Pat Metheny conceived Side-Eye in New York in 2019 as a platform rather than a band — a working space designed to put his playing in direct contact with exceptional younger musicians. Side-Eye III+, his first ensemble studio album in six years, is the fullest realization of that idea yet, and the live configuration he brings to Asbury Hall at Babeville on September 29 is the largest ensemble he has toured with in over a decade.
About the Show
Released February 27, 2026 on Uniquity Music, his newly formed label in partnership with Primary Wave, Side-Eye III+ opens with the single “Don’t Look Down” and unfolds across eight original compositions. Critic Marc Myers at JazzWax described the album as “an exceptional big-canvas work with many moods and instrumental configurations,” finding “cinematic suspense, rich textures” throughout and placing its ambition in the same league as Letter From Home. The program draws on that new material alongside, in the venue’s words, “bold reimaginings of favorites and classics from his catalog.”
The live ensemble for this show includes Joe Dyson on drums, Chris Fishman on keyboards, Jermaine Paul on bass, and Leonard Patton on percussion and vocals. Metheny — a 20-time Grammy Award winner who arrived at Berklee College of Music in 1974, where vibraphonist Gary Burton hired him to teach, and whose debut album Bright Size Life (1975) featured Jaco Pastorius — has kept an unusual creative pace. MoonDial (July 2024), a solo baritone string guitar record, and Dream Box (2023), which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album at the 66th Grammy Awards, both preceded this ensemble project and occupied very different sonic territory. The Buffalo date is part of the fall continuation of a worldwide tour that opened with 55 North American and Canadian dates earlier this year, including stops at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Venue & Logistics
Asbury Hall at Babeville, at 341 Delaware Ave in Buffalo, is a 1,200-capacity historic music hall in western New York. For an ensemble of this size, the scale works in the music’s favor: intimate enough that the detail in Fishman’s keyboard work and Patton’s percussion registers throughout, while the capacity supports the full band configuration without loss of presence. Doors open at 7 p.m. for an 8 p.m. show.
Tickets
General admission seated tickets are $60; limited Gold Circle reserved seats are $80. Buy tickets