With Lyle Mays on autoharp, harmonium, electric piano, piano, clavinet, celeste – plus Steve Rodby on bass and Paul Wertico on drums. CD

With Lyle Mays on piano and keyboards, Steve Rodby on bass, Paul Wertico on drums, Armando Marcal on percussion and voice, and David Blamires and Mark Ledford on voice. LP, Vinyl record album

Pat Metheny on guitar, Lyle Mays on piano and keyboards, Steve Rodby on acoustic and electric bass, Paul Wertico on drums, David Blamires on vocals, Mark Ledford on vocals and trumpet, and Luis Conte on percussion. CD

Features Pat Metheny on guitars and synths, Lyle Mays on piano and keys, Steve Rodby on bass, Paul Wertico on drums, and Armando Marcal on percussion. Tracks include "Minuano (Six Eight)", "Last Train Home", "Distance", and "In Her Family". CD

A near-legendary album from Pat Metheny – the real birth of the "Metheny sound" on record, and a perfect example of the magically fluid groove that he crafted with keyboardist Lyle Mays! The sound here is hard to describe – and even harder when you try to pick out the individual keyboard and guitar bits – because the overall feel of the record is so well wrapped up and lyrically together, yet manages to do so without falling into any too-slick styles or cliched approaches to fusion. We're stunned at how much this one still delights us over the years, and the record still stands as a landmark in its field. Titles include "San Lorenzo", "Phase Dance", "Jaco", "Aprilwind", "Lonejack", and "Apriljoy". LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliantly evocative album from Pat Metheny – one that's got a quietly epic feel, as Pat and group soar out across the American landscape in a set of tunes that subtly explore space and sound while still remaining wonderfully fluid. There's nothing forced here, and nothing too slick – just a magical blend of acoustic and electric sounds, touched with those mystical notes that seem to flow effortlessly from the hands of keyboardist Lyle Mays. Titles include "The Epic", "American Garage", "Cross The Heartland", "Airstream", and "The Search". LP, Vinyl record album

A live album, but every bit as seminal as the studio sides that Pat Metheny cut for ECM at the time – and proof that the Metheny magic was clearly his own, and not just a product of studio tricks by Manfred Eicher! The set reprises tunes and themes from a variety of Metheny's earlier ECM albums – but the live presentation of the material somehow really transforms a number of them – pushing them into a soundspace that's similar to the one explored by Pat on the Offramp album, augmented especially by the presence of percussionist Nana Vasconcelos in the group. Titles include "Phase Dance", "Farmer's Trust", "Straight On Red", "The Fields The Sky", "Are You Going With Me", "Extradition", "Going Ahead", "As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls", and "Travels". LP, Vinyl record album

Gary Burton takes on the music of Carla Bley – in a wonderfully sensitive set that opens up rich new colors in her music! The group here is a particularly well-chosen one for the effort – a quintet with Burton on vibes, Mick Goodrick on guitar, Steve Swallow on bass, and Bob Moses on drums – plus a young Pat Metheny on guitar, really shading in the tunes with his evocative tones. Burton's vibes are angular one minute, spare and spacious the next – and in a way, his treatment if Bley's tunes is some of the most sensitive we've ever heard. Titles include "Ictus/Syndrome", "Dreams So Real", "Intermission Music", "Doctor", and "Vox Humana". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most striking Pat Metheny albums of the period – as the set features the guitarist working with an all-star group that actually features 2 horn players! The group's a quintet, with Dewey Redman and Michael Brecker on tenor sax – blowing in open and spacious modes that complement the sound of Metheny's guitar nicely and really give the set a different feel. The rest of the group features Charlie Haden on bass and Jack De Johnette on drums – and the double space of the set is well used on a set of tracks that includes "Two Folk Songs", "The Bat", "Turnaround", "Open", "Pretty Scattered", and "Goin Ahead". LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliantly evocative album from Pat Metheny – one that's got a quietly epic feel, as Pat and group soar out across the American landscape in a set of tunes that subtly explore space and sound while still remaining wonderfully fluid. There's nothing forced here, and nothing too slick – just a magical blend of acoustic and electric sounds, touched with those mystical notes that seem to flow effortlessly from the hands of keyboardist Lyle Mays. Titles include "The Epic", "American Garage", "Cross The Heartland", "Airstream", and "The Search". CD

Gary Burton takes on the music of Carla Bley – in a wonderfully sensitive set that opens up rich new colors in her music! The group here is a particularly well-chosen one for the effort – a quintet with Burton on vibes, Mick Goodrick on guitar, Steve Swallow on bass, and Bob Moses on drums – plus a young Pat Metheny on guitar, really shading in the tunes with his evocative tones. Burton's vibes are angular one minute, spare and spacious the next – and in a way, his treatment if Bley's tunes is some of the most sensitive we've ever heard. Titles include "Ictus/Syndrome", "Dreams So Real", "Intermission Music", "Doctor", and "Vox Humana". CD

Arguably the last great album to come from the classic Pat Metheny collaboration with Lyle Mays – a record that's tightened up considerably from some of the group's earlier efforts, but which gives as its reward some wonderfully compelling tunes! Pat's still very much influenced here by a Brazilian fusion style – but he takes that approach, dismantles it, pulls out the best elements – and extrapolates them into a sound that's uniquely his own. Wordless vocals slide out on a few numbers, while guitar and keys sing alongside earthier percussion – in a style that's extremely evocative, and shows that even riding the top of his own success, Metheny was still more than willing to bring in new modes. Titles include "If I Could", "Forward March", "Yolanda, You Learn", "End Of The Game", and "Mas Alla". LP, Vinyl record album

A completely solo album from Pat Metheny – but one that still sparkles with the same sort of energy as his fuller group sessions for ECM! At a point when Pat could be content to simply scrawl a few simple lines on the strings of his guitar, he instead does a great job of complicating things here – working with a bit of overdub to explode in fuller sounds that are totally great – played on acoustic and electric guitars, including 6, 12, and 15 stringed versions – as well as a bit of bass. Titles include "Hermitage", "Daybreak", "Sueno Con Mexico", "New Chautauqua", and "Country Poem". LP, Vinyl record album

A really evocative little album from Bill Frisell – and that's saying a lot, given the rest of his work! The music was all written at a ranch in Big Sur – and has this spacious, airy sort of feel – one that draws on Bill's earlier style of guitar, but also inflects it with a slight Americanist tone – in ways that echo some of Charlie Haden or Pat Metheny's projects with a similar landscape ethos. The group retains a very ethereal feel – and features Eyvind Kang on viola, Hank Roberts on cello, Jenny Scheinman on violin, and Rudy Royston on drums – on titles that include "Hawks", "Cry Alone", "Animals", "Highway 1", "Gather Good Things", "The Big One", and "Going To California". CD