Pat Metheny - 1976 "Bright Size Life"

Bright Size Life is Pat Metheny's debut album, released in 1976 on ECM, when Metheny was only 21. The album features Jaco Pastorius on bass and drummer Bob Moses.

In 2011, the first track was included on the Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology compilation.

Larger ensembles may have provided Pat Metheny with his most visible successes, but he’s repeatedly fired up his most fluid and personal playing in leaner trio settings, starting with this, his 1976 debut as a leader. Bob Moses brings both delicacy and effortless dynamics to his drumming, but it’s the late Jaco Pastorius’ lyrical electric bass that clinches the guitarist’s coming-out party: with Metheny already displaying the liquid tone and exquisite touch that define his sound, old friend Pastorius radiates a sympathetic lyricism and unerring sense of swing.

Pat Metheny's debut studio album is a good one, a trio date that finds him already laying down the distinctively cottony, slightly withdrawn tone and asymmetrical phrasing that would serve him well through most of the swerves in direction ahead. His original material, all of it lovely, bears the bracing air of his Midwestern upbringing, with titles like "Missouri Uncompromised," "Midwestern Nights Dream," and "Omaha Celebration." There is also a sole harbinger of radical matters way down the road with the inclusion of a loose-jointed treatment of Ornette Coleman's "Round Trip/Broadway Blues," proving that Song X did not come from totally out of the blue. Besides the debut of Metheny, this CD also features one of the earliest recordings of Jaco Pastorius, a fully formed, well-matched contrapuntal force on electric bass, though content to leave the spotlight mostly to Metheny. Bob Moses, who like Metheny played in the Gary Burton Quintet at the time, is the drummer, and he can mix it up, too. 

Tracks

1. Bright Size Life
2. Sirabhorn
3. Unity Village
4. Missouri Uncompromised
5. Midwestern Nights Dream
6. Unquity Road
7. Omaha Celebration
8. Round Trip/Broadway Blues

 Personnel:

Pat Metheny	6-String Bass, 12-String Bass Guitar, Bass, Bass (Electric), Composer, Guitar, Guitar (12 String), Guitar (12 String Electric)
Bob Moses	Drums, Drums (Snare)
Jaco Pastorius	Bass, Bass (Electric), Fretless Bass