Pat Metheny
Bright Size Life

Talking about an album from almost twenty years ago, composed by what was then a young boy and who today is a monument of jazz music, is difficult for me.
Adding that besides the delay of his guitar, we find the bass of a "certain" Jaco Pastorius and the drums of that Bob Moses known by Pat during sessions with the Gary Burton Group, then the task may seem genuinely daunting.

But as soon as I put the CD in the player and hear the first notes of the title track, which will become one of his trademarks (even in the very recent Metheny live album titled "Trio>Live" it is included, 17 years later...), so alluring and so well intertwined with Pastorius' bass line, reviewing this album becomes a pleasure before it is a duty to those who love warm, soft, and reassuring music.

Reassuring: this is the adjective that comes most naturally to me to describe the music of Pat's first work. Sometimes the sequences are poignant and melancholic, sometimes playful and full of verve, but the overall sensation is one of reassuring love for what is being played. The symbiosis of the two string instruments, which chase each other throughout the album as if playing "hide and seek" and occasionally meet to create unisons of devastating sonic magnitude, conceals that it is a work composed by a boy between 16 and 19 years old and played by a budding Pastorius (not that kind of budding!) but already showing what his music will be made of (the best bass guitar ever, neither Stanley Clarke nor Marcus Miller can compare).

Unity Village, track number three, is a monologue of an inspired Pat (who overdubs melody and rhythm), it is a theorem on composition.
Unquity Road is a brilliant harmonic and rhythmic progression that makes the best use of the presence of two sacred monsters like Jaco and Bob Moses.
The album closes with the beautiful Round Trip/Broadway Blues, written by Ornette Coleman and played with liveliness by the trio, featuring a breathtaking solo by Pastorius.

If you have the chance to listen to this album, you too will discover the simplicity and genius of an artist now a symbol-interpreter of jazz music for trio.
Undeniable.