Pat Metheny - 80/81 (1980)

Out of print German import. Best I can tell, the seal in the upper right corner of the booklet cover translates to something along the lines of "German records annual prize."

According to the book Pat Metheny: The ECM Years, 1975-1984, this album "has long been considered a landmark achievement of Metheny's. He himself regarded it as not only his most pleasurable ECM experience but a vitaly important culmination of his musical preoccupations in the years which preceded it." That may all be true, but all that matters to me is that I dig the thing and I'm glad he was able to record with this stellar stable of sidemen, if only for one album.

The album was originally a two LP set with the following sequence:

80/81 has since been released as a proper two CD set that keeps the original sequencing. However, the original one disc version I picked up removes the more experimental free jazz of side three in its entirety while re-sequencing the other tracks:

1. "Two Folk Songs"
2. "Every Day (I Thank You)"
3. "Goin' Ahead"
4. "80/81"
5. "The Bat"
6. "Turnaround"

Go figure.

Reviews/ratings:

• Stereo Review: Recording of Special Merit
• CashBox: "Brecker emerges unencumbered"
• Musician: "more ambitious than anything Pat Metheny has done recently, and that's good news."
• Downbeat (★★★★): "a fount of exhilarating jazz music."
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #89
• Billboard Jazz: #4
• CashBox: #106
• CashBox Jazz: #11
• Rolling Stone: #75

Tracks: Track 1, Two Folk Songs, is a 20 minute tour de force from all players, but the Metheny graciously takes a back seat to the band: I'm mesmerized by Brecker's tenor work and DeJohnette's not one, but two solo takes, as well as the melodic playing of Haden. Fastest 20 minutes of my day. Every Day (I Thank You) and Goin' Ahead are as beautiful as any ballad Metheny composed. Every Day features Brecker while Goin' Ahead is strictly a Metheny solo joint. I'm not okay with those being in the middle of the CD sequence, but that's easily corrected. I also dig The Bat with contributions from both Brecker and Redman.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. For some reason, when I was discovering Metheny in the mid-80's, I missed this set. My mistake.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Selected Recordings :rarum IX (2004)
Steve Reich - Different Trains, Electric Counterpoint (1989)
The Falcon And The Snowman Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1985)
First Circle (1984)
Travels (1983)
Offramp (1982)
Watercolors (1977)

Jack DeJohnette - Selected Recordings :rarum XII (2004)

ECM :rarum MONTH* (MARCH 2017)

One of the most recorded and influential jazz drummers of the 20th century, having worked with the likes of Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Michael Brecker, Herbie Hancock, etc. If there was a Hall of Fame for drummers, he'd be in. Whaddaya know - there is a Hall of Fame for Drummers; DeJohnette was inducted in 2010. Like most of these :rarum compilations, this is a mixed bag of everything from solo work to quintets, avant-garde to fusion. I'm trying hard to focus solely on the drumming, ever tried that? Lot's of stuff going on makes it more difficult, but I'm up for a challenge.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: 8 tracks, 68 minutes. In a modest change of pace, DeJohnette selects some tunes from albums where he wasn't the leader, including Gateway's How's Never, which was also selected by Dave Holland for his :rarum compilation.

Title	Album	Year
Third World Anthem	Album Album	1984
Jack In	Oneness	1997	✔
Feebles, Fables and Ferns	In Pas(s)ing (Mick Goodrick)	1979
Overture/Communion	Ruta and Daitya	1973	✔
How's Never	Homecoming (Gateway)	1994
Silver Hollow	New Directions	1978	✔
Picture 5	Pictures	1977
Picture 6	Pictures	1977

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: In the late '90s, I saw Michael Brecker play and he mentioned DeJohnette by name and I realized I had been pronouncing the name incorrectly for over ten years.

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*Back in June 2015, this beautiful thing showed up at my doorstep:

It's a 12 CD box set (2008) of compilation discs from ECM's :rarum series, a birthday gift from a good friend. In this series, the artists were given the freedom to pick their personal favorite recordings from any ECM release they've made as a leader or sideman. In other words, the label got outta the way and good for them. I'll be making my way through the set this month.

ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music), originally a German label, was founded in 1969. "Rarum" comes from the Latin root "rarus" meaning "rare" (perhaps foreshadowing that these CDs wouldn't be in print for very long).