When “Lujon (Slow Hot Wind)” randomly came up on my playlist yesterday, I knew I had to share it. It was so timely. The track features the great Pat Metheny, a fellow Midwesterner born in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. And that slow hot wind is definitely something we’ve been dealing with around here.

So enjoy this track from The Henry Mancini 100th Sessions: Henry Has Company, the 2024 tribute celebrating the centennial of Mancini’s birth. The album brought together an impressive collection of contemporary jazz stars and musical legends, including Herbie Hancock, Arturo Sandoval, Quincy Jones, John Williams, Snarky Puppy, Take 6, and Stevie Wonder. It was an extraordinary all-star celebration of Mancini’s music.

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Today, you can hear and see a visualizer for Pat Metheny’s medley of “America the Beautiful / The People United Will Never Be Defeated.”

“America the Beautiful” is one of America’s best-known patriotic hymns, associated with ideals rather than government or politics. But I didn’t know about the other song.

“The People United Will Never Be Defeated” (El pueblo unido jamás será vencido) is the famous Chilean protest anthem written by Sergio Ortega in 1973. It became an international symbol of democracy, solidarity, and resistance to authoritarianism.

Putting them together isn’t random. And it’s not the first time he’s spoken about the state of his home country while not being overt. In a 2020 DownBeat interview around the time of his From This Place recording, he said “I’ve been using this analogy: The diamonds that exist in the world were formed by dirt and all kinds of funk, right? But we don’t remember the dirt and the funk—we only remember the diamond. And in this case, ‘dirt’ is the operative word. There’s a lot of dirt [in the culture] right now … but one of the great things about being a musician is that we’re trading in a currency that’s actually true.”

Take a listen and look at the evocative imagery used for “America the Beautiful / The People United Will Never Be Defeated” :

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In early 2026, Metheny announced the launch of his Uniquity Music, a new artist-owned record label created to house his past catalog, current work, and all future releases. The first release on on the label is Metheny’s Side-Eye III+, arriving February 27, 2026.

A Label with a Long View

Uniquity Music isn’t a vanity imprint or short-term experiment. Metheny has been clear that the goal is continuity: a single home for the recordings that span from his early ECM years through his most recent explorations.

The label is being launched in partnership with Primary Wave Music and distributed via Green Hill Music / Sun Label Group, allowing Metheny to retain creative oversight while ensuring global reach. It also opens the door for carefully curated reissues, archival projects, and long-term stewardship of a catalog that has often been scattered across multiple labels.

“My dream for years has been to have a place where all of my work, past and future, could live under a single umbrella — a label of my own,” Metheny said. “With the creation of Uniquity Music, that dream has now become a reality. In many ways, I feel like I am just beginning, and I expect this next period to represent the best of where music has led me so far.”

Side-Eye III+: Expansion, Not a Reset

While the Side-Eye project began as a trio-based platform highlighting younger musicians Metheny admired, III+ pushes well beyond that framework.

At its core, the album features the trio of  Metheny, Chris Fishman on keyboards, and Joe Dyson on drums. But this time, Metheny expands the palette significantly, bringing in additional players, including harp, percussion, bass, and vocal textures. The result is music that feels broader, more layered, and more compositional than previous Side-Eye recordings without abandoning the project’s original spirit of curiosity and collaboration.

Metheny explains, “Once I got in the studio with the guys, I realized that while the trio concept was perfect for us as a live ensemble, the music I had written was asking for something bigger. That is where the ‘+’ in Side-Eye III+ comes in. I ended up adding 15 other musicians to the trio — expanding the sonic world of the record far beyond what we had done before.”

Among those additional voices is Mark Kibble of Take 6. “He brought in an incredible group of singers,” Metheny said of Kibble, “and together, we found a sound that has a relationship to the gospel tradition but I think most people will hear the kinds of harmonies and melodies that identify it as mine right away.”

The first single is “In On It” and it’s unmistakable Metheny.

Continuity as a Creative Statement

There’s something quietly powerful about this moment. Rather than chasing relevance or rewriting his legacy, Metheny is doing something far more intentional: organizing it.

Uniquity Music positions his catalog not as a museum, but as a living body of work — one that continues to grow, intersect, and invite discovery. Side-Eye III+ fits squarely within that philosophy: music rooted in experience, energized by younger voices, and unconcerned with trends.

For contemporary jazz listeners, this isn’t just a new album announcement. It’s a reminder that longevity, when paired with curiosity, can still feel forward-looking.

Looking Ahead

Metheny will support Side-Eye III+ with a 2026 world tour, bringing the expanded ensemble to stages across North America and beyond. More releases under the Uniquity Music banner are expected to follow, including catalog reissues and new projects still taking shape.

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