80/81

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.

80/81
Studio album by Pat Metheny
Released	1980
Recorded	May 26–29, 1980
Studio	Talent Studio, Oslo, Norway
Genre	Jazz, folk jazz
Length	80:25
Label	ECM
Producer	Manfred Eicher
Pat Metheny chronology
American Garage (1979) 80/81 (1980) As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls (1981)

Background

Metheny toured in the U.S. in fall 1980 with a quartet including Redman, Haden and drummer Paul Motian.^[1] In the summer of 1981, he toured Europe with the full 80/81 lineup featured on the album.^[2]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
DownBeat	[4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	[5]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[6]
Tom Hull	B+()[7]

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."^[3]

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."^[8]

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."^[9]

Track listing

Original release

All music is composed by Pat Metheny except as noted.

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Two Folk Songs: 1st"		13:17
2.	"Two Folk Songs: 2nd"	Charlie Haden	7:31

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"80/81"		7:28
2.	"The Bat"		5:58
3.	"Turnaround"	Ornette Coleman	7:05

Side three

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Open"	Metheny DeJohnette Redman Haden Brecker	14:25
2.	"Pretty Scattered"		6:56

Side four

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Every Day (I Thank You)"	13:16
2.	"Goin' Ahead"	3:56

Single CD edition

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Two Folk Songs: One / Two"	20:52
2.	"Every Day (I Thank You)"	13:21
3.	"Goin' Ahead"	3:51
4.	"80/81"	7:34
5.	"The Bat"	6:05
6.	"Turnaround"	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