Prelude: First Circle

Sean first heard Pat Metheny through the 1984 album First Circle while he was studying composition with Hank Levy at Towson University, between 1986 and 1990. Later, while researching his doctoral dissertation on Don Ellis at the Peabody Institute, he interviewed Pat by phone about Ellis’s influence. “The interview lasted hours,” he wrote.

“The epic ‘First Circle’ … begins with hand claps in 22/8. This is the song that brought me into the Metheny circle back in the late 80’s.”