Pat Metheny Group - First Circle - 1984 (24/96 Vinyl Rip)

First Circle is a Grammy Award winning album by the Pat Metheny Group released in 1984. On the album Pat Metheny is joined by Lyle Mays on piano and keyboards, Steve Rodby on bass guitar, drummer Paul Wertico and vocalist and percussionist Pedro Aznar. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance in 1985.




Review:

This album represented a sea change in the direction for the group. Some would argue that "Offramp" was a significant shift, but "First Circle" would be the first step down a path that would influence nearly every album released by the group since. The Latin influence for Metheny became undeniable with the addition of Pedro Aznar's wordless vocals and percussion work. Although Metheny had used Nana Vasconcelos for the occasional vocal in the past, he was never the accomplished singer that Pedro Aznar was.

Metheny continued to explore different voicings and techniques for acoustic, electric, and synthesized guitar on this album. The title piece, which the group still features in concert, showcases the guitar as a rhythm instrument with Aznar's vocals providing the key melodic voice for the song. Paul Wertico, in his first recorded outing for the band, displays a unique and tasteful approach to his role as drummer/percussionist. He manages to make his voice heard without sometimes overpowering the songs as Dan Gottlieb seemed to do with the earlier group albums.

Steve Rodby, as always, focuses on the literal "bottom line", and never falls to the temptation of the Jaco school (the bass as a lead instrument) which so many bassists of that age did (e.g. Mark Egan). Lyle, as always, provides the perfect compositional collaboration for Pat; he is an accomplished soloist whose melodies compliment Pat's and even occasionally outshine his long time musical partner. This album was a completely fresh and new sound for the group, and I never tire of listening to it (I wore out an lp, two cassettes, and finally bought the cd several years ago.)

For the quality of composition, I would place this album alongside Letter from Home as probably one of the two or three best Group albums ever recorded.
Darren L. - review Amazon.com

Track List:

01 Forward March
02 Yolanda, You Learn
03 The First Circle
04 If I Could
05 Tell It All
06 End of the Game
07 Más Allá (Beyond)
08 Praise