Offramp is the third studio album by the Pat Metheny Group, recorded in October of 1981 and released on ECM in May of the following year.
The performers are Metheny himself, Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby and Danny Gottlieb along with percussionist & vocalist Naná Vasconcelos.
[2] Offramp is also the first Pat Metheny Group album to include vocals, which became a fundamental component of the band's sound.
Bassist Mark Egan was replaced by Steve Rodby, who remained with the Group well into the 2000s and became an important partner in the compositional and production processes between Metheny and Mays.
The album continues to be acclaimed by critics and fans for its compositional maturity, technological progressiveness, especially for the time it was recorded, and for introducing key hallmarks of the Group's overall sound, namely the guitar synthesizer and vocals.