In Beneath Missouri Skies author Carolyn Glenn Brewer examines the formative years in the life of Kansas City’s guitar phenomena, Pat Metheny. She brings us along as he constructs the foundation of his celebrated jazz career, which began with an interest and quickly developed into a desire and then a complete obsession.
Brewer describes and documents an eight-year period from 1964 to 1972. Her research is built around interviews and first-hand accounts with the many colorful participants in guitarist Pat Metheny’s rapid development. These accounts accurately describe the bustling Kansas City jazz scene and bring the story to life. Brewer herself was a participant.
She comes from a musical family and, married into one as well. Being there gives the author a unique perspective rarely found in an important book such as this. In Brewer’s book, the Kansas City jazz scene of the time develops itself into a prominent character in the narrative. With the role of a sort of petri dish for jazz that allows the available ingredients (many young talented musicians)to grow and flourish. The local entertainment community provides a series of mentors and co-conspirators along the way. Brewer’s book is not the usual “And Then I . . .” biography. For his contribution, Metheny gratefully credits the environment available to him and that mentoring of teachers, fellow musicians, and family which he encounters in his most formative period.
Historically, Kansas City has cemented its jazz importance on the world and provided countless musicians the opportunity to practice their chosen profession. Other jazz books often give little credit to the community that supported that growth.
Generally, Kansas City’s jazz books are set in the supposed heyday of Kansas City jazz, the 1930s. Those books tend to move on, to the later accomplishments of individual musical careers, without delving into the incubation period provided by the scene that spawned those careers.
The scene here in Kansas City continues to nourish talented young musicians.
Set in a time that many alive can still relate to, time landmarks, such as the arrival of the Beatles, allows a reader to insert themselves into the rich narrative, especially if they happen to have grown up here. We start forming our interests and our life direction during the period from junior high to college or career. This book will expose some parallels of the readers’ own experience.
It should also be noted that the drive, dedication and genius was, and continues to be supplied by Pat himself. It is his wish that all the people and ingredients from his beginnings in Kansas City get a portion of the credit as well.
The verdict from here: 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.
—Michael Hansen
More information at: http://carolynglennbrewer.com