Pat Metheny: The ECM Years, 1975–1984

The ECM decade is where the Pat Metheny story starts for most longtime fans, and Mervyn Cooke’s book is the definitive study of it. Published in Oxford’s Studies in Recorded Jazz series, it covers the eleven ECM albums, from Bright Size Life to Rejoicing. Cooke backs his analysis with his own new transcriptions, so the arguments rest on the notes.

Those records are the foundation of this site’s discography: Watercolors, the first Pat Metheny Group album, American Garage, As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls, Offramp and the live Travels. They’re also where the Pat-and-Lyle partnership found its voice. The book’s span, 1975 to 1984, ends in the year of First Circle, the record whose hand claps in 22/8 brought me into the Metheny circle, as the Front Row prelude tells it.

This is an academic book, and it reads like one. It suits musicians, students and listeners who want to know why those records sound the way they do: the harmonic language and the way the early Group arranged for a small band. If you’ve worn out your copy of Offramp or American Garage and want to go a level deeper, this is the book. The paperback is the edition linked here; the hardback is a library edition.