The Pat Metheny Trio stays cool in Monterey Full audio performance: 1.4Mb MPEG-3 Audio clip: 280k WAV Video clip: 1.4Mb QuickTime File format info

Web posted on: Friday, September 18, 1998 4:52:56 PM

MONTEREY, California (CNN) -- Grammy-winning jazz artist Pat Metheny is making the scene lately. Along with his current release "Imaginary Day," Metheny can be heard live at the Monterey Jazz Festival, which kicks off Friday.

At the fest, he'll be playing in a trio, something he says is an enjoyable challenge.

"Playing in a guitar, bass and drums trio for me is something that I've done occasionally over the years, right from my very first record," he says.

"It's a real challenge for guitar players. There's everything that you can imagine, from Jimi Hendrix's trio stuff to a whole jazz tradition, that that particular way of playing requires a guitar player to do some special kinds of things. And I really enjoy the challenge of it, so that's why we're here (at Monterey)."

Metheny admits that it's a special thrill to play at a festival, instead of in a jazz club.

"It is such a great community," he says. "You get to see all your friends, people that maybe you haven't seen for a year or two at another festival. You get to all hang out together.

"But also I think that each festival has its own character. Like the Montreal Jazz Festival in Canada is one that has a very specific feeling, and you kind of design music just for that. Europe has millions of great jazz festivals, and I know Monterey is one of the major ones here in the States. So I'm very happy to get the invitation to come and play."