| Bright Size Life | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | March 1976 | |||
| Recorded | December 1975 | |||
| Studio | Tonstudio Bauer Ludwigsburg, West Germany | |||
| Genre | Jazz, Jazz fusion, Americana | |||
| Length | 37:06 | |||
| Label | ECM 1073 ST | |||
| Producer | Manfred Eicher | |||
| Pat Metheny chronology | ||||
| ||||
Bright Size Life is the debut album by Pat Metheny, recorded in December 1975 and released on ECM March the following year. The trio features rhythm section Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses. [1]
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]
Metheny has described the album as being "moderately successful" when it was released, selling around 900 copies, but that it wasn't until 10–15 years later that it received wider recognition. [3]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [4] |
| The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide |  [5] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [6] |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | [7] |
In 2005, the first track was included on the Progressions: 100 Years of Jazz Guitar compilation on Columbia Records. [8]
In 2011, the first track was included on the Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology compilation. [9] In August 2020, the album was included in the Jazzwise list of "100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World". [10]
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. [11]
All music is composed by Pat Metheny, except where noted
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Bright Size Life" | 4:45 |
| 2. | "Sirabhorn" | 5:29 |
| 3. | "Unity Village" | 3:40 |
| 4. | "Missouri Uncompromised" | 4:21 |
| 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 |
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Billboard Jazz Albums | 28 |
John Francis "Jaco" Pastorius III was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. He recorded albums as a solo artist and band leader and was a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. He also collaborated with numerous artists, including Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell.
John Scofield is an American guitarist and composer whose music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. He first came to mainstream attention in the band of Miles Davis, and has toured and recorded with many prominent jazz artists, including saxophonists Eddie Harris, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson and Joe Lovano; keyboardists George Duke, Joey DeFrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Larry Goldings and Robert Glasper; fellow guitarists Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, Pat Martino and Bill Frisell; bassists Marc Johnson and Jaco Pastorius; and drummers Billy Cobham and Dennis Chambers. Outside the world of jazz, he has collaborated with Phil Lesh, Mavis Staples, John Mayer, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Gov't Mule.
Patrick Bruce Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
The Pat Metheny Group was an American jazz band founded in 1977 by guitarist and composer Pat Metheny, along with his core collaborating member, keyboardist and composer Lyle Mays. Other long-standing members included bassist and producer Steve Rodby, from 1981 to 2010, and drummer Antonio Sanchez, from 2002 to 2010. Vocalist Pedro Aznar and drummer Paul Wertico were also long-time members. In addition to a core quartet, the group was often joined by a variety of other instrumentalists expanding the size to six or eight musicians.
Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be heralded as an innovator, and his sound and technique are widely imitated. He is also known for pioneering fusion jazz and popularizing the duet format in jazz, as well as being a major figure in music education from his 30 years teaching at the Berklee College of Music.
Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer, received an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 2004, and was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 2007.
Portrait of Jaco: The Early Years, 1968–1978 is a compilation of recordings made by Jaco Pastorius between 1968 and 1978. It was released in 2003 by Holiday Park Records.
Shadows and Light is the second live album by Canadian musician Joni Mitchell. It was released in September 1980 through Asylum Records, her last release for the label. It was recorded in September 1979 at the Santa Barbara Bowl in Santa Barbara, California.
Pat Metheny Group is the debut album by the Pat Metheny Group, recorded in January 1978 and released on ECM March that same year. The quartet features Lyle Mays on piano and synthesizer and rhythm section Mark Egan, and Danny Gottlieb.
Michael Clement Irving Gibbs is a Rhodesian-born English jazz composer, conductor, arranger and producer as well as a trombonist and keyboardist.
Like Minds is a 1998 jazz album by the vibraphonist Gary Burton with the pianist Chick Corea, guitarist Pat Metheny, drummer Roy Haynes, and double bass player Dave Holland. In 1999, the album won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group. Recordings took place in the Avatar Sound Studio in New York City.
Ring is an album by the Gary Burton Quintet with Eberhard Weber, recorded over two days in July 1974 and released on ECM later that year. The quintet consists guitarists Mick Goodrick and Pat Metheny and rhythm section Steve Swallow and Bob Moses.
Richard Niles is an American composer, arranger, record producer, guitarist, broadcaster, and journalist.
Jaco is the unofficial later title of a 1974 LP album on Paul Bley's Improvising Artists Label. It is notable for being the first professional recording showcasing the talents of Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny. The two had become friends in Miami the year before. Their collaboration continued on Metheny's debut Bright Size Life with Bob Moses, recorded in December 1975.
Reunion is a 1989 album by vibraphonist Gary Burton, reuniting him with his former guitarist Pat Metheny for the first time in 13 years. Burton met Metheny at the Wichita Jazz Festival in 1973, later welcoming him as a teaching colleague at the Berklee College of Music. He hired Metheny for the newly expanded Gary Burton Quintet in 1974. Burton and Metheny feature alongside keyboardist Mitchel Forman, bass guitarist Will Lee and drummer Peter Erskine.
The Free Spirits was an American band credited as the first jazz-rock group. The band also incorporated elements of pop and garage rock. Their first album Out of Sight and Sound was recorded in 1966 and released in 1967.
Dreams So Real: Music of Carla Bley is an album by the Gary Burton Quintet, featuring compositions by Carla Bley, recorded in December 1975 and released on ECM the following year. The quintet features guitarists Mick Goodrick and Pat Metheny and rhythm section Steve Swallow and Bob Moses.
Day Trip is a studio album by jazz guitarist Pat Metheny with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Antonio Sanchez. It was released by Nonesuch Records on January 29, 2008.
Hommage à Eberhard Weber is a live tribute album celebrating German double bassist and composer Eberhard Weber's 75th birthday recorded by the German public broadcaster SWR in Stuttgart in 2015 featuring Pat Metheny, Jan Garbarek, Gary Burton, Scott Colley, Danny Gottlieb, Paul McCandless, with Michael Gibbs and Helge Sunde conducting the SWR Big Band which was released on the ECM label.
Quartet Live is a 2009 live album by American jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton. The record features a revival of Burton’s quartet format of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the return of Burton veterans Pat Metheny on guitar and Steve Swallow on bass guitar along with young virtuoso Antonio Sanchez on drums. The album was recorded on June 10–11, 2007 at Yoshi's jazz club and released in 2009 via the Concord Jazz label.
