Weather Reportwere one of the best and most interesting Jazz/Rock/World/Prog fusion bands ever. They were also surprisingly commercially successful for a band that played such challenging music. Maybe it was the way Jaco Pastorius rocked the bass in his tenure in the band or maybe it was the brilliance of co-leaders Wayne Shorter and the late Josef Zawinul. I saw WR quite a few times and one of the minor triumphs of my life was when I got the stolid Zawinul to play a snippet of Louie Louie on his piano between numbahs. He declined, however, to play Whipping Post. Woe is me, bop.
Heavy Weather was an excellent LP featuring Birdland, which some NOLA bands play whilst parading during Carnival. The art was one of many LP covers done by Lou Beach whose work is apt to play a return engagement here at First Draft:
Here’s Weather Report rocking Birdland live. Crank it up, y’all:
Oh my God this is such a fine album. Way back in high school when I was experiencing First Love I shared a “moment” with my then-girlfriend while “A Remark You Made” was playing…now when I listen it never fails to transport me back to that wonderful evening. Sigh…
Now I’m sad that Zawinul and Pastorius are no longer with us…but grateful that they existed at all and shared their gifts with the rest of us.
Overall, I like the Mysterious Traveler and Sweetnighter albums a bit more (“Boogie-Woogie Waltz” is just wooooow!), but Heavy Weather is very good, as are Tale Spinnin’ and Black Market. Not many clunkers from Weather Report.
Like those albums too, Montag. I’m a big Jaco fan so I lean in the direction of this album and Black Market as my faves.
Love “A Remark You Made.” It’s quite possibly the best playing Wayne Shorter ever did and that’s saying a lot.