SONG LIST*

M1 Bright Size Life (Pat Metheny), Bright Size Life, Pat Metheny, Released ECM, LP 1976, (4:55)

M2 Sirabhorn (Pat Metheny), Bright Size Life, Pat Metheny, Released ECM, LP 1976, (5:27)

M3 Unity Village (Pat Metheny), Bright Size Life, Pat Metheny, Released ECM, LP 1976, (3:38)

M4 Unquity Road (Pat Metheny), Bright Size Life, Pat Metheny, Released ECM, LP 1976, (3:36)

M5 So May It Secretly Begin (Pat Metheny), Still Life, Pat Metheny Group, Released Geffen Records, LP 1987, (6:24)

M6 Last Train Home (Pat Metheny), Still Life, Pat Metheny Group, Released Geffen Records, LP 1987, (5:38)

Pat Metheny is an American guitarist and composer. He has worked as a soloist, in duets and small jazz ensembles, and, for decades, with the Pat Metheny Group. His musical styles include Jazz Fusion, Jazz (both progressive and contemporary jazz) …..and also Latin Jazz. He was born in Lee’s Summit, Missouri in 1954. Lee’s Summit is a suburb on the southeast side of Kansas City.

His main influences have been other musicians, his musical family and the British Invasion.

Musicians influencing Metheny include trumpeter Miles Davis, Gary Burton on vibes, jazz guitarists Jim Hall and Wes Montgomery and Jazz Sax players John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. PAUSE
A major foundational influence for Metheny is his musical family. His father played trumpet, his brother Mike Metheny plays jazz trumpet, and Pat’s maternal grandfather was a professional trumpeter. Brother Mike taught Pat how to play the trumpet, and so trumpet is actually Pat Metheny’s first Musicians in the family. Metheny attributes his early success to the local musical environment he was brought up in – the years 1964-1972, in Kansas City. Much of this is described in his biography titled BENEATH MISSOURI SKIES. Seems like Metheny is destined to become a great trumpeter, with all that musical environment…. PAUSE
.. there was a bump in the road at age 10. The BRITISH INVASION was in full force. Metheny saw the Beatles perform on TV in 1964, probably the Ed Sullivan Show, because that year the Beatles appeared. The Beatles are what inspired Metheny to defect from Trumpet to Guitar.

Metheny persuaded his father to buy him a guitar for his 12^th birthday. That first guitar was a Gibson ES-140. PAUSE

That’s a hollow-body guitar, built in ¾ scale for young players and small hands. It’s a scale model of the Gibson ES-175 hollow body. Metheny soon got bigger hands and acquired a Gibson ES-175 …and that guitar is featured on his early albums like those in this podcast episode… Metheny started playing in pizza parlors at age fourteen (that’s 1968). At age 15, Metheny won a scholarship from Down Beat Magazine to attend a jazz camp (1969). That camp led to a meeting with Jazz guitarist Jim Hall, and bassist Ron Carter. So, by the time he graduated from high school (1972) he was the first-call guitarist for Kansas City jazz clubs, private clubs, and jazz festivals. Metheny had A LOT of support from his musical environment. Even though he switched from trumpet to guitar.

Metheny briefly attended college at U of Miami in Florida, but quickly realized after practicing on guitar for years all day long… he was unprepared for a college program … He realized then he was first and foremost, a serious guitarist and composer.

Metheny moved to Boston to teach at Berklee College of Music at the age of 19, where he met Jazz Vibraphonist Gary Burton. Teaching Jazz Theory and Performance was in demand.

BIT BUCKET

and for those not familiar, the ES-175 is sought-after by jazz country and rock guitarists – – – these vintage guitars today sell for $3,000 to $25,000. Back in the day, made in Kalamazoo MI. How about that for your first guitar? I am jealous, my first guitar was a Kay (named after John Kay) and it was … a very basic and cheap and crude electric starter guitar. Metheny, on the other hand, got a wonderful instrument, because

There have been many collaborations with Metheny and Burton over the decades since then.

that guitar was retired 20 years later- – in 1995.

M1 Bright Size Life (Pat Metheny), Bright Size Life, Pat Metheny, Released ECM, LP 1976, (4:55)

Metheny released his debut album, Bright Size Life (ECM, 1976), with Jaco Pastorius on electric bass guitar and Bob Moses on drums. This is a studio album, recorded in Ludwigsburg Germany. It is amazing to think that this is a debut album. Released in 1976, BRIGHT SIZE LIFE is still fresh today. In this title song, Metheny begins his work in a signature way, his entrance is unmistakable with a quick ascending line. Many of his solos begin with the signature Metheny sound….and Pastorious presents an equally inmistakable bass guitar part. Here’s that fabulous BRIGHT SIZE LIFE INTRO

SAMPLE Play that intro ascending line with Jaco solid bass line in Bright Size Life

Pastorius and Metheny are weaving together guitar and bass lines in this song. The bass is so much more than a rhythm support role, Pastorius is playing in parallel improvisation with Metheny. Bright Size life sets the table for a fine album of jazz fusion by 22-year old Metheny.

And now, BRIGHT SIZE LIFE, 1976

Play M1

Don’t Touch That Dial

That was M1 BRIGHT SIZE LIFE, 1976

At the time of this recording, Metheny was living in Boston and teaching at the Berklee School of Music. His mentor was Gary Burton, the jazz vibraphonist. They collaborated on the arranging of the songs to be recorded for this album, and Burton attended the recording sessions in Germany. Interesting that Burton did NOT receive a PRODUCER or ARRANGER credit on this album.

Credits

Pat Metheny – 6-and 12-string electric guitar
Jaco Pastorius – electric bass
Bob Moses – drums

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PASTORIUS FOR ANOTHER PODCAST !

M2 Sirabhorn (Pat Metheny), Bright Size Life, Pat Metheny, Released ECM, LP 1976, (5:27)

Now we review the second track on side 1…. the song is titled SIRABHORN

I attempted to analyze the magical sound of this song and how that never heard before /from another planet sound is structured. Surely it is structured, with a Pastorius bass line and with Bob Moses supplying the heartbeat throughout this song. The song is so difficult to describe in words . A skilled composer named Dr. Guy Shkolnik described SIRABHORN this way:

The beautiful harmony is made of chromatic alterations of pure diatonic harmony and three modulations.

PAUSE

Millions of amateur guitarists, myself included, remain in awe of Metheny. He is a trained musician from childhood, with composition, arrangement and performance skills and teaching skills. His guitar performance is complex and mind-bending. Decades later, his signature sound is imitated but never duplicated.

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A little info about the bassist JACO PASTORIUS. The SIRABHORN song features a Jaco electric fretless bass solo and is from the earliest recording of Pastorius. He employed the use of a fretless bass, a 1962 Fender Jazz Bass that he called the Bass of Doom. As a youngster, he had modified the bass by removing the frets (which is outrageous) using a butter knife, then smoothing the gaps on the fretboard. Along with his use of distortion, 2-note power chords, the use of harmonics, and bass solos that sound lyrical…he is regarded today as one of the best electric bassists of all time. Here is an example of a LYRICAL SOUNDING SOLO from Pastorius….

SAMPLE Insert example of a LYRICAL SOLO by Jaco. Suggest Sirabhorn, about 60% into the song a solo that runs 60 seconds. Alternate is the solo in BRIGHT SIZE LIFE song.

What about that equally strange song name? Sirabhorn is named after a jazz guitar student of Metheny’s at Berklee.

And now here is SIRABHORN 1976

PLAY M2

Don’t Touch That Dial

that was M2 Sirabhorn (Pat Metheny), Bright Size Life, Pat Metheny, Released ECM, LP 1976, (5:27)

Song credits M2 go to

Pat Metheny – on a chiming twelve-string guitar with alternate tuning
Jaco Pastorius – electric bass guitar with lyrical bass solo
Bob Moses – drums providing the hearbeat of this song

In this same year, Pastorius released his own debut, self-titled, solo album.

BIT BUCKET

Sirabhorn is an alteration of C – Am – F – Dm a common musical theme.

This is altered to become C – B flat m – G flat – E m –

“Sirabhorn” Metheney said that The chiming opening bars have that open, pastoral sound that Methe...