Offramp
Studio album by
the Pat Metheny Group
ReleasedMay 1982[1]
RecordedOctober 1981
StudioPower Station, New York City
GenreJazz fusion
Length42:22
LabelECM
ECM 1216
ProducerManfred Eicher
Pat Metheny chronology
As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls
(1981)		 Offramp
(1982)		 Travels
(1983)

Offramp is the third studio album by the Pat Metheny Group, recorded in October 1981 and released on ECM May the following year. The performers are Pat Metheny; Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby and Danny Gottlieb in the rhythm section; and percussionist and singer Naná Vasconcelos.

Background

Offramp is the first studio album on which Metheny used a guitar synthesizer—the Roland GR-300—which would become one of his signature instruments.[2]

Offramp is also the first Pat Metheny Group album to include vocals, which became a fundamental component of the band's sound. When Metheny and Lyle Mays partnered with Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos on the album As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls, they sought to expand the potential of the recording studio as an ensemble instrument and experiment with sounds they hadn't previously utilized. Some of the innovations introduced on Wichita carried over into Offramp, namely Vasconcelos's vocals and percussion.

Bassist Mark Egan was replaced by Steve Rodby, who remained with the Group well into the 2000s and became an important partner in the compositional and production processes between Metheny and Mays.

The Group pays tribute to one of Metheny's biggest influences, pioneering free jazz instrumentalist Ornette Coleman, on the title track, and singer-songwriter James Taylor served as the inspiration for the sixth track, "James."

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings[5]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[6]

Offramp was critically acclaimed and commercially successful at the time of its release.[7]

It won the Playboy Readers Poll for Best Jazz Album and the 1983 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance,[8] the Group's first of ten Grammys.

The album continues to be acclaimed by critics and fans for its compositional maturity, technological progressiveness, especially for the time it was recorded, and for introducing key hallmarks of the Group's overall sound, namely the guitar synthesizer and vocals.

It was voted number 669 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).[9]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays, except as noted.

Side I
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Barcarole"
3:17
2."Are You Going with Me?" 8:47
3."Au lait"Mays8:32
Side II
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Eighteen"
  • Metheny
  • Mays
  • Vasconcelos
5:08
2."Offramp" 5:59
3."James" 6:47
4."The Bat Part II" 3:50

Note

  • "The Bat Part II" is a reworking of "The Bat", from Metheny's 80/81 (1980)

Personnel

Pat Metheny Group

Charts

Chart (1982) Peak
position
US Billboard Top LPs & Tape 50
US Billboard Jazz LPs 1
US Billboard Soul LPs 43

Awards

Year Category
1983 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance[10]

References

  1. ↑ "Offramp". ECM.
  2. ↑ Birosik, Patti Jean (1989). The New Age music guide: profiles and recordings of 500 top New Age musicians. Collier Books. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-02-041640-1.
  3. ↑ Henderson, Alex (2011). "Offramp – Pat Metheny Group | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  4. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958.
  5. ↑ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 994. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
  6. ↑ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. pp. 139. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  7. ↑ Cooke, Mervyn (2017). Pat Metheny: The ECM Years, 1975–1984. Oxford University Press. pp. 216–217.
  8. ↑ Brink, Bob (November 23, 1984). "Metheny Over Miami". The Miami News. pp. C1. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
  9. ↑ Colin Larkin (2006). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 218. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6.
  10. ↑ Brink, Bob (November 23, 1984). "Metheny Over Miami". The Miami News. pp. C1. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
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