Paul Wertico has also performed with Larry Coryell, Eddie Harris, Paul Winter, and Ramsey Lewis. Courtesy photo

When David Bowie was invited to sing with the Pat Metheny Group on the soundtrack of the critically acclaimed movie “The Falcon and the Snowman,” the musicians flew to Switzerland to record with the rock legend on the song “This Is Not America.”

“We did the ‘Falcon and the Snowman’ soundtrack and ended up going to Montreux,” Metheny group drummer Paul Wertico recalled. “There’s a studio and we knock on the door and there’s David Bowie.”

He said Bowie introduced himself, and for some reason, they hit it off. “He was totally cool, such a nice cat,” Wertico recalled.

Wertico will perform Saturday at the Big Island Jazz & Blues Festival and May 21 at The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua.

Wertico first played in Hawaii at a concert with jazz legend Pat Metheny at the Waikiki Shell in 1985. The Chicago-based drummer recalled how they opened with a drumline marching from the back of the sold-out amphitheater.

“That was the whole thing — like forward march,” Wertico explained. “That was my title. But Pat was really mad at me at first because I said, ‘Man, we should open up ‘First Circle’ with ‘Forward March.’ He thought it was kind of a disaster. But then later on, it wasn’t, of course.”

One of Metheny’s most popular albums, “First Circle” won a Grammy for Best Jazz Fusion Performance in 1985. Wertico was in Greece when he got a cassette of “First Circle.”

“I was with some friends and I said, ‘Check this out.’ The first tune comes on and they’re looking at me like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ It sounded like avant-garde jazz played by a grade school band. But that was the whole idea.”

Playing with Metheny for 18 years, Wertico won seven Grammy Awards for albums like “Still Life (Talking),” “Letter From Home” and “We Live Here.”

Wertico’s wife, Barbara Unger-Wertico, also toured with Metheny, playing rhythm guitar, keyboards, percussion and singing on the “Secret Story” tour. A composer, the Doobie Brothers recorded her song “Under the Spell.”

Will she join him at the Ritz-Carlton show?

“She hates to be put on the spot, but maybe,” he said. “If there is a keyboard there, we might play one or two of her tunes. She’s an amazing musician.”

Paul Wertico. Courtesy photo

Making his Maui debut at the Kapalua show, Wertico will be backed by the Maui Jazz & Blues Festival Band, featuring keyboardist Mark Johnstone, bassist Dave Graber and drummer Howie Retzner.

Wertico said he doesn’t yet know what jazz compositions the audience might hear.

“That’s my lifestyle. I just go up and play,” he said. “A couple new records came out where I played with people I didn’t know. As far as live gigs, I do that all the time because it’s like living in the moment. Jazz is about improvisation and it’s about creating things.”

Acclaimed as one of the most versatile drummers performing today, Wertico is an associate professor of Jazz Studies at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts. Besides Metheny, he has performed with Larry Coryell, Eddie Harris, Paul Winter and Ramsey Lewis.

He began playing professionally in Chicago at 15 years old.

“I was playing with all the old black musicians that were even in their 70s and 80s that played with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington,” he recalled. “I also gravitate towards rock and the avant-garde because I would just buy records and I never separated the styles in my head. I just took what I liked.”

That also meant being a fan of Cream, Ginger Baker, Jimi Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell. “I listened to Buddhist monks and music from Chile,” he recalled. “Then I put on Cream or a Hendrix record, and Coltrane or an Ella Fitzgerald record.”

Voted Fusion Drummer of the Year in a readers poll by DRUM! magazine, Wertico’s lauded albums include “Drums Without Boundaries,” “Tuxedo Man” and “Mid-East/Mid-West Alliance: Impressions of a City.”

“I feel very lucky and privileged,” he said “I’m incredibly busy. I have to play a record release the night before my wife and I fly to Hawaii. I wouldn’t trade my life for anybody’s.”

Wertico will perform at The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua, at 6 p.m. May 21 as part of the Maui Jazz & Blues Festival series. Admission is $10 and free for kama’aina.