Veteran contemporary jazz guitarist and composer Pat Metheny’s 1976 debut album Bright Size Life is getting a new vinyl reissue this year. The latest ECM Luminescence Series vinyl is now available for pre-order now.
Recorded in Ludwigsburg in December 1975 and produced by Manfred Eicher, Bright Size Life marked the first studio recording on which Metheny served as a leader. He recruited his standard touring band lineup for the album’s sessions: Bob Moses on the drums and a then all-but-unknown Jaco Pastorius on bass guitar.
“I could happily play all the music from Bright Size Life right now,” Metheny shared of the record in a Library of Congress interview 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.”
The early recording preceded a historic career: Metheny now has 20 Grammy Awards to his name and is the only person who has won Grammys in 10 different categories. His next new album, MoonDial, is set for release later this month, on July 26—the record was compiled from sessions held during the winter of 2023.
Order Pat Metheny’s Bright Size Life now.
