“Pat Metheny, Stories beyond Words” – Reflection 14 – bassist Steve Rodby
One of the pleasures of working on each of my book projects has been conducting interviews. Of course, the most significant interviewee for Pat Metheny, Stories beyond Words has been Pat Metheny himself. Conversations with three other key figures also played a substantive role in the development of the book. One of these, bassist and producer Steve Rodby, is the focus of today’s blog posting. Commentary about the two other interviews will appear in future posts. Even after the release of the book, I will conduct additional, new interviews and these will over time will appear on this blog to supplement the book. This has been a practice of mine for each of my previous books.
With the music itself being front and center, Steve Rodby’s discussion of his experiences as bassist with the Pat Metheny Group music offers substantial insight into how the music was translated from composition into sonic realization. At times, Rodby notes, the bass lines were composed by Metheny, in which case “I just tried to bring them to life, with small but (to my sensibility) important improvisations along the way.” At other times, a bass line reflected “elements of personal expression for me, and other players might have approached it quite differently.” But almost always, there were improvisational elements within Rodby’s lines.
Steve Rodby was a particularly valuable musical partner for Pat Metheny because he brought a wide range of skills, experiences, and sensibilities to the table. Rodby describes himself as: “probably three musicians in one, the jazz musician, the pop studio player, and the orchestral bassist…” His musical craft grew in depth and breadth during his time as a college student at Northwestern University, situated in the Chicago area. One formative experience was:
“often being part of the ‘house rhythm section’ at the seminal Jazz Showcase in Chicago. At the same time, I started doing a lot of recording sessions, many on electric bass, many playing straight up pop music of the time. I was wearing a lot of different stylistic hats, older jazz and newer jazz and pop music, all of which reflected my broad tastes in music.”
During his three decades with the Pat Metheny Group, Rodby brought an improvisatory spirit to Metheny’s compositions:
“I was improvising the whole time, responding to every unique moment in the soloing and drumming and drama of the moment. And that was my intention: to combine the solidity (very much in a pop sense) of what the bass can do to organize music, how it’s heard and felt, with the flexibility and intuition that accompanying these brilliant improvisors would call for … serving the composition rather than pushing individual personality to the foreground.”
Rodby observes that every Metheny composition presented its own distinct character, that required an idiosyncratic response from the rhythm section. This could reflect a spectrum of musical qualities, including pop music, that was performed by musicians with Rodby’s type of sensibility. Thus:
“To me it was still jazz music [and I was was] playing a crucial supportive role for incredible improvised solos and interactive drumming and accompaniment and unpredictability – always in and of the moment, always needing to be made fresh, every time.”
In Pat Metheny, Stories beyond Words, I build upon Rodby’s ideas in my narration of how he navigated Metheny’s “Red Sky” (from We Live Here). You’ll also find in the book, far more extensive material from my discussion with the Steve Rodby, and others. Its worthy noting that Rodby’s work with Metheny has continued well beyond his days as the Pat Metheny Group bassist, bringing his substantive studio engineering knowledge and skills to bear on many subsequent Metheny projects.
The book will be released by University of Chicago Press on August 5, 2024.
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