Jazz guitar icon Pat Metheny must like playing in wine country.

He’s performed at the Napa Valley Opera House twice in less than a year, his latest visit this past Tuesday night with an all-star trio that includes phenomenal bassist Christian McBride and powerhouse percussionist Antonio Sanchez.

The remarkable baby boomer guitarist and his mid-30s counterparts — the most awesome rhythm section in the business — have been making incredible music for the past four years.

They just released their first recording on Nonesuch, “Day Trip,” and have embarked on a nationwide tour in support of that launch. The tour kicked off in Napa Tuesday night to a wildly enthusiastic packed house obviously suckled on Metheny magic.

Metheny burst onto the international jazz scene in 1974, breaking new ground with — yeah, even turning upside down — the art of electric jazz guitar, as well as revolutionizing the very instrument itself. He made use of new technology to broaden the improvisational and sonic potential of his instrument, and, in so doing, attracted untold numbers to jazz and his captivating, embracing style.

Many remember Metheny in his early years, reinventing the jazz guitar sound on recordings, sharing his talent and vision with students his own age, for at 19 he was the youngest teacher ever to join the faculty of the Berklee School of Music.

The trio format has served Metheny’s talent well. He made his recording debut as a leader with Jaco Pastorius on bass and Bob Moses on drums more than three decades ago. He’s returned to that format over the years with such top-flight musicians as Charlie Haden, Dave Holland, Billy Higgins and Roy Haynes.

The current lineup might arguably be the best. Who doesn’t cotton to McBride’s rich and resonant tone? What’s not to like about the shades and colors Sanchez brings to his consummate drumming? The pair provide a solid platform on which Metheny weaves his improvisational music, for that, really, is what jazz is all about.

Last March, Metheny teamed up on the Opera House with another groundbreaking jazzman, pianist Brad Meldau. That was certainly a memorable coupling, with creative sparks literally crackling in the rarefied air.

And Tuesday night’s performance was another opportunity to witness the measured flow of creative juices. This was an evening of pure jazz — accessible yet intelligent, complex and swinging — offered by three musicians who obviously understand and like one another.

Performed without intermission, the two-and-a-half hour concert began with just Metheny and his guitars, performing three acoustic compositions — playing baritone guitar on “Make Peace,” a pastoral tune we last heard on the Metheny/Meldau recordings; paying tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim with a consummate jazz samba riff on “How Insensitive;’ and from a duet with Charlie Haden a decade ago, “Message to a Friend.”

Fans are well aware of Metheny’s pioneering efforts in the realm of electronic music — that he was one of the first jazz musicians to take the synthesizer seriously. Years before the invention of MIDI technology, Metheny was using the Synclavier as a composing tool. He’s been instrumental in the development of several new kinds of guitars, such as the soprano acoustic guitar, the 42-string Pikasso guitar, Ibanez’s PM-100 jazz guitar and a variety of additional custom instruments.

One of those innovative guitars was featured Tuesday night — the double-fretted Celtic-sounding Pikasso that produced, at times, koto-like sounds on a sweeping polychromatic work we first heard last March with Mehldau, “Sound of Water.” Whether one likes the composition better as a solo effort or as a duet is purely a matter of individual taste. The other evening I venture most would have said they liked the immediate rendition best.

For a Metheny concert, there were surprisingly few synths in the mix. That might well be tied to the fact that “Day Trip” is a recording that focuses instead on bluesy grooves, bewitching ballads and Latin swingers.

A fan attending Tuesday’s concert echoed my sentiments in calling Metheny “the Ornette Coleman of the guitar.” That free-form style of jazz improvisation was more than evident in the live performance of one of the new CD’s grooves, “Son of Thirteen,” with the post-bop theme given its Latin accent by the eloquent pizzicato of McBride and the percussive salsa of Sanchez.

As for other tunes from the new recording, “Is This America?” (written as a post-Katrina reflection) is a simple acoustic country-style guitar ballad with McBride’s bowing providing the mantle of a lament; “Snova” has Metheny in reflective mood with a thinking man’s riff from McBride and Sanchez driving the bus; and “Calvin’s Keys” is a classic, swinging Kansas City-style jazz shuffle. A duet with McBride provided new perspective on the Tin Pan Alley classic, “My Funny Valentine.”

The evening’s major guitar synthesizer segment was reserved for “Question and Answer,” a soaring improv from a 1990 recorded collaboration with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Roy Haynes that was a delicious 15-minute jam, featuring a blistering solo by one of the most inspiring, creative geniuses in jazz today.

Kudos are due once again to Evy Warshawski and the Opera House team for rolling out the red carpet for Metheny and company. Metheny told the most appreciative crowd that he enjoyed performing in such a choice venue and that he appreciated the return invitation. Yes ... he really likes us. The feeling is mutual.