Bright Size Life

With his first studio recording as a leader, Bright Size Life was the album that decisively put him 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.”