Pat Metheny Fans, Great Suggestions Please ??

To Original Poster:

Actually, that is not a lot to ask from Metheny. There is something to like about all of Metheny's work, but the following albums are in my opinion is finest works. You need to hear all of these albums in their entirety to even begin to understand how talented Metheny is. You really don't want to miss any of these but if you have to, I would prioritize your purchases in this order:

1. Pat Metheny Group (ECM)
2. Offramp (ECM)
3. As Falls Wichita, So Wichita Falls (ECM)
4. Still Life (Talking)
5. First Circle (ECM)
6. Bright Size Life (ECM)
7. Letter from Home
8. Secret Story
9. Watercolors (ECM)
10.The Road to You

I think those are his most significant works. A lot of his other stuff post 1993 is just not in the same tier, in my opinion.

Also note that the ECM recordings represent his first phase, while the later Geffen recordings have a totally different, more commercial sound. It is not uncommon to hear Letter from Home, for example, playing in airports and shopping malls, ect. The ECM stuff is the stuff that has the most staying power as "jazz" or fusion in my opinion. All of the ECM recordings also have very good sound.

I ranked the albums according to my personal taste but you could also start with Pat Metheny Group and just go chronologically through his catalog and you would be able to hear how the group progressed.

By the way, there are remastered versions of Secret Story, Still Life Talking, and The Road to You on the Geffen Label but there are no remastered recordings of the ECM recordings that I am aware of.

Blackstone,
I purchased a remastered Secret Story by Nonesuch Records and it does sound better than my original Geffen that got traded in.

I'm glad his music is being recognized.

The new Secret Story sounds good but it is sort of a hard sounding recording. It has a edginess or shrillness to it. It might just be the sounds he is working with. It is an amazing album but from an audiohpile standpoint I find that it can be a bit unpleasant. I have a lot of fond memories of that album though.

Still Life Talking has the best sound of the Geffen recordings, in my opinion. Still Life is lush and smooth sounding. The sound on Letter from Home is just a travesty and although the remaster is a bit better, it is still pretty thin sounding.

Letter from Home, coincidentally was at least for a while Metheny's most commercially successful recording

By the way I have always found Offramp to be an excellent sounding CD. As far as I know there is only one CD version of it and I don't really have any complaints about it. I think it holds up to audiophile scrutiny, as do most of the ECM recordings.

There is an album called PAT METHENY
Selected Recordings: rarum IX which contains bona fide remastered tracks of selected cuts from his ECM catalog. The sound is better, but not much better, which I think speaks to how good the original CD versions are.