Thursday Night Jazz: Paul Thompson Quintet’s Tribute to Pat Metheny

Paul Thompson, John Shannon, Dan Wilson, Glenn Zaleski, and David Throckmorton come together in a bursting-at-the-seams-with-talent quintet to pay well-deserved tribute to legendary guitarist Pat Metheny.

Pat Metheny is one of the most acclaimed jazz musicians playing today. He reinvented the traditional jazz guitar sound with his first album, Bright Size Life (1975), and he has continued to redefine the genre by utilizing new technology. Pat Metheny has won 20 Grammy Awards in a record-breaking 12 different categories, and he has spent most of his life on tour, averaging between 120 and 240 shows a year since 1974.

Pat Metheny has been an incredible influence and life-long inspiration for Paul Thompson. Paul grew up on Metheny’s music, and now Paul himself is one of the most established jazz musicians in Pittsburgh today. This concert, curated by Paul Thompson, brings together three Pittsburgh-based musicians and two out-of-town guests to honor this inspirational musician and push the limits of what it means to be a jazz musician and a jazz guitarist. 

Featured Musicians:

Paul Thompson: bass

John Shannon: guitar

Dan Wilson: guitar

Glenn Zaleski: piano

David Throckmorton: drums

About the Artists:

Paul Thompson has been playing bass professionally for over 30 years, including recording and touring stints with trumpeter Maynard Ferguson and saxophonist Stanley Turrentine. Recent playing credits include Hubert Laws, Geri Allen, Michael Feinstein, and Bob James, among others. Currently, he can be seen playing around the Pittsburgh area with Salsamba!, THOTH Trio, the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra, in pit orchestras at the Byham and New Hazlett Theaters, or performing with some of our city’s rich jazz community. An active educator, Paul currently teaches Jazz Bass at Duquesne University and West Virginia University. He is an Adjunct Instrumental Music teacher at his alma mater, Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 Performing Arts School. 

John Shannon is a visionary guitarist, composer, and sonic mystic whose music is a bridge between worlds—earth and sky, tradition and innovation, the seen and the unseen. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, John began playing guitar at the age of six and soon found himself immersed in a lifelong path of musical and spiritual discovery. As a teenager, he studied under local masters of various instruments—bassist Dwayne Dolphin, saxophonist Eric Kloss, and pipe organist Mike Ross—each deepening his awareness of tone, space, and the power of improvisation as a channel for transcendence. As a freelance musician in New York City, John became a sought-after guitarist and collaborator across genres, performing with Hiromi, Gary Go, Karsh Kale, Bob Reynolds, Pyeng Threadgill, and Tony Award-winner Norbert Leo Butz. Returning to his roots in Pittsburgh in 2019, John co-founded Con Alma—a jazz club and sanctuary for music, food, and drink alchemy—where he now serves as co-owner and music curator. Reconnected with the deep jazz lineage of his hometown, he reignited his passion for straight-ahead jazz while continuing to compose original works steeped in beauty, mysticism, and inner truth.

David Throckmorton has performed all over the world with artists including Maynard Ferguson, David Fiuczynski, Tony Grey, Hotei, and Javon Jackson. David is one-third of DTC Organ Trio, featuring guitarist Dan Wilson and organist Cliff Barnes. David leads or co-leads his own ensembles, including Beam, Thoth Trio, Smash Your Wagon, and The David Throckmorton Quartet. David performs clinics and masterclasses worldwide and endorses Yamaha Drums, Sabian Cymbals, and Vic Firth Drumsticks.

Dan Wilson grew up in Akron, Ohio, where he spent the majority of his youth within the church community, where his musical path began. Traces of his major guitar influences—including Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, Joe Pass, and George Benson, to name a few—can be discerned through his playing. Still, his musical identity has been shaped by everything from gospel and blues to traditional jazz, hip-hop, and horn players like Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson. Dan’s career took him on an exploratory journey into foundations laid down by the guitar/organ tradition, eventually leading to an invitation to perform with jazz great Joey DeFrancesco’s trio quartet, with which Dan went on to earn a GRAMMY® Award nomination for DeFrancesco’s Project Freedom album (Mack Avenue Records, 2017).

Glenn Zaleski is one of the most in-demand pianists on the New York City jazz scene. Originally from Boylston, MA, Glenn has made a name for himself playing with the likes of Ravi Coltrane, Cécile McLorin Salvant, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Yotam Silberstein, Ken Peplowski, Lage Lund, Ari Hoenig, and many more. His latest album, Solo Vol. 2, is a solo album of standards recorded during the pandemic, and the second from his own label, Stark Terrace Music. A new trio album, Star Dreams, is set for release in August of 2024. Solo Vol. 1 was released in early 2018—his first solo piano album, as well as the first release from his own label. He has been described as “one of the most important pianists of his generation” by All About Jazz. In 2011, Glenn was a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, as well as a finalist for the 2011 APA Cole Porter Fellowship in Jazz. He attended the Brubeck Institute Fellowship program in Stockton, CA, from 2005 to 2007, and then finished his undergraduate studies at The New School in 2009. From 2009 to 2011, while working towards his graduate degree at NYU, Glenn was also on the NYU faculty, teaching a variety of classes and private students.

About Your Visit: 

The in-house restaurant, Cucina Alfabeto, is open for dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Please visit OpenTable or call 412-435-1111 to make a reservation.