Bright Size Life

Bright Size Life
Studio album by Pat Metheny
Released	March 1976 (1976-03)
Recorded	December 1975 (1975-12)
Studio	Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg
Genre	Jazz, Jazz fusion, Americana
Length	37:06
Label	ECM
Producer	Manfred Eicher
Pat Metheny chronology
Bright Size Life (1976) Watercolors (1977)

Bright Size Life is the debut album by Pat Metheny, recorded in December 1975 and released on ECM in March of the following year. The recording features his working trio with Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses. ^[1]

Background

The songs for Bright Size Life were written when Metheny was living in Boston and teaching at the Berklee School of Music. Metheny's mentor, the vibraphonist Gary Burton, helped Metheny arrange the songs and accompanied him to the recording session in Germany. Despite that, Burton never received a producer credit on the release. ^{[2] [3] [4]}

Metheny and Moses had already been in the studio in Ludwigsburg in July for Gary Burton's Ring , who also released his work on Manfred Eicher's label ECM. Initially the trio rehearsed the material for the recording with Dave Holland on bass, because Eicher refused to have an electric bass on the recording In the end he accepted Pastorius to play and, according to Bob Moses, even allowed Pastorius to overdub his theme on "Midwestern Nights Dream", a practice Eicher also was principially against. ^{[5] [6]}

Metheny has described the album as being "moderately successful" when it was released, selling around 900 copies, but it wasn't until 10–15 years later that it received wider recognition. ^[7]

Reception and legacy

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[9]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[10]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	[11]
Tom Hull	B+( ) [12]

In 2005, the first track was included on the Progressions: 100 Years of Jazz Guitar compilation on Columbia Records. ^[13]

In the last edition of The Penguin Guide to Jazz in 2010, Brian Morton cited guitarist Martin Taylor, who said: "Bright Size Life was a turning point in jazz. Metheny took jazz into a direction that nobody else knew about." The guide's critique sees both first albums as atypical, since they depend more on their respectice bassists (on the following Watercolors it is Eberhard Weber). Metheny's "clean, open tone" is compared with "such urban pastoralists as Jim Hall and Jimmy Raney", without often playing bebop licks. ^[14]

In 2011, the first track was included on the Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology compilation. ^[15] In August 2020, the album was included in the Jazzwise list of "100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World". ^[16]

In 2020, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry. ^[17]

Track listing

The Universal Music Group uploaded all tracks of the album on YouTube. ^[18]

All music is composed by Pat Metheny, except where noted.

Side I

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Bright Size Life"	4:45
2.	"Sirabhorn"	5:29
3.	"Unity Village"	3:40
4.	"Missouri Uncompromised"	4:21
Total length:		18:15

Side II

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
5.	"Midwestern Nights Dream"		6:00
6.	"Unquity Road"		3:35
7.	"Omaha Celebration"		4:18
8.	"Round Trip/Broadway Blues"	Ornette Coleman	4:58
Total length:			18:51 37:06

Personnel

• Pat Metheny – 6- and 12-string electric guitar
• Jaco Pastorius – bass guitar
• Bob Moses – drums

Charts

Year	Chart	Position
1976	Billboard Jazz Albums	28

References

1. "Bright Size Life". AllMusic.com. Archived from the original on June 6, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
2. Beato, Rick (May 30, 2019). "Gary Burton: Vibraphone Legend Talks Corea, Metheny and Berklee". YouTube. Archived from the original on November 30, 2019. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
3. Beato, Rick (August 19, 2021). The Pat Metheny Interview. YouTube. 11:00 minutes in. Retrieved October 30, 2025.
4. Catalogue entry on the ECM homepage. Accessed December 30, 2025.
5. Salamon, Samo (February 26, 2023). Drummer Bob Moses talks about Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius. YouTube. Dr. Jazz Talks (excerpt of #116). 3:58 minutes in. Retrieved January 2, 2026. He didn't want a rock 'n' roller. This is not pop music.
6. Hear "Midwestern Nights Dream" on YouTube. Accessed January 2, 2026.
7. Metheny, Pat (July 8, 2013). "Pat Metheny Looks Back at Bright Size Life". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 15, 2020. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
8. Ginell, Richard S. (2011). "Bright Size Life – Pat Metheny | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
9. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 139. ISBN   0-394-72643-X.
10. Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0195313734.
11. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 993. ISBN   978-0-141-03401-0.
12. "Tom Hull: Grade List: Pat Metheny". Tom Hull . Retrieved October 16, 2025.
13. "Progressions: 100 Years of Jazz Guitar". AllMusic.com. Archived from the original on May 30, 2013. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
14. Morton, Brian; Cook (†), Richard (2010). The Penguin Jazz Guide (The History of the Music in the 1001 Best Albums) (10th ed.). Penguin. pp. 429f. ISBN   978-0-141-04831-4.
15. "The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz". AllMusic.com. Archived from the original on July 28, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
16. "The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World". jazzwise.com. Archived from the original on December 18, 2019. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
17. "National Recording Registry Adds 'Rhythm Nation' Among 25 New Selections". Library of Congress. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
18. Hear the album uploaded on Youtube on Jul 31, 2018. Accessed January 2, 2025.