Letter from Home (album)

Letter from Home is the sixth studio album by the Pat Metheny Group. It was released in 1989 by Geffen Records. In 1990, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance. It was certified gold by the RIAA on July 23, 1998.[2]

Letter from Home
Studio album by Pat Metheny Group
Released	1989 (1989)
Recorded	Spring 1989
Studio	The Power Station, New York City
Genre	Jazz fusion, Latin jazz, crossover jazz
Length	61:39
Label	Geffen
Producer	Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny chronology
Still Life (Talking) (1987) Letter from Home (1989) Question and Answer (1990)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

The album marked the return of Pedro Aznar, who became a member of the Group on the album First Circle. It also featured a reemphasis on increased instrumental diversity and was a huge commercial success, comfortably making the Top 200 album chart at Billboard magazine. "Slip Away" was, as Metheny put it, "extraordinarily successful, one of the most successful individual tunes that we've ever made." He said that it contains an ideal melodic durability.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Pat Metheny except where noted.

Side one:

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Have You Heard"	6:25
2.	"Every Summer Night"	7:13
3.	"Better Days Ahead"	3:02
4.	"Spring Ain't Here"	6:55
5.	"45/8" (Metheny/Mays)	0:56
6.	"5-5-7" (Metheny/Mays)	7:54

Side two:

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Beat 70" (Metheny/Mays)	4:53
2.	"Dream of the Return" (Spanish lyrics by Pedro Aznar)	5:25
3.	"Are We There Yet" (Mays)	7:55
4.	"Vidala" (Pedro Aznar)	3:04
5.	"Slip Away"	5:24
6.	"Letter from Home"	2:33

Personnel

• Pat Metheny – acoustic and electric guitars, 12-string guitar, soprano guitar, tiple, guitar synthesizer, Synclavier
• Lyle Mays – piano, organ, accordion, trumpet, Synclavier
• Steve Rodby – acoustic and electric bass
• Paul Wertico – drums, caja, percussion
• Pedro Aznar – voice, guitar, marimba, vibraphone, sax, charango, melodica, pan pipe, percussion
• Armando Marçal – percussion

Charts

Album – Billboard

Year	Chart	Position
1989	Billboard Jazz Albums	1
1989	Billboard Black Albums	43
1989	Billboard Pop Albums	50

Awards

Grammy Awards

Year	Category
1989	Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance

References

1. Henderson, Alex (2011). "Letter from Home - Pat Metheny Group | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
2. "Gold & Platinum - RIAA". RIAA. Retrieved 19 May 2017.