Beneath Missouri Skies: Pat Metheny in Kansas City, 1964-1972

by Carolyn Glenn Brewer

Overview

Selected as one of the Best Jazz Books of the Year (2021) by The New York City Jazz Record 

The New Yorker recently referred to Pat Metheny as “possibly the most influential jazz guitarist of the past five decades.” A native of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, just southeast of Kansas City, Metheny started playing in pizza parlors at age fourteen. By the time he graduated from high school he was the first-call guitarist for Kansas City jazz clubs, private clubs, and jazz festivals. Now 66, he attributes his early success to the local musical environment he was brought up in and the players and teachers who nurtured his talent and welcomed him into the jazz community.

Metheny's twenty Grammys in ten categories speak to his versatility and popularity. Despite five decades of interviews, none have conveyed in detail his stories about his teenage years. Beneath Missouri Skies also reveals important details about jazz in Kansas City during the sixties and early seventies, often overlooked in histories of Kansas City jazz. Yet this time of cultural change was characterized by an outstanding level of musicianship.

Author Carolyn Glenn Brewer shows how his keen sense of ensemble had its genesis in his school band under the guidance of a beloved band director. Drawn from news accounts, archival material, interviews, and remembrances, to which the author had unique access, Beneath Missouri Skies portrays a place and time from which Metheny still draws inspiration and strength.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781574418231
Publisher:	University of North Texas Press
Publication date:	06/14/2021
Series:	North Texas Lives of Musician Series , #14
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

CAROLYN GLENN BREWER is a retired band director and active social historian. She has written for Jam Magazine and previously published Changing the Tune: The Kansas City Women's Jazz Festival with UNT Press. She has played clarinet in bands, chamber groups, and orchestras throughout the Kansas City area. She lives in Kansas City with her husband and Bernese Mountain dog, Herbie.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Before: The Beatles 1

"Four" & More 4

Chapter 1 9

Opposition to the Guitar 11

The Unity Band 14

Keith House 17

Chapter 2 19

The Junior Kix Band 23

Paul Smith 26

The New Sounds Trio Plus 29

Westvale Summer 33

John McKee 35

Chapter 3 41

Kix Band 45

Jingles 49

The Buddy DeFranco Concert 50

Chapter 4 53

The Flaming Pit 59

Chapter 5 63

New Sounds, New Directions 66

Dave Scott Meets Miles 69

Jesus Christ Superstar 73

Monte Muza 74

Long Playing 33 1/3 Records 76

The Other Side of Town-And the Atlantic 79

John Elliott 81

Chapter 6 87

The KCJI Festival Tape 93

Tommy Ruskin 94

Photo Gallery

Chapter 7 101

The Landmark Band 104

1971 KCJI Festival with Kay Dennis 107

Gary Sivils 110

Chapter 8 117

A Place to Sit In 126

Herman Bell 128

Lewis and Clark Expedition 134

Russ Long 137

Visit to Attila Zoller 139

Mike in the Army Band 141

Chapter 9 145

The Aquarius Concerts 146

Stoneface 151

Dean Stringer Rehearsal Band 153

Chapter 10 157

Kookin' in Kirksville 162

KCJI Festival 1972 166

The Toothbrush 174

Concert in the Creek 176

Chapter 11 181

Trio Jam 184

Herbie 186

Chapter 12 191

After Missouri Skies 196

Appendix: The Kansas City Jazz Scene 197

Author's Note 206

Endnotes 209

Bibliography 231

Index 248

Editorial Reviews

Brewer presents a very detailed yet balanced view of Metheny’s musical growth, and the KC area musicians that were part of that development. That approach gives the reader an insight into the overall KC jazz scene at the time.”—Terry Perkins, reviewer for Downbeat magazine

“Geniuses don’t just appear out of nowhere, though their uniqueness can make it seem so. Carolyn Glenn Brewer sheds as much light on the nature versus nurture debate as she does on the zeitgeist of the 1960s in this book about Pat Metheny. Readers will come away as better-informed listeners to the genius of Metheny’s music. And, as her book details, the dedication of the music educators and mentors who nurtured Pat’s nascent abilities contributed to the realization of an artist whose music would literally touch millions. An enjoyable and informative read.”—Peter Erskine, two-time Grammy Award-winning drummer and Professor of Practice at the Thornton School of Music at USC

“This book provides an interesting portrait of the greater Kansas City jazz community and how they embraced and nurtured an exceptional young guitarist, Pat Metheny. All musicians reflect their mentors and major influences, but rarely are they chronicled in a book filled with such personal recollections about a jazz superstar-to-be during their formative years. Pat has achieved the hardest thing in music with his great playing and compositions: he has established his own original ‘voice’ which resonates with wildly enthusiastic audiences around the world.”—Chris Brubeck, orchestral composer and jazz bassist with The Brubeck Brothers Quartet, Triple Play and The Dave Brubeck Quartet

“Beneath Missouri Skies beautifully details Pat’s early musical life, including his formative experiences with family, friends, teachers, bandleaders, and bandmates (some of whom never received the fame and recognition they deserved). Even after playing with Pat for 18 years, I learned so many things about him I previously didn’t know.”—Paul Wertico, Pat Metheny Group drummer (1983-2001) and Associate Professor of Jazz Studies, Roosevelt University

“This is a really cool book about the early years of one of the greatest guitar players and composers on the planet. Pat’s also a really wonderful person. Lee’s Summit and the Kansas City area must be a great place to grow up.”—Mike Stern, award-winning guitarist with Miles Davis and Blood, Sweat & Tears

"[A] fascinating in-depth account of Metheny's formative musical years. . . . Much of the information included here concentrates on not only Metheny's personal experiences, but those of musicians who helped him develop as a player."—All About Jazz

"[Brewer] bolsters her eyewitness impressions of many of the key events of Beneath Missouri Skies with extensive research and interviews. Beneath Missouri Skies will delight Metheny enthusiasts eager to learn even the most minute details of his musical development, but it's even more crucial as a history of a previously underdocumented era of jazz in Kansas City."—Plastic Sax

"Beneath Missouri Skies is simply a great read! Carolyn Glenn Brewer should be highly commended for her unusual presentation of the early beginnings of the groundbreaking career of jazz guitarist Pat Metheny."—Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors

"Brewer had a ring side seat to many of the guitarist's early performances and she writes about those and other club and concert dates with color and great detail. One learns not only about the early evolution and life of Pat Metheny (including his work with the New Sounds Trio, regular engagements at the Ramada inn, and the band Four) but about the Kansas City jazz scene of the time."—L.A. Jazz Scene/Jazz around Town

From the Publisher