Mike Metheny

Mike Metheny (b. 1949, Lee's Summit, Missouri) is an American jazz flugelhornist and music journalist. He is perhaps best known as the brother of jazz guitarist and composer Pat Metheny. Metheny studied music education at the University of Missouri and Northeast Missouri State University, then played trumpet in the Army Field Band (1971-74). Following his stint in the army, he became an adjunct lecturer and "assistant to the head of the trumpet department" at the Berklee College of Music (1976-83).

Metheny has released several full-length albums, the first of which was issued in 1982. He produced two records with major labels, the first in 1986, and the second in 1987, to mixed reviews. Since 2000, Metheny's albums have been produced by his own record company, 3 Valve Music.

For the past two decades, Metheny has largely pursued a music journalism career. Commenting on Mike Metheny's move from Boston to Missouri, and his transition to music journalism, the Boston Globe wrote in 1991, "Mike Metheny seemed on the verge of national recognition. He had a sweet sound, a gift for melody and three records under his name, two of them on a major label. Then he stopped." Metheny himself jokes that his career as a journalist is "an occupation that pays less than being a jazz musician." As a music journalist, Metheny has written for several Midwest jazz magazines and contributed liner notes for numerous CDs, including "Super-Singer: A Tribute to Johnny Carson" by Marilyn Maye. From 1994 to 2003, he was the editor of the non-profit Jazz Ambassador Magazine, which covers jazz performances in the Kansas City area. He continues to perform, primarily in Kansas and Missouri, and with a particular emphasis on the EVI, or the electronic valve instrument, a trumpet synthesizer that Metheny has featured in his recordings, and which was given to him by his brother Pat as a present.

Relationship with Pat Metheny
Mike Metheny is arguably best known as the older brother of guitarist and composer Pat Metheny. As the Los Angeles Times has pointed out, "Most of fluegelhornist Mike Metheny's career has been spent in the large shadow cast by his younger brother, guitarist Pat." Pat Metheny's greater level of success has not been lost to his brother. As Mike Metheny pointed out in a 1987 interview, at the height of his own music career, "there's a dramatic distinction between where [Pat] is and where I am... Pat is definitely in a class by himself." Notwithstanding, the Boston Globe writes that there is "not even an iota of intra-familial rivalry" between the pair.

Discography

 * Blue Jay Sessions (Headfirst Records, 1982)
 * Day In-Night Out (Impulse!, 1986) U.S. Top Jazz Albums #18
 * Kaleidoscope (MCA Records, 1987) U.S. Top Jazz Albums #6
 * From Then 'Til Now (Altenburgh Records, 1989)
 * Street of Dreams (Altenburgh, 1995)
 * Close Enough for Love (3 Valve Music, 2001)
 * KC Potpourri (3 Valve, 2003)
 * Back to Basics (3 Valve, 2004)
 * 60.1 (3 Valve, 2010)
 * Old Wine/New Bossa: Selected Tracks (3 Valve, 2011)