Pat Metheny Bright Size Life (ECM Luminessence Series) LP

Analog Planet Rated 9/10 Music, 10/10 Sound!

With his first studio recording as a leader, Bright Size Life was the album that decisively put Pat Metheny on the map as a bright new force with something fresh to say in the context of contemporary jazz. Recorded in Ludwigsburg in December 1975, and produced by Manfred Eicher, the album features Metheny's regular touring band of the day – Bob Moses on drums and the virtuosic but then largely unknown Jaco Pastorius on bass guitar.

"I could happily play all the music from Bright Size Life right now," said Pat Metheny in an interview for the Library of Congress in 2021. "It still seems viable; the arguments there still seem valid and worth thinking about. My sense at the time was that I wanted to make a record that might be the only record I would ever make. I hoped to make a statement on things that were important to me in terms of melody, harmony, trio playing, and even kind of life in general."

Bright Size Life is a wonderful album, any way you approach listening to it. Whether you are a deep or casual fan of Pat Metheny's music, this is one of the must-haves. And if you want to hear more of the evolution of Jaco Pastorius, it is an arguable ground zero containing some of his earliest recorded work. Or, if you are simply an audiophile looking for a great-sounding, timeless-feeling, modern-leaning jazz-fusion recording for your LP collection that is challenging without hammering you over the head with those bravado/shredding pyrotechnics common to the form, this album might be just the jam for you. This new edition of Bright Size Life is direct evidence of how the current ECM Records Luminessence series continues to deliver outstanding and more-than-welcome reissues worth adding to your collection.