Pat Metheny Group – Offramp
I really believe that that Pat Metheny was so informed by what Ornette was doing. Hearing his guitar synth playing sounded to me exactly like Ornette's violin playing on Friends and Neighbors. And even Albert Ayler's music in a way. A lot of Metheny's playing has that wonky marching band feeling to me, and I thought it was a beautiful match. A lot of jazz people would just play, and it would be recorded, and that would be the document, but other people like Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius – and of course Miles – were really using the studio as an instrument. It is what a lot of the rock guys were doing then, but not so much in the jazz world. And I love that about Offramp and especially As Falls Wichita... but side one only, not side two – one of those tracks sounds like it was like for like an American TV sitcom.