SAN DIEGO — Leonard Patton’s debut tour this year as a member of 20-time Grammy Award-winning guitar giant and composer Pat Metheny’s Side-Eye III+ band is a dream come true for the award-winning San Diego singer in every possible way. So is being featured on “Se-o,” a standout song from “Side-Eye III+,” Metheny’s superb new album and his first to prominently feature vocals in more than a decade.

“Absolutely! Anytime you’re playing with one of your heroes, it’s a dream come true,” said Patton, speaking from a recent tour stop in Vancouver, British Columbia. “It’s something you don’t plan for and can never intentionally ask for.”

How much more of a dream come true will it be for Patton to perform this week with Metheny and Side-Eye III+ at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay in San Diego, the city Patton has called home since he was 5 years old?

“I don’t even think I can fathom it,” replied the versatile singer, who attended Boston’s Berklee College of Music and earned his master’s in jazz studies at SDSU in 2010. A musical theater veteran, Patton has been the featured vocalist in national commercials for Pizza Hut, Coca-Cola and NASCAR.

“I grew up in San Diego, so almost all of my music peers are there,” he said.

“San Diego has a wonderful music community, so when somebody does something well — or gets on a big tour or wins an award — everybody is so supportive. Doing a concert at Humphreys with Pat is really a hometown party with family, a zillion friends and people who are very supportive and happy for this opportunity I’ve been given.”

One of those people is top San Diego jazz guitarist Peter Sprague, who has performed and recorded with Patton for more than 30 years. It was Sprague and Patton’s stellar 2015 duo album, the presciently titled “Dream Walkin’,” that put Patton firmly on Metheny’s radar.

“It is a dream come true for Leonard to be collaborating with Pat,” said Sprague, who counts such past and present jazz luminaries as Chick Corea, Sonny Rollins, Dianne Reeves and San Diego’s Charles McPherson among his previous collaborators.

“Being in Pat’s band is the gig of a lifetime,” Sprague elaborated. “To play that incredible music on a world tour with Pat and the other great musicians in his band is a highpoint for any artist. I’m so happy for Leonard because there’s no one more deserving of that opportunity than him.”

Gospel, jazz, ‘Hello, Dolly!’

A happily married father of three, the 56-year-old Patton brings an unusually varied number of artistic talents and credits to any setting.

The son of a gospel singer father, the younger Patton is the owner and operator of The Jazz Lounge, the live music and dinner club near SDSU that celebrates its fifth anniversary this year. In 2017, he launched the Jazz Vocal Workshop to provide free music instruction at schools across San Diego County.

A musical theater veteran, Patton has been featured in an array of North Coast Repertory Theatre, Lamb’s Players Theatre and San Diego Musical Theatre productions, including “Godspell,” “MixTape,” “Pump Up the Volume: A ‘90s-Palooza” and “Hello, Dolly!” He has taught songwriting classes at Cal State San Marcos, worked as a substitute music teacher at Francis Parker Upper School, and — when his schedule allows — gives private voice and improvisation lessons.

“Whatever I’m doing, I try to be real with the music,” Patton said. “I like a good challenge and I like a lot of different music. I like Miles Davis and I like Led Zeppelin.”

Best Jazz Artist award-winner

The 2026 Best Jazz Artist winner at the San Diego Music Awards, Patton has performed countless gigs as the leader of his own bands and with various musical partners, Sprague most of all.

The two met in 1993 when the acclaimed guitarist was doing a concert and master class at Mesa College and Patton approached him. The budding young singer was just 23 at the time. But his skill level and enthusiasm were as unmistakable as his musical-sponge-like quest to absorb and learn as much as possible.

“I remember Leonard coming up and, in a very humble way, introducing himself and telling me a little about his music,” Sprague said. “He asked me to produce a couple of songs for him, so he came to my studio. That’s when I first heard him sing and I was very impressed.

“Then, I had a gig at the Horton Grand downtown. I asked Leonard to sit in and it really opened a door. I realized: ‘This guy is extremely talented. He’s smart, he knows a lot about music theory and has all these other terrific qualities.’ We started doing more and more gigs together and it built from there. Leonard is a great jazz singer, but he can also do pop, bossa-nova, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Paul Simon, and a lot more, very, very well.”

Simon, not coincidentally, is also an admirer of Patton, at least from afar.

In 2022, a San Diego Union-Tribune reader forwarded this writer’s preview of Patton’s “Paul Simon Reimagined” concerts at The Jazz Lounge to Robert Hilburn, the former Los Angeles Times pop music critic. Hilburn, whose authoritative biography, “Paul Simon: The Life,” was published in 2018, alerted Simon in Connecticut who then checked out Patton’s singing online.

The legendary singer-songwriter was so impressed with what he heard that he emailed Patton to offer encouragement. He also made specific suggestions about lesser-known Simon songs for Patton to consider performing.

“I know you’re playing for a club audience but an unexpected song in the middle of a set, if performed right and with an audience that is tuned in, can lift a set in an unexpected way,” Simon wrote to Patton. “Anyway, I wish you good luck and I like the way you play. A lot.”

So does Metheny, who first heard Patton on “Dream Walkin,” the singer’s sublime 2015 duo album with Sprague.

‘Staggering!’

“‘Dream Walkin’” is staggering!” Metheny said in a 2021 Union-Tribune interview. “It’s on a level of musicianship that is in the top .00001 percent of what it is to be a musician.”

Metheny, who has won 20 Grammy Awards in a record 12 categories, has collaborated over the years with everyone from Joni Mitchell and David Bowie to such jazz giants as Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman and Jaco Pastorius.

An astute judge of talent, Metheny has hired and nurtured a fair number of outstanding musicians in his bands over the years from far and near. Some of the standouts include Mexican drummer Antonio Sanchez, Cameroonian bassist and vocalist Richard Bona, French-Vietnamese trumpeter Cuong Vu, Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, Malaysian bassist Linda May Han Oh and Chicago-bred drummer Paul Wertico.

“Pat has been friends with Peter (Sprague) for many years,” Patton said.

“So, anytime Pat comes to perform in San Diego, Peter takes me as his plus-one which is very cool. So, I’ve met Pat every couple of years, because nearly all of his tours have come to San Diego. ‘Dream Walkin’ ‘ came out in 2015 and Pat really loves that album. He’s told the other guys in Side-Eye that Peter is the best guitar accompanist (for singers) in the world. I think that album put me on Pat’s radar for future consideration.”

Sprague agreed, adding: “I think Leonard and I went to about eight of Pat’s concerts here in San Diego. Leonard was always very humble when he met Pat; he never said: ‘I’m a great singer.’ And I think Pat sensed that humility, just like I had when I first met Leonard.”

Metheny did not hear Patton sing in person until 2022, when the internationally acclaimed guitarist was booked to play a one-off private concert that year in Orange County. Rather than fly out from New York with his own group, Metheny invited Sprague and his talent-rich band — including Patton — to accompany him. He was suitably wowed by their performance of his music.

Then again, it is likely Sprague and Patton are more conversant with Metheny’s extensive body of work than almost any other working musicians anywhere.

Over the past 30-plus years, the San Diego singer and guitarist have performed numerous concerts here showcasing various Metheny compositions. The 2022 album, “Peter Sprague Plays Pat Metheny, Volume One,” features seven pieces written by Metheny. Patton is featured on four of them, including “Song for Bilbao,” which he is now singing nightly on tour with Metheny’s Side-Eye III+. The band’s other members include Chris Fishman on keyboards, Joe Dyson on drums and Jermaine Paul on bass.

“The younger guys in Pat’s band don’t have the history with Pat’s music that Leonard has,” Sprague said. “And Pat has commented to them that Leonard knows the whole body of Pat’s work. Leonard came into Pat’s band with all these songs memorized and he knows all the fine points, historically, of how these tunes were originally done and need to be done.”

‘Body and soul’

Metheny initially considered bringing Patton into his then-new Side-Eye group as early as 2022 — mid-tour and on very short notice — according to both Patton and Sprague. After a series of discussions between Metheny’s tour manager and Patton in 2025, Metheny called the singer last Dec. 19.

“It was a great day — he called me on my wedding anniversary!” Patton said.

“The very first thing he said is: ‘Are you ready to do this?’ And I was, like: ‘Yeah!’ It was that quick. I didn’t even need to audition because I’d already done that gig with him in Orange County. I don’t think Pat has toured with a vocalist in nearly 20 years, so he was super excited that not only can we do tunes from the new album, but also some of the classics and old tunes he hasn’t done on tour in years.”

Having immersed himself in Metheny’s expansive artistic oeuvre for several decades, Patton is beyond delighted to now be taking an even deeper dive, nightly on stage, alongside the guitarist whose music has been a constant inspiration to him.

“I have been singing Pat’s music for many, many years,” Patton said. “You can never assume that you’ve perfected his songs, but they were already in me, in my body and soul. So, it was like there was an instant connection when I joined his band. Now, it’s like a new wave of emotion and connection.”

He chuckled.

“Sometimes, I’m pinching myself to see if this is really happening because it blows my mind,” Patton said. “Every day, I get new insight into Pat and his music, which are both on such a high level. It’s a constant growth thing and it’s beautiful. I never, ever thought I’d even have the chance to do something like this. Pat loves this band and he’s already writing new music for it.”

European tour looms

Another pinch-me moment came on March 2 in Mississippi, where Side-Eye III+ opened its 2026 world tour in Jackson on March 2. The sublime singer Cassandra Wilson, a longtime favorite of Patton’s, was in the audience.

“She lives in in Jackson and had to leave right after the gig,” Patton said. “But she and Pat talked on the phone after the concert, and she loved it. She wanted Pat to tell me: ‘Great job on vocals.’ She’s one of my heroes. So, for her to be there and say that was pretty amazing.”

Patton’s performance on Friday with Metheny and Side-Eye III+ at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay will take place just two days after the 2026 San Diego Music Awards were held at the same venue.

Patton, who was on hand for Wednesday’s awards fete, will spend the summer on a European tour with Side-Eye III+ that opens June 5 in Denmark. But he won’t be kicking back during the three weeks he has off before flying to Europe. Instead, the tireless singer will be performing multiple times with multiple bands at his San Diego club, The Jazz Lounge.

“It will be fun to do some gigs with my musician friends, including Peter,” Patton said.

“No matter what the gig is, you need to strive for authenticity. I’m always looking to do something different and go a little past my comfort zone. Music is sacred to me. So, you want to give the best of what you do in every aspect because you are always a reflection of what you do.”

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