Pat Metheny 1983 "Offramp"

Offramp is the third album by the Pat Metheny Group, released in 1982. It won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance. It contains the popular ballad "Are You Going with Me?".

Offramp is the first studio album on which Metheny used a guitar synthesizer, a Roland GR-300 controlled with a Roland G-303 guitar synthesizer controller. The guitar synthesizer became one of Metheny's most frequently used instruments.

Offramp is also the first Group album to feature vocals, which became a fundamental component of the band's sound. When Metheny and Lyle Mays partnered with Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos on the album As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls, they sought to expand the potential of the recording studio as an ensemble instrument and experiment with sounds they hadn't previously utilized. Some of the innovations introduced on Wichita carried over into Offramp, namely Vasconcelos's vocals and percussion stylings.

Bassist Mark Egan was replaced by Steve Rodby, who remained with the Group well into the 2000s and became an important partner in the compositional and production processes between Metheny and Mays.

The Group pays tribute to one of Metheny's biggest influences, pioneering free jazz instrumentalist Ornette Coleman, on the title track, and singer-songwriter James Taylor served as the inspiration for the sixth track, "James."

Offramp was critically acclaimed and commercially successful at the time of its release. It won the Playboy Readers Poll for Best Jazz Album and the 1982 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance, the Group's first of ten Grammys.

The album continues to be acclaimed by critics and fans of the Group for its compositional maturity, technological progressiveness, especially for the time it was recorded, and for firmly establishing key hallmarks of the Group's overall sound, namely the guitar synthesizer and vocals.

If 1980's As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls was defined by Pat Metheny's charisma, its less accessible but certainly rewarding successor, Offramp, finds him leaning more toward the abstract. But as cerebral as Metheny gets on such atmospheric pieces as "Are You Going with Me?" and "Au Lait," his playing remains decidedly lyrical and melodic. Clearly influenced by Jim Hall, the thoughtful Metheny makes excellent use of space, choosing his notes wisely and reminding listeners that, while he has heavy-duty chops, he's not one to beat everybody over the head with them. Even when he picks up the tempo for the difficult and angular title song, he shuns empty musical acrobatics. Throughout the CD, Metheny enjoys a powerful rapport with keyboardist Lyle Mays, who also avoids exploiting his technique and opts for meaningful storytelling.

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Track listing:

All tracks are written by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays except where noted.

1.    "Barcarole" (Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays/Naná Vasconcelos)    3:17
2.    "Are You Going with Me?"    8:47
3.    "Au Lait"    8:32
1.    "Eighteen" (Metheny/Mays/Vasconcelos)    5:08
2.    "Offramp"    5:59
3.    "James"    6:47
4.    "The Bat Part II"    3:50

Total length:    40:10

Note:

    A composition entitled "The Bat" appeared on Metheny's collaborative jazz album 80/81, in 1980. "The Bat Part II" is a reworking of that song.

Personnel:

    Pat Metheny – electric and acoustic guitar, guitar synthesizer, Synclavier
    Lyle Mays – piano, synthesizers, autoharp, electric organ, Synclavier
    Steve Rodby – electric and acoustic bass
    Danny Gottlieb – drums
    Naná Vasconcelos – percussion, voice, berimbau