Pat Metheny to release new album and tour

Seventeen-time Grammy Award-winner Pat Metheny once again explores new territory with his forthcoming project, Orchestrion. Following the album’s January 26 release on Nonesuch Records (February 9 on vinyl), the genre-shattering guitarist/composer will embark on an extensive solo tour, performing in arts centers and concert halls nationwide.

Orchestrion brings a musical idea from the late 19th and early 20th centuries—a large mechanical multi-instrument device that utilizes actual orchestral instruments of various types, called an “orchestrion”—to the technologies of today. Metheny’s concept includes a large ensemble of acoustic instruments—including several pianos, drum kit, marimbas, “guitar-bots,” dozens of percussion instruments and even cabinets of carefully tuned bottles. Through Metheny’s guitar and compositional mind, five new original pieces showcase the instruments as they are struck, plucked, and otherwise played via the technology of solenoid switches and pneumatics. Metheny worked for months with a brilliant team of scientists and engineers to develop and assemble the “New Orchestrion” for this project.

“As the instruments started to trickle in from the various inventors,” Metheny says, “the experience of writing for them and figuring out what might be possible with them provided a self-imposed challenge that proved to be difficult and time-consuming, but absolutely exhilarating. I am excited to share this project. If nothing else, this has turned out to be something unique. And in the process of developing all this music and these instruments and discovering what they can do and what they are good at, I learned so much. It feels like progress and has gotten some notes out of me that I didn’t know were there. But the surprise was just how far I was able to go with it all. Within this new environment, I found something in there that took me to some new places.”

A limited-edition poster signed by Pat Metheny is available now with Orchestrion CD or LP pre-orders, exclusively at www.nonesuch.com to the first 500 customers. As always, CDs and LPs ordered from the Nonesuch Store include audiophile-quality (320 kbps) MP3s at no additional cost, available for download on release day.

Over the course of more than three decades, guitarist Pat Metheny has set himself apart from the jazz mainstream, expanding and blurring boundaries and musical styles. His record-setting body of work includes seventeen Grammy Awards in twelve separate categories; a series of influential trio recordings; award winning solo albums; scores for hit Hollywood motion pictures; and collaborations and duets with major artists such as Ornette Coleman, Steve Reich, Charlie Haden, Brad Mehldau, and many others. His band, the Pat Metheny Group, founded in 1977, is the only ensemble in history to win Grammys for seven consecutive releases.

Pat Metheny Orchestrion Performances
April 6 Morgantown, WV Creative Arts Center
April 7 Chapel Hill, NC UNC Chapel Hill
April 8 Atlanta, GA Ferst Center for the Arts
April 9 Clearwater, FL Ruth Echerd Hall
April 10 Miami, FL Fillmore
April 11 Gainesville, FL Phillips Center
April 13 Grand Prairie, TX Nokia Theatre
April 14 Austin, TX Paramount Theatre
April 16 Santa Fe, NM Lensic Performing Arts Center
April 17 Mesa, AZ Mesa Arts Center
April 18 Tucson, AZ Fox Tucson Theatre
April 19 Los Angeles, CA Disney Concert Hall
April 20 Santa Barbara, CA Campbell Hall UCSB
April 21 San Diego, CA Spreckels Theatre
April 23 Reno, NV Grand Sierra Resort Theatre
April 24 San Francisco, CA Zellerbach Hall
April 25 Napa, CA Napa Valley Opera House
April 26 Santa Cruz, CA Civic Auditorium
April 28 Portland, OR Alladin Theater
April 29 Olympia, WA Washington Center for the Performing Arts
April 30 Seattle, WA Meany Hall
May 1 Vancouver, BC Centre for Performing Arts
May 2 Eugene, OR Silva Concert Hall
May 4 Salt Lake City, UT Kingsbury Hall
May 5 Denver, CO Paramount Theater
May 7 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theater
May 8 St. Louis, MO Touhill Performing Arts Center
May 9 St. Paul, MN Fitzgerald Theater
May 10 Chicago, IL Orchestra Hall
May 12 Cincinnati, OH Taft Theater
May 13 Toronto, ON Massey Hall
May 14 Detroit, MI Music Hall
May 15 Lorain, OH The Palace
May 16 Poughkeepsie, NY Bardavon Theatre
May 18 Philadelphia, PA Keswick Theatre
May 19 Bethesda, MD Music Center at Strathmore
May 20 Boston, MA Orpheum
May 21-22 New York, NY Town Hall