Offramp (album)

Offramp is the third album by the Pat Metheny Group, released in 1982. It won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance.[4] It contains the popular ballad "Are You Going with Me?".

Offramp
Studio album by
Pat Metheny Group
Released1982
RecordedOctober 1981
StudioPower Station, New York, USA
GenreJazz fusion
Length42:22
LabelECM
ProducerManfred Eicher
Pat Metheny chronology
As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls
(1981)		 Offramp
(1982)		 Travels
(1983)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[2]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[3]

Offramp is the first studio album on which Metheny used a guitar synthesizer, a Roland GR-300[5] controlled with a Roland G-303 guitar synthesiser controller.[6] The guitar synthesizer became one of Metheny's most frequently used instruments.

Offramp is also the first Group album to feature 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 stylings.

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

Offramp was critically acclaimed and commercially successful at the time of its release. It won the Playboy Readers Poll for Best Jazz Album and the 1982 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance,[7] the Group's first of ten Grammys.

The album continues to be acclaimed by critics and fans of the Group for its compositional maturity, technological progressiveness, especially for the time it was recorded, and for firmly establishing 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).[8]

Track listing

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

Side one:
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Barcarole"Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Naná Vasconcelos3:17
2."Are You Going with Me?" 8:47
3."Au Lait" 8:32
Side two:
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Eighteen"Metheny, Mays, Vasconcelos5:08
2."Offramp" 5:59
3."James" 6:47
4."The Bat Part II" 3:50

Note

  • A composition entitled "The Bat" appeared on Metheny's collaborative jazz album 80/81, in 1980. "The Bat Part II" is a reworking of that song.

Personnel

Charts

Album – Billboard

Year Chart Position
1982 Billboard Jazz Albums 1
1982 Billboard Pop Albums 50

Awards

Grammy Awards

Year Category
1982 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance

References
  1. Henderson, Alex (2011). "Offramp – Pat Metheny Group | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  2. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. pp. 139. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  3. Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958.
  4. Brink, Bob (November 23, 1984). "Metheny Over Miami". The Miami News. pp. C1. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
  5. 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.
  6. http://www.joness.com/gr300/G-303.htm
  7. Brink, Bob (November 23, 1984). "Metheny Over Miami". The Miami News. pp. C1. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
  8. Colin Larkin (2006). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 218. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6.
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