Speaking of good music...

Music aficionados rejoice! The Pat Metheny Group will unleash its creative brilliance in Taipei this weekend. The Group is in town for two nights -- Sunday and Monday -- as part of a world tour through Europe, Asia and finally North America.

They are currently tantalizing audiences on the tour with the group's eleventh album, Speaking of Now.

This new studio album has taken the group to a new level of musical artistry, a joyous new stride in their journey of discovery. With three exciting new faces in the band, Metheny and his long-time pianist/collaborator, Lyle Mays, join bassist and co-producer Steve Rodby (now in his 20th year with the band) to once again challenge the basic premise of what a modern-day jazz group can be, delivering a collection of music that delights and resonates with its unique musical perspective that speaks to listeners everywhere.

Featuring many of the tracks from Speaking of Now, the group will perform nearly three-hours of uninterrupted soulful interchange led by the man with the Einstein hairdo.

With over 20 years under his belt as a recording artist, guitarist Pat Metheny has generated dozens of albums, each one brilliantly documenting another aspect of his unique and nearly uncategorizable musical journey.

Metheny's versatility is almost without peer on any instrument. Over the years, he has performed with artists as diverse as Milton Nascimento to Charlie Haden, from Herbie Hancock to David Bowie. In addition, he has been part of a writing team with keyboardist Mays for more than 20 years -- an association that has been compared to the Lennon/McCartney partnership.

It is one thing to attain popularity as a musician, but it is another to receive the kind of acclaim Metheny has garnered from critics and peers. Over the years, Metheny has won countless polls as "Best Jazz Guitarist" and awards, including three gold records for Talking (Still Life), Letter from Home, and Secret Story. He has also won 14 Grammy Awards spread out over a variety of different categories including Best Rock Instrumental, Best Contemporary Jazz Recording, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo and Best Instrumental Composition. The road is nothing new to Metheny. He has spent most of his life on tour, averaging between 120 to 240 shows a year since 1974 and is well known for exhibiting an insatiable creative energy -- both in the studio and on stage -- that appears bent on blurring the stylistic boundaries at every opportunity.

Metheny first burst onto the international jazz scene in 1974. Over the course of his three-year stint with vibraphone great Gary Burton, the young Missouri native already displayed his soon-to-become trademarked playing style, which blended the loose and flexible articulation customarily reserved for horn players with an advanced rhythmic and harmonic sensibility -- a way of playing and improvising that was modern in conception but grounded deeply in the jazz tradition of melody, swing and the blues. With the release of his first album, Bright Size Life (1975), he reinvented the traditional jazz guitar sound for a new generation of players.

Throughout his career, Metheny has continued to re-define the genre by utilizing new technology and constantly working to evolve the improvisational and sonic potential of his instrument. With the 2002 tour, Metheny and cohorts have chosen to feature much of the new album within a framework that allows for individual highlights.