(NEWTON, NJ) -- Virtuoso jazz guitarist, Pat Metheny, and legendary jazz bassist, Ron Carter, will perform together this Sunday, April 24, 2016, at 8:00pm at the Newton Theater in Newton, NJ.
Metheny, a 20-time Grammy winning guitarist, is one of the most important musicians of the past 40 years. Bassist Ron Carter is one of the most revered and recorded bassists of all time and a former member of Miles Davis’ iconic 1960’s quintet.
Pat Metheny was born in Kansas City into a musical family. Starting on trumpet at the age of 8, he switched to guitar when he turned 12; by the time he was 15, was working regularly with the best jazz musicians in Kansas City. At 18, Metheny became the youngest teacher ever at the University of Miami; by the age of 19, he was hired as the youngest teacher ever at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where he also received an honorary doctorate more than twenty years later.
Following a 3-year stint with vibraphonist Gary Burton, Metheny reinvented the traditional “jazz guitar” sound for a new generation of players with a series of recordings starting with 1974’s “Bright Size Life.” Over the years, he’s won 20 Grammy awards in 12 different categories. Moreover, his band, The Pat Metheny Group, has won an unprecedented seven consecutive Grammys for seven consecutive albums.
Ron Carter is among the most influential bassists in jazz. With more than 2,000 albums to his credit, he has recorded with many of music’s greats including Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, Dexter Gordon, and B.B. King. He toured Europe with Cannonball Adderley and, from 1963–1968, was a member of the acclaimed Miles Davis Quintet.
Carter earned music degrees from The Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music and has received two honorary doctorates. He has lectured, conducted, and performed at clinics and master classes around the world, and is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the City College of New York. He’s shared his musical expertise in a series of books including “The Music of Ron Carter,” and has won two Grammy awards. He’s also been named “Jazz Bassist of the Year” by Downbeat Magazine and “Most Valuable Player” by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Following a critically acclaimed duet performance at the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2015, Metheny and Carter decided to join forces to present a select number of concerts around the world in 2016.
Says Metheny, “Ron has been a hero to me my whole life. I literally became a musician after hearing the Miles Davis Quintet record, ‘Four and More,’ that featured Ron, when I was 11. To get this chance to play duets like this with Ron is one of the greatest privileges of my musical life to date. What was a little unexpected to me was the level we were able to get to so quickly. We spent a few hours one day at Ron’s house playing and a whole universe of possibilities presented itself. It will be great to explore that world in depth over a bunch of different evenings and to take the audience on that journey of discovery with us.”
Tickets for this unique performance at The Newton Theater — located at 234 Spring Street in Newton, NJ — range from $54–69. For information or tickets, call 973–383–3700 or visit www.TheNewtonTheatre.com
