Best known as an adventurous guitarist who cut his teeth on the New York scene, Ryan Pate made an impressive debut as a bandleader with 2014’s Human/Alien (BFG Records), a quartet session focusing on his obliquely lyrical compositions. He’s rapidly increased his output in 2020, starting in March with Pandemic Standards, a solo session recorded while sheltered in place exploring songs by Cole Porter and tunes by Ellington, Monk, Mingus and Shorter (he’s donating all funds raised by the album to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation in recognition of the abiding genius and enduring impact of Black American Music). Pate followed up in May with Solo Live, an album recorded at Oakland’s Temescal Arts Center featuring four original pieces inspired by the great Spanish abstract painter Joan Miró. With his fourth album, Calamities of Silence, Pate has created a series of striking soundscapes inspired by writers and thinkers who’ve grappled deeply with the existential human dilemma.

Pate’s music has long been marked by keen curiosity and intelligence. Born in New York City in 1980, he grew up in Florida, mostly in the Tampa Bay area. Jazz was omnipresent, as his father, a saxophonist, had worked on the New York scene before the family headed south. Pate started playing guitar in high school, drawn mostly by pop and rock. Fascination with Jimi Hendrix led him to the blues, and by his senior year he was delving into jazz. Matriculating to the University of South Florida, Pate graduated with a jazz major. More important than any classroom instruction was his participation in the region’s lively jazz scene, where he got to rub shoulders with veteran cats who were generous with dedicated young players. Most importantly, trombone great Buster Cooper, a former Ellingtonian, led a weekend session at The Garden, a popular jazz spot in St. Petersburg. 

In 2006, Pate started graduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music, where he refined his post-bop vocabulary with veteran guitarist Chris Rosenberg and honed his compositional vision, continuing to absorb the sounds of touchstone artists like Wes Montgomery and Grant Green. “I listened to all the players a generation ahead of me,” he says. “A few Pat Metheny records made a big impact, but so did Sco, Frisell, and Kurt Rosenwinkle’s sense of composition.” After earning a Master’s from MSM, he spent another six years in New York, before deciding to relocate to the Bay Area in the winter of 2014. 

After forging creative connections ranging across overlapping jazz and improvised music circles Pate has thrived in California. Taking over programming responsibilities at one of the region’s premiere showcases for adventurous improvisers, he’s booked the monthly Monday Make Out at the Mission District venue the Make Out Room.  “There are these different species of jazz around and I’m fortunate to play in a few different ones,” he says. “I like playing free and improvised music. I’m also interested in structure and harmony, and luckily I can be inside those worlds at the same time.”