's Berklee College of Music. While there, he studied jazz arranging, improvisation, jazz composition, ear training, harmony and solfege with such internationally known jazz musician as Kenwood Dennard, Casey Scheurell, Jamey Hadad, Victor Mendoza, John Ramsay, Ed Uribe, Hal Crook, and Bill Pierce, among others. In between his studies, Sanchez remained very active in Boston's musical community, performing and recording. He was the first call drummer for some of New England's most active recording studios, where he recorded for a wide variety of artists and producers including renowned Boston-based musicians like Gary Burton, Mick Goodrick and Danilo Perez.

After graduating Magna Cum Laude from Berklee, Sanchez obtained a scholarship for a Masters in Jazz Improvisation at the New England Conservatory in Boston studying with, among others, George Garzone and Danilo Perez. A few months into his studies at the Conservatory, Paquito D'Rivera called Danilo to recommend someone to fill the drum chair in Dizzy Gillespie's United Nation Orchestra (which Mr. D'Rivera had taken over after the great trumpet player's passing). Sanchez was the first recommendation that came to mind. The Orchestra embarked on a long tour catapulting Sanchez into the international jazz scene. Later that year, it was Mr. Perez who required Sanchez's talents to be a part of his acoustic trio. They toured extensively for a couple of years and recorded the Grammy nominated album Motherland.

During a double bill concert in Europe which included Perez's trio playing opposite Pat Metheny's trio, the legendary guitarist took notice in Sanchez's drumming. After a few months of auditions he was offered the drum chair of the Pat Metheny Group for their upcoming recordings and tours. The Group has recorded two albums since Sanchez's addition. The first, Speaking of Now, won a Grammy in 2003 under the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category. A DVD under the same name documenting the tour has also been released. The second effort, The Way Up, was released in January 2005. In addition to being a member of the Pat Metheny Group, Sanchez is also one third of Metheny's acoustic trio featuring Christian McBride on bass.

Sanchez has conducted clinics and master classes in Europe, Japan, North and Latin America including the prestigious Modern Drummer Festival Weekend 2003 (DVD recording released), The Montreal Drum Festival and PASIC among others. Some of the institutions that have hosted Sanchez as a visiting artist are Musician's Institute in L.A., Berklee College of Music, and Drummer's Collective in NYC. He has also been the recipient of several scholarships and awards like the Buddy Rich Memorial Scholarship, The Zildjian Award, The Boston Jazz Society Scholarship Achievement Award and Berklee's Most Outstanding Performer Award. Sanchez is endorsed by Yamaha Drums and Hardware, Zildjian Cymbals and Sticks, Evans Drumheads and LP Percussion. He currently resides in New York City.

David Sánchez
David Sánchez, born 35 years ago in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, began playing percussion and drums at age 8 before migrating to tenor saxophone four years later. While a student at the prestigious La Escuela Libre de MÅ“sica in San Juan, he also took up soprano and alto saxophones as well as flute and clarinet. The bomba and plena rhythms of Puerto Rico, along with Cuban and Brazilian traditions, were among the biggest influences on Sánchez's early taste in music. Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane had the greatest impact on his playing. "I'm just talking about tenor, now. Charlie Parker is a major influence, of course, and many, many others."

In 1986 Sánchez enrolled at the Universidad de Puerto Rico in Rio P'edras, but the pull of New York was irresistible. By 1988 he had auditioned for and won a music scholarship at Rutgers University in New Jersey. With such close proximity to New York City, Sánchez quickly became a member of its swirling jazz scene. He gigged with pianist Eddie Palmieri, sometimes sharing the stage with saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera. At the recommendation of D'Rivera and trumpeter Claudio Roditi who had admired David's performance, Dizzy Gillespie invited the young saxophonist to join his United Nations Orchestra in 1991.

The Departure, his 1995 debut for Columbia, gained critical kudos, as did the disc's successors Sketches of Dreams and Street Scenes. Meanwhile, Sánchez had begun touring with various jazz greats such as Kenny Barron, Roy Haynes and legendary drummer Elvin Jones, recording with Barron and Haynes respectively. When he returned to the studio for his next project, the results were sterling. Produced by Branford Marsalis, Obsesión would garner the saxophonist his first Grammy nomination. He would follow that album with the Grammy-nominated (and Latin Grammy-nominated) Melaza. In 2001, Sánchez appeared on high-profile recordings with bassist Charlie Haden (Nocturne) and trombonist Steve Turre (TNT [Trombone-N-Tenor ] ) before issuing another release on Columbia, Travesía, also garnering rave reviews from jazz cognoscenti.

Sánchez's most recent recording for Columbia, Coral, is the most ambitious manifestation to date of his continuing expansion of the frontiers of mainstream jazz to incorporate Afro-Latin influences. In the project, recorded in Prague, he places his jazz sextet against the backdrop of the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra to explore obscure works composed by giants of the Latin American classical genre -- Antonio Carlos Jobim, Alberto Ginastera, and Heitor Villa-Lobos. In addition, Sánchez juxtaposes classical structure with jazz improvisation in three of his original tunes as well as in a composition by Carlos Franzetti (arranger and conductor for all tracks on the album).

With Gillespie, Palmieri, Haden and his other jazz mentors, as well as under his own name, Sánchez has toured extensively, bringing his mix of straight-ahead jazz with Afro-Latin influences to delighted audiences throughout the globe. In the summer of 2003, he partnered with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba for a world tour, which took the two artists to France, Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Russia, Germany, Portugal, Holland, Denmark, South Korea, Hong Kong and Australia before Sánchez took his own band to perform at the Newport Festival at Madarao, Japan. He has just returned from a triumphal tour with his sextet in Spain, followed by a week of performances by his quartet in Athens, Greece and Fort-de-France, Martinique.

Sánchez strives for an "organic" approach to playing, writing, arranging and recording, and the positive results are amply demonstrated in his recordings. "When you're young, you feel you have to prove yourself. But as you develop and the years go by, you begin to let the music come to you. You don't chase something like that. I've been learning, year after year, how not to chase that muse, and to let it come to me. Sometimes it's there; sometimes it's not. Of course, you work every year to make that process more and more of a constant."