SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2005, AT 8 PM

Guitarist Pat Metheny-who is credited with changing the direction of jazz by incorporating pop elements into his recordings and whose fluid guitar technique and versatility have earned him 15 Grammy awards-brings two distinctive musical projects to Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, September 24, at 8 p.m. Presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, this special pre-season, non-subscription concert features the Pat Metheny Trio with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Antonio Sanchez, and special guest saxophonist David Sánchez rounding out the quartet.

After a searing set with David Sánchez at the Montreal Jazz Festival in July, Metheny added the saxophonist to his 2005 Fall U.S. tour with Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez, stating that he wanted to continue the musical dialogue with the saxophonist as soon as possible. After rearranging schedules, what was to be a gathering of three jazz masters expanded to become a Pat Metheny Trio (& Quartet) tour with this acoustic powerhouse foursome.

Sánchez is well-known to the cognoscenti for his mix of straight-ahead jazz with Afro-Latin influences. His breakout album, Obsesión, produced by Branford Marsalis for Columbia Records, garnered Sánchez his first Grammy nomination in 2001.

This performance also marks the first appearance of Christian McBride at Walt Disney Concert Hall since being named Creative Chair for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, succeeding jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves, the first person to hold the position. McBride's two-year tenure as Creative Chair for Jazz
will be reflected in programming at the Hollywood Bowl in 2006, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2006/2007.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic's 2005/06 Jazz subscription series opens on November 16, 2005 with a Django Reinhardt Festival, and continues on December 4, with conductor John Williams leading a swinging modern jazz interpretation of the Lerner and Loewe favorite My Fair Lady, featuring Dianne Reeves and Brian Stokes Mitchell. On January 28, 2006, Wayne Shorter joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a program of arrangements of his own classics as well as works by Bach and Villa-Lobos. The New York based Maria Schneider Orchestra, recent Grammy winner for Best Large Jazz Ensemble, makes a rare West Coast appearance at Walt Disney Concert Hall on February 8, 2006. Concluding the jazz series, Wynton Marsalis, one of the world's most famous trumpet players, dishes up an evening of straight-ahead jazz and swing with his small group on October 30, 2006.

Over the course of more than two decades, guitarist PAT METHENY has released album after album, each one brilliantly documenting another aspect of his unique and nearly uncategorizable musical journey. Exhibiting an insatiable creative energy, Metheny has participated in just about every avenue of modern music that the early 21st Century might offer a musician. Seeming bent on blurring and obliterating stylistic boundaries at every opportunity, he has created an expansively impressive body of work that includes a series of highly influential trio recordings, award-winning solo albums, scores for hit Hollywood motion pictures, duets with major artists such as Charlie Haden and Jim Hall, and collaborations with other significant figures in modern music, including Ornette Coleman, Steve Reich and many others. But for legions of his fans worldwide, there is no setting that defines Metheny the musician more than his role as bandleader of one of the most acclaimed and influential musical ensembles of the past quarter century, the Pat Metheny Group. As the only group in history to win seven consecutive Grammy Awards for seven consecutive years, the Pat Metheny Group (PMG) has occupied a nearly indefinable musical territory that is accessible to listeners of all kinds while never compromising a unique compositional and improvisational integrity that is unparalleled among contemporary and mainstream jazz groups. Founded by Metheny in 1977, the PMG has relentlessly traveled the world playing and selling out concerts, festivals and clubs in more than 40 countries, becoming one of the most active and popular touring acts of any kind anywhere. This is a band with an imagination and no-holds-barred creativity that has constantly surprised and delighted fans with the unexpected, yet always delivers on the endless promise of imagination and pure melody that was invoked from the first notes of their first record.

In the last decade, CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE has become one of the most acclaimed acoustic and electric bassist to emerge from the jazz world. While jazz lies at the root of Christian's accomplishments, his passion for musical diversity has led him to work with everyone from Chick Corea to Pat Metheny, from Kathleen Battle to D'Angelo, from Diana Krall to Bruce Hornsby, from Quincy Jones to Sting. Given that the bass is the heart and soul of any style of music, this makes McBride's versatility that much more impressive. Already an accomplished musician in high school, McBride was awarded a partial scholarship to attend the world-renowned Juilliard School in New York City. However, he 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 then left school to join Roy Hargrove's first band. Other high-profile gigs followed: 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 also 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, 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. His musical diversity is well borne out on two of his most recent projects; the underground success of "The Philadelphia Experiment," a hip-hop jazz funk project championed by the jam band and college audiences and the worldwide pop success of Sting's "All This Time." He was recently named Creative Chair for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association.

Mexico City native ANTONIO SANCHEZ began playing the drums at age five. After earning a degree from the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City, he earned a scholarship to pursue Jazz Studies at Boston's Berklee College of Music, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude then obtained a scholarship for a Masters in Jazz Improvisation at the New England Conservatory in Boston. A few months into his studies at the Conservatory, he joined Dizzy Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra, embarking on a long tour that catapulted Sanchez into the international jazz scene. Later that year, Danilo Perez invited Sanchez 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 Antonio'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 in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category. A DVD of the same name, documenting the tour, has also been released. The second effort, The Way Up, was released in January 2005.

DAVID SÁNCHEZ, born in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, began playing percussion and drums at age eight, before migrating to tenor saxophone four years later. 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. 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. Sánchez quickly became a member of New York's swirling jazz scene, performing with pianist Eddie Palmieri and saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, among others. Dizzy Gillespie invited the young saxophonist to join his United Nations Orchestra in 1991. Sánchez's 1995 debut for Columbia, The Departure, gained critical kudos as did the disc's successors Sketches of Dreams, and Street Scenes. He also toured with such jazz greats such as Kenny Barron, Roy Haynes and legendary drummer Elvin Jones. 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 followed the 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 subsequent Columbia recording Coral, also incorporates Afro-Latin influences into mainstream jazz. 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 audiences throughout the globe. In recently years, Sánchez partnered with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba for a world tour then took his own band to perform at the Newport Festival at Madarao, Japan. He recently returned from a tour with his sextet in Spain, Greece and Martinique.

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2005 at 8 PM

Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles

Pat Metheny Trio (& Quartet) with Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez and special guest member David Sánchez

PAT METHENY, leader/guitar

CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE, bass

ANTONIO SANCHEZ, drums

DAVID SÁNCHEZ, saxophone

Tickets ($40 - $100) are on sale now at the Walt Disney Concert Hall box office, online at LAPhil.com, or via credit card phone order at 323.850.2000. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full time students may be available at the Walt Disney Concert Hall box office two hours prior to the performance. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person; cash only. Groups of 12 or more may be eligible for special discounts for selected concerts and seating areas. For all information, please call 323.850.2000.

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