Celebrating Pat Metheny’s “Bright Size Life”

JGT contributor Joe Barth interviews Pat Metheny as he reflects on meeting Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses and recording Bright Size Life.

Pat Metheny’s first album as a leader is Bright Size Life.  It was recorded in 1975 in Ludwigsburg, Germany as a trio featuring bassist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Bob Moses and released on ECM Records. Pat’s mentor, vibraphonist, Gary Burton traveled with Pat to Germany and may have assisted as a producer.  The eight-song album sold about 900 copies at its initial release but later received wider recognition.  In honor of Pat’s 70^th birthday (August 12, 1954), ECM is re-issuing the album on vinyl.  

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In my over twenty-five years of interviewing the greatest jazz guitarists on the planet (including Pat Metheny), many have spoken about how Bright Size Life has influenced them.  I would like to share with you what they have said about the album and its impact.

I begin with my interviews with Pat Metheny as he reflects on meeting Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses and recording Bright Size Life.

Pat Metheny – The first night I was there (Miami) I went to this place and there was Jaco Pastorius playing electric bass in this big band.  I about had a heart attack (laughter).

Joe Barth:  Was he playing like the Jaco we know from his albums?

PM:  At least, or maybe even more so, I had played some bass gigs around Kansas City, and I thought, “There must be kids (like Jaco) at this level of musicianship in every city in the country. (laughter) Jaco was just three years older than me and his playing that night was “off the scale.” 

…. Also around that time (Pat’s period of teaching at Berklee), I thought that there were many things that are possible with the guitar that to me hadn’t really been explored that much.  The guitar seemed to be a little stuck and I was determined to mess with it.  There were some other younger musicians, like Jaco (Pastorius), probably my best friend at the time, who were really upset and rebellious and we kind of said we have to move this along, we’ve got to change it.  Even though Bright Size Life, looking back on it now (2001), may not sound like it, we were pissed off.  That album is a very strong political statement from us on how we felt about what our instruments needed to do to hang in jazz.  Listening to it now, with 25 years of perspective, I think our message got across, I believe we did change things.  That album was a manifesto of some very specific things that we felt strongly about, in terms of harmony, in terms of interaction, in terms of the sound of the instruments, more than I can talk about it. You have to listen to that album to hear where we were at, at that time.   

…JB:  In making Bright Size Life you chose Jaco as bassist because of your time with him in Miami?

PM:  The trio with Jaco, Bob Moses and myself was an ongoing trio.  We played together the whole time I was with Gary (Burton). When Gary wasn’t doing gigs, we’d play together.

JB:  This was pre-Weather Report for Jaco?

PM: Pre-Weather Report, but he was this sort of underground figure among bassists.  All the bassists around wanted to hear Jaco.  It was a great little trio.  Every place we played was packed.  It was a lot of fun and we played really well together.  In fact, the record producer for ECM wanted me to use more of a name bassist.  I said no, I got this guy named Jaco Pastorius.  He wanted me to use Dave Holland, whom I love as a musician, and I even got together and played with Dave.  But at that time, Jaco and I had this special rapport together, so I convinced the producer to use Jaco. Everybody was happy in the end that I did use Jaco.

…… JB: It was in those early years that Lyle (Mays) and you did the tour with Joni Mitchell, Jaco, Mike Brecker and Don Alias?

PM:  Well, in the middle of all this traveling we were doing, Jaco had joined Weather Report and became an international sensation beyond anything we had seen in jazz before.  

JB: He changed the course of the electric bass… 

PM:  Yes, he changed the bass, as we all knew he would.   

Now, here is what some musicians say about the Bright Size Life album as well as Jaco.

John Abercrombie

When he (Pat Metheny) taught at Berklee he was influenced by my good friend Mick Goodrick and we were all influenced by Jim Hall.  Pat has a very fluid, lyrical, legato style, not picking every note.  It started with Mick, but Pat took it to an ultimate level.  A lot of guys play in Pat’s style.  Sometimes I’ll hear something new and I’ll think “Oh, a new Pat Metheny record” and it will be somebody else.

Even though he is younger than me, he influenced me because he raised the technical level of the guitar so high.  He is a very smooth player, but he is still connected to the tradition.  He sounds like a jazz player.  He isn’t doing anything terribly unusual.  He is very fluid.   He is also a very intelligent player.  

Gary Burton

He (Pat) had a style of his own that was always very recognizable.  This is always a plus. Let’s put it this way, every player has some unique stylistic things.  It is like how everybody’s voice and way of talking is a little different and recognizable.   

Right from the beginning, Pat’s sound was very recognizable, very appealing, and easy to listen to.  He has a kind of happy, positive upbeat nature to it all the time, which is what Pat is like personally. This comes across in his playing really strongly to the audience.  That is a wonderful thing.

Another thing is that Pat is constantly evolving.  He is always writing new tunes and adding new things to his playing.  So, it was very inspiring to have him in the band because he was a constant source of creative drive and new things happening.  This is one of the reasons I always like having young players in the band because they bring a lot of surprises to the music.  

Bill Frisell

Pat was still living in Boston when I went there.  He would line up gigs in these little bars and then hang up handwritten signs around Berklee announcing what bar he was playing at.  I remember the first time I heard him, I thought “Oh man!”  He was already doing all the things I was hoping I would do someday (laughter). Some of the songs I was thinking of doing, like Paul Bley or Carla Bley or Wayne Shorter songs, Pat was already doing those songs (laughter).  I had to rethink what I was going to do because he had already done it (laughter).  I remember one of those hand-written signs that read, Pat Metheny and from Florida, Jaco Pastorius.”  At the time no one knew who Jaco was.  Even then, he played like the Jaco we all know.  It was Pat, Jaco, and Bob Moses.  That trio was ridiculously good.  They also were kind of out of control. You never knew what they were going to play next.  They would just sort of go in and out of tunes.  They had this energy that was so happening in the moment.  It was awesome.  Pat is just one of those guys that is so important to me.

Jake Hertzog

Bright Size Life (Pat Metheny).  I consider this record the beginning of the modern era of jazz guitar. There’s so much folk and rock influence on this record but in a very organic way, and I feel like all modern players are in some way descendants of this album. Myself included, of course!

Draa Hobbs

Pat Metheny’s Bright Size Life pointed jazz guitar in a new direction. I would have to say that’s a big (major impact) one. 

Randy Johnston

On that first album, Bright Size Life, he (Pat) takes the Jim Hall picking thing and adds to it this Americana thing with lots of major triads.

Soren Lee

Pat Metheny’s Bright Size Life.  I really liked the unique interplay between the three players.  It is so simple, clear, and direct.  I was very young when I first heard it, and it moved me deeply.

Julian Luge

Pat, of course, is a huge influence.  I was born at a time when his influence was huge because he was the biggest thing during my development years.  I love his Rejoicing album and 80/81.  He and Jaco on Bright Size Life are great.  

John Pizzarelli

I love the texture of the accompaniment and the impact of Jaco in achieving it.  His (Jaco’s) sound is so omnipresent and yet it tastefully dominates where you know it is Jaco.  What he does is always right, whether he is with Weather Report or someone else.

Yannick Robert

Pat Metheny: Bright Size Life.  A total revolution in guitar trio playing, and in his approach to composing as well. Pat Metheny brought in a new musical world, new melodies, new pulsations, new guitar tone, and new phrasing, together with the iconic Jaco Pastorius on bass and the great Bob Moses on drums. It is a unique album in modern jazz guitar history. 

Margaret Slovak

I heard this record when I was 14 years old, and it stopped me in my tracks! The tone of Pat’s guitar, the deep emotion that each musician expressed in their beautiful playing, the spirit of the tunes, the freedom of the improvisation, and the interplay between Pat, Jaco, and Bob informed my entire musical life. This is the record that first brought me to jazz.

Leni Stern

Bright Size Life by Pat Metheny, which I think is a very feminine sounding jazz guitar album.  Most jazz guitar albums have a very masculine sound.

Joe Barth:  Describe “feminine sounding?”

LS:  Very liquid and pretty sounding.  It wasn’t aggressive, yet it was fiery and very exciting in a way that didn’t come across as super masculine.  There was something in his playing that I, as a female player, can identify with.  All the great jazz guitarists were men, and I was looking for something that I, as a woman, could see myself doing.

Mike Stern (reflects upon his relationship at that time with Pat and Jaco.)

Joe Barth: So, your time with the Blood, Sweat & Tears band was just an opportunity to work?

Mike Stern:  Pat (Metheny) actually recommended me to Bobby Colomby to audition for the gig. So, I went to the audition thinking “Now I will learn what it is like to audition for a famous band and get turned down.” (laughter)  There were so many great guitar players auditioning for them but I got the gig.  Those guys in Blood Sweat &Tears were all really great jazz players!

JB:  How long were you with them?

MS:  I was with them a couple of years and they really kicked my ass, because I really couldn’t play at that level. Those guys were the real deal, really strong players. Jaco (Pastorius) was in the band for a while.  Man, did he kick things up, “Spinning Wheel” never sounded like THAT (laughter)!  They were also my first experience playing in front of a large crowd and not getting terrified.

JB:  You were friends with Jaco Pastorius.  When you played with Jaco, how did he make you a different musician?

MS:  That is a good question.  When we played together in Blood, Sweat and Tears I was still trying to play like Jim Hall, slow, listening to what you are playing, and not playing a lot of notes.  Well, Blood Sweat &Tears was a high energy band, with a kind of big band feel. Bobby Colomby was still playing with them and the brass and sax players would do these great high-energy solos, Jaco was playing all this great stuff and then we would come around to the guitar solo. (laughter) I was trying to play more lyrically and hadn’t built up a lot of chops so I couldn’t hit up against these guys all that well.  Well, one gig we were at this State Fair someplace, and as I did my solo, the more I played, the more the energy of the music just kept going down.  Afterward, I was in the corner of the dressing room by myself and was feeling really depressed.   The guys all were saying, “Oh, the kid will be fine. He’s paying his dues a little bit.”  But Jaco came up and said, “Hey Stern, that solo you played on “Spain,” that stuff wasn’t happening AT ALL!” (laughter)  At the time Jaco and I would jam together a lot and he would say, “You are playin’ great and your idea of playing slow and steady is great.  But at this point, you got to learn how to hit up against the time and you got to get your chops more together.”  So, I got a little tape recorder and set the metronome on 2 and 4. I would comp through changes and began to systematically get to where I could play at faster tempos. 

JB:  Oh, if we would have had practicing tools like Band in a Box back in those days . . .

MS:  I was working on just basic stuff that I hadn’t thought about.  Ten years later when Jaco and I played together, he was so supportive.  He always liked it that I came from R&B and rock and had that in my playing as well as bebop.  He would tell me to hang on to “that.”  He would say, “That” was what… “the guitar was made for, man.”  He liked my more contemporary approach to playing jazz.  Of course, many of the guys of my generation, Billy (Frisell), Sco, Pat (Metheny), and others have mixed some of the rock elements into jazz guitar.

Of course, Jaco made a huge contribution to electric bass and its sound.  I heard him first right before I went to Berklee and he could kick things up then.  I went to Florida to visit a friend, and we went to this rock & disco club and there was some rock band playing that sucked and then Jaco got up with a piano player and a drummer and made such great music.  That was when I first met him.  Then, I saw him again about five years later and he was playing with Pat Metheny. I was studying with Pat and Pat said, “You got to check this cat out.” I heard him with Pat and Bob Moses in this little club in Boston.  This was before Bright Size Lifebecause it was before I played with Jaco in Blood, Sweat & Tears. On the day after his last gig with Blood Sweat &Tears, Jaco flew to Germany to record the album with Pat and Bob for ECM.

Jaco’s sound was earthy and funky.  This thing was something I could really identify with, because of my background in blues and rock.  We played a lot together for a long time.  I played in his band, Word of Mouth, which was kind of nuts. Sadly, I was getting drunk and high so much in those days, and of course, so was Jaco. But, I personally was in such bad shape back then, that Jaco was actually taking care of me. That gives you an idea of how bad I was.  I was able to cool down but sadly, he couldn’t.

Ray Walker

Pat Metheny’s Bright Size Life influenced me enormously. Everything about the album sounded new to me.  Pat’s unique sound, his compositions, and his soloing introduced a new giant of jazz guitar to us.

Jack Wilkins

Pat is a brilliant player.  He composes so well.  His playing is magnificent but his composing is even more.  ….I liked that first record Bright Size Life.

Anthony Wilson

I admire Pat’s composing as well as his playing. I like the sensibilities in his writing, and I think his playing and his composing give each other something.  I love the simplicity and complexity mixed with lyricism in his playing.  Pat seems to carve through harmony with the grace and skill of a surfer carving through a large wave.  Pat also has his own sound.  To my taste, it is sometimes a little dark but it is his sound and I respond to that distinctiveness.

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