{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox album | name = 80/81 | type = studio | artist = Pat Metheny | cover = 8081album.jpg | alt = | released = 1980 | recorded = May 26–29, 1980 | studio = Talent Studio, Oslo, Norway | genre = Jazz, folk jazz | length = {{Duration|m=80|s=25}} | label = ECM | producer = Manfred Eicher | chronology = Pat Metheny | prev_title = American Garage | prev_year = 1979 | next_title = As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls | next_year = 1981 }} '''''80/81''''' is a double album by jazz guitarist Pat Metheny recorded over four days in May 1980 and released on ECM later that year. Metheny leads a quartet consisting of the rhythm section of Charlie Haden and Jack DeJohnette, with saxophone duties alternating between Dewey Redman and Michael Brecker.
== Background == Metheny toured in the U.S. in fall 1980 with a quartet including Redman, Haden and drummer Paul Motian.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cooke |first=Mervyn |title=Pat Metheny: The ECM Years, 1975–1984 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |pages=213–214 }}</ref> In the summer of 1981, he toured Europe with the full 80/81 lineup featured on the album.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cooke |first=Mervyn |title=Pat Metheny: The ECM Years, 1975–1984 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |pages=153 }}</ref>
== Reception == {{Music ratings | rev1 = AllMusic | rev1Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref name="allmusic">{{AllMusic |class=album |id=r143826 |tab=review |label=Pat Metheny: ''80/81'' > Review |first=Richard S. |last=Ginell |access-date=October 6, 2011}}</ref> | rev4 = ''The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide'' | rev4Score = {{rating|4|5}}<ref name=RSJRG>{{Cite book |editor-last=Swenson |editor-first=J. | year = 1985 | title = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | publisher = Random House/Rolling Stone | location = USA | isbn = 0-394-72643-X | pages = 139 }}</ref> |rev3 = ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings'' |rev3score = {{Rating|3|4}}<ref name="Penguin">{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Richard |authorlink1=Richard Cook (journalist) |last2=Morton |first2=Brian |authorlink2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |year=2008 |edition=9th |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-141-03401-0 |page=994}}</ref> | rev2 = ''DownBeat'' | rev2Score = {{rating|4|5}}<ref>DownBeat review, January 1981, pp. 31-32</ref> | rev7 = Tom Hull | rev7score = B+({{Rating-Christgau|hm3}})<ref>{{cite web |title=Tom Hull: Grade List: Pat Metheny | url=https://tomhull.com/ocston/nm/get_gl.php?n=Pat+Metheny | publisher=Tom Hull |access-date=16 October 2025}}</ref> }} In a review for AllMusic, Richard S. Ginell wrote that "Metheny's credibility with the jazz community went way up with the release of this package", and called the album "a superb two-CD collaboration with a quartet of outstanding jazz musicians that dared to be uncompromising at a time when most artists would have merely continued pursuing their electric commercial successes."<ref name="allmusic" />
In an article at Between Sound and Space, Tyran Grillo called the album a "still-fresh sonic concoction", and noted that "With ''80/81'', Pat Metheny took one step closer to his dream of working with The Prophet of Freedom (Ornette Coleman) (a dream he finally achieved with 1985's ''Song X'')". He concluded: "Like much of what Metheny produces, ''80/81'' is wide open in two ways. First in its far-reaching vision, and second it its willingness to embrace the listener. Like a dolly zoom, he enacts an illusion of simultaneous recession and approach, lit like a fuse that leads not to an explosion, but to more fuse."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ecmreviews.com/2011/10/14/80-81 |title=Pat Metheny: 80-81 (ECM 1180/81) |last=Grillo |first=Tyran |date=October 14, 2011 |website=Between Sound and Space |access-date=March 19, 2021}}</ref>
''JazzTimes'' included the album in an article titled "10 Best Jazz Albums of the 1980s: Critics' Picks", in which Philip Booth stated: "Enlisting four of the musicians he most admired... the 26-year-old guitarist successfully translated the sound in his head to beautifully open, airy, sometimes urgent recordings."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://jazztimes.com/features/lists/10-best-jazz-albums-1980s-critics-picks/nggallery/image/1-pat-metheny-80-81 |title=10 Best Jazz Albums of the 1980s: Critics' Picks |last=Booth |first=Philip |date=November 23, 2020 |website=JazzTimes |access-date=March 19, 2021}}</ref>
==Track listing==
=== Original release === {{Track listing | all_music = Pat Metheny except as noted | headline = Side one | title1 = Two Folk Songs: 1st | length1 = 13:17 | title2 = Two Folk Songs: 2nd | writer2 = Charlie Haden | length2 = 7:31 }}
{{Track listing | headline = Side two | title1 = 80/81 | length1 = 7:28 | title2 = The Bat | length2 = 5:58 | title3 = Turnaround | writer3 = Ornette Coleman | length3 = 7:05 }}
{{Track listing | headline = Side three | title1 = Open | writer1 = {{hlist|Metheny|DeJohnette|Redman|Haden|Brecker}} | length1 = 14:25 | title2 = Pretty Scattered | length2 = 6:56 }}
{{Track listing | headline = Side four | title1 = Every Day (I Thank You) | length1 = 13:16 | title2 = Goin' Ahead | length2 = 3:56 }}
=== Single CD edition === {{Track listing | headline = | title1 = Two Folk Songs: One / Two | length1 = 20:52 | title2 = Every Day (I Thank You) | length2 = 13:21 | title3 = Goin' Ahead | length3 = 3:51 | title4 = 80/81 | length4 = 7:34 | title5 = The Bat | length5 = 6:05 | title6 = Turnaround | length6 = 7:04 }}
==Personnel== * Pat Metheny – acoustic and electric guitars * Charlie Haden – double bass * Jack DeJohnette – drums * Dewey Redman – tenor saxophone (tracks B1, B2, C1 & C2) * Michael Brecker – tenor saxophone (tracks A1, A2, B2, C1, C2 & D1)
=== Technical personnel === * Manfred Eicher – producer * Jan Erik Kongshaug – recording engineer * Barbara Wojirsch – design * Dag Alveng – back photography * Rainer Drechsler – inside photography
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Pat Metheny}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:80 81}} Category:1980 albums Category:Pat Metheny albums Category:Albums produced by Manfred Eicher Category:ECM Records albums