Photography by Tom Bielli

Guitarist Pat Metheny and his band brought big hair, big sound and big talent to the Kitty Carlisle Hart stage at The Egg in Albany on Wednesday, Sept. 23.

Although I was once accredited with “the biggest hair in the universe” by my 8-year- old son, after attending the Pat Metheny concert Wednesday, I’d have to cede the big hair title to Metheny, whose trademark woolly mop was a definite focal point.

Entering with a four-drum prelude by his band mates, Metheney, renowned for his diverse musical styling on guitar, opened the show with haunting chords and his wedge-shaped, now grey, coif bent over an acoustic guitar.

But the styling ran the gamut from New Age, easy-listening to throbbing, semi-constructed, unconstructed and back to melodic.

The New Age feel of the first number was starkly contrasted in the second with a jazzy, less constructed approach featuring fewer ethereal background vocals by percussionist Leonard Patton.

The third piece seemed to swing back toward New Age, melding Patton’s soft, unrecognizable syllabic vocals with keyboard by Chris Fishman and rhythms on mostly cymbals by drummer Joe Dyson.

Metheny, who did not speak until well into the show, said Dyson and Fishman have been long-time assets to the band, touring and recording for several years with him.

Percussionist Patton and upright bass player Jermaine Paul, however, are newer to the band, and Metheny described them as necessary for the ambitious instrumentation that resulted for his most recent album, Side-Eye III+, which came out in February 2026 and was released under the new Uniquity Music Label.

“The ‘plus’ is for the 15 or so more instruments that we needed as I was working on the music,” Metheny told the audience.

With just five flesh-and-blood musicians on tour, the challenge of representing that musical breadth is met by taking advantage of tech and having versatile musicians like Fishman pivot amongst three keyboards and a piano, each producing a different sound. At one point, Fishman was playing piano with one hand and organ with another.

Metheny contributed to the musical amalgam with his fleet fingers and styling, creating a nifty sound by running his hand up and down the neck of the guitar, and by operating an orchestrion, a musical instrument which plays notes via solenoid switches and pneumatics, extending the principle behind player pianos. Metheny’s use of effect pedals also somehow produced sounds on a guitar which mimicked a brass section, replete with trumpet, trombone and occasionally even what passed for saxophone squeals.

Patton’s wordless vocals (with the exception of one number with soulful Spanish lyrics) added another dimension, along with shakers, tambourines and other handheld percussion instruments he played in addition to bongos and various hand drums. Dyson’s masterful use of drum cymbals, clicking sticks and full drum pounding also provided variety and pacing.

Varied tempo is notably one of the hallmarks of Metheny’s compositions, which often feature musical thrusts, sort of mini crescendos which are interjected, then fall off, allowing a transition to different styling.

Fishman was such a chameleon on his four instruments that he ranged from sounding a bit like Bruce Hornsby on piano to creating a ‘70s street vibe on organ and producing electronically-manipulated harsher sounds on yet another keyboard.

Not to be undone, Paul, though playing only the upright bass, played it intensely enough to pull off several solo bits.

There is a definite improvisational quality to Metheny’s music, which can start out melodically and quickly morph into what sounds like unconstructed jazz as the band members take turns showcasing their skills in solo parts or responding to one another in a grand jazz conversation.

Metheny very humbly calls attention to his band members’ skills, and vice versa. At times, it seemed there was a contest to see who could use their hands the most to point to the others for recognition after skilled segments.

The music is at times gentle, fluid and mellow, as in some (and only some) of Metheny’s solos or numbers where the backup musicians subtly support his featured role. The result occasionally is reminiscent of the Windham Hill recordings with which I relaxed in the 1980s. At other times, the styling is almost discordant, and in between, it is upbeat, even snappy, building to high energy.

Whatever gear it was in, the music summoned several partial standing ovations and a couple complete ovations at the end of the show and after the encores.

The first encore featured a solo by Metheny with a single spotlight on him bent over an acoustic guitar. The first soft strains were the notes of “America the Beautiful”, perhaps a bittersweet tribute to the politically charged times, but the melody and rhythms fluidly shifted, ebbing and flowing through many of the musical currents that have shaped Metheny’s career and skills over decades.

The second encore brought all the band members back on stage for the big sound of jazz, and then, with a wave and a smile, the big hair, the big sound and the big talent were gone, leaving the audience perhaps a little more energized and a little more appreciative of musical diversity and virtuosity than when they came.