Bass Player: Steve Rodby

Rodby was born in Joliet, Illinois, into a musical family. His father was a music teacher who bought him an acoustic bass, electric bass, and amp when he was 12. He heard classical from a young age and was educated in classical until high school when he learned jazz. During high school summers, he went to jazz camps, where he met Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays and Danny Gottlieb, three of the four members of The Pat Metheny Group.^[3]

Rodby played acoustic bass until he graduated from Northwestern University in 1977, when he taught himself how to play electric.  He performed in the house band at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, with local and visiting musicians such as Milt Jackson, Joe Henderson and Art Farmer. He joined the Pat Metheny Group in 1981, starting on electric bass before spending most of his time on acoustic.^[2] He spent the next thirty years at Metheny’s side, touring, recording, and producing, in Group projects and in Metheny’s other projects. With Metheny he earned multiple Grammy awards and nominations, and admiration from critics, magazines, and reader polls.^[4]

Rodby collaborated with Fred Simon and Paul McAndless on two albums: Since Forever and Remember the River. In 2011 he collaborated with Paul Wertico, a former drummer for the Metheny Group, and with Israeli musicians Danny Markovitch and Dani Rabin on Marbin’s album Breaking the Cycle.

The attached transcription is Robdy’s tricky little bass part on the tune 45:8 off the Pat Metheny Group album, ‘Letter From Home’. It is not nearly as hard to play as it sounds but great fun once you have nailed it.