Heavy Weather

They produced two astoundingly brilliant documents of their prowess, Black Market and Heavy Weather. Of the two--and this is more personal preference than anything clearly discernable--I believe Heavy Weather shines brightest.

Why?

Their ability to perfom at the highest levels of musical endeavor and innovation and still create a record that would appeal to the largest possible audience.

Surely "Birdland" and "Teen Town" are among the very highest accomplishments of what might be dubbed "accessible jazz." Combining simple, catchy melodies with progressive chord voicings and impossibly bubbly rhythms, they lend themselves both to extensive radio play and extended musical contemplation. Quite a feat.

The remainder of the disc, featuring a couple of Wayne Shorter's catchier compositions, "Harlequin" and "Palladium," also features "The Juggler," a magically mysterious offering from the pen of Zawinul, and "Havana," a stone rocker courtesy of Jaco Pastorius at the absolute height of his compositional prowess.

The absolute pinnacle of jazz/fusion, casually, effortlessly, blowing out of the water the entire jam band scene, Heavy Weather is not to be missed.


Jaco!   April 23, 2005
Jeffrey J.Park (Massachusetts, USA)
21 out of 21 found this review helpful

This excellent 1977 release opens with the highly popular Birdland, a synthesizer-heavy piece that introduces the awesome talents of the greatest bassist in the world, Jaco Pastorius. As a bass player myself that was heavily influenced by Jaco, I was floored by his incredible technique on this recording, which includes a heady brew of harmonics, false harmonics, chords, and occasional bursts of lightning fast 64th note triplets. This is not to say that Jaco could not lay back - the moody and haunting Zawinul composition A Remark You Made features some very tasteful and restrained playing. The Wayne Shorter tune Harlequin and Zawinul's The Juggler are also very nice and similar in texture to A Remark You Made. The truly odd track is the the percussion driven piece Rumba Mama, which features a live performance by a duo comprised of excellent drummer Alex Acuna and percussionist Manola Badrena, who also "sing-shouts" in Spanish at the beginning of the piece. Although I really enjoy the entire disc, for me the highlights of Heavy Weather include Birdland, A Remark You Made, the Jaco tunes Teen Town and Havona, along with Wayne Shorter's superb Palladium. Although Joe Zawinul's use of synthesizers is heavy (a lot of Oberheim Polyphonic and ARP 2600) the sounds are natural and blend well with the jazzier and "straighter" aspects of the music. Then again, I am a huge prog rock fan so the synthesizers probably would not bother me much. If you like this recording, Black Market (1976) is also superb and in addition to Zawinul and Shorter, features a large and revolving rhythm section including: Narada Michael Walden (drums), Chester Thompson (drums), Jaco (bass), and Alphonse Mouzon (bass).


Great, but not their best   July 2, 2002
The Bass Ninja (Baton Rouge, Loiusiana)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

When Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul teamed up with the late, great Jaco in 1976, fusion fans were stunned. The new band released what I consider their best record, 'Black Market', with drummer Alex Acuna. Then, with percussionist Molono Bandera, they released their most popular record, Heavy Weather'. And it's pretty good.
"Birdland" was the big single, but it's too weird. The live version is much better. "A Remark You Made" and "Harlequin" and two beautiful pieces of music. "Rumba Mama" is a duet between Acuna and Bandera, and is interesting if you have a broad taste in music. However, the real gem of the album is Jaco's "Teen Town". It is 2 minutes and 51 seconds of amazing fretless bass. (Jaco also plays drums on it.) All in all, this is a great Weather Report album and a landmak reocrd in jazz fusion.


JAZZ FUSION CLASSIC!!!!   September 11, 2004
Bill Appel (Ashburn, Virginia USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Back in the late 70's, I just started to venture out and expand my musical tastes from just rock and bought my first jazz records; George Benson's "Breezin'", Stanley Clarkes' "School Days", and by sheer luck due to hearing that particular day the vast, unified wall of beautiful developing sound with the electronic keyboards of Joe Zawinul and the funkified, dancing bass of the masterful Jaco Pastorius both leading in a full, somewhat Big Band style, the now classic jazz perennial standard, "Birdland" (as well as this impressionable teenager checking out the cool album cover) of this landmark album, "Heavy Weather".
Not a bad start to enjoy the beauty of Jazz with these three album gems for initiation !!!

"Heavy Weather" expanded my listening pleasures in further understanding and appreciating craft and artistic musicianship as it further defined Weather Report as a "supergroup" in an at-the-time stale jazz-rock movement suddenly being revamped with the help and popularity of this now classic.

Lead by an ultra-talented trio of co-founder Zawinal, Pastorius - who brought a new breath of fresh air in bringing a moving, funky, staccato bass and creating another melodic voice, and the sizzling saxophonist, Wayne Shorter, "Heavy Weather" contains remarkable and timeless songs like the ingenious classics "A Remark You Made", "Teen Town", "Harlequin", "Palladium", "The Juggler" and the spectacular ending workout "Havona". This band creates by no means mainstream, commercial jazz but an extremely clever, interesting, sometimes complex fusion textured yet smooth, dreamy approachable jazz sophisication for the listener to really sit back, close their eyes and truely appreciate the beauty of the musicianship of what they are hearing.

This album is an absolute must for all who appreciate rock and jazz fusion !!!




Weather Report Peaks with Jaco's Contributions   December 17, 1998
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

The earlier reviewer's comment, "I especially like the guitarist", may be attributed to the opening track on this album, "Birdland". The false harmonics of Jaco Pastorius, on BASS guitar, could easily mislead one who doesn't know that WR had no guitarist. The Pastorius compositions on this album are most stunning: from the original, finger-ripping "Teen Town" to the mind-boggling "Havona" that closes the album, Jaco makes his presence felt in a way even he couldn't match on his solo albums. Shorter's "A Remark You Made" combines his sax with Jaco's bass to produce a theme so beautiful, it may never be matched by these two instruments ever again. Zawinul, of course, exerts an influence that cannot be denied, but it's the blend of these three that really that the album great, such as on Zawinul's hit "Birdland". The rhythm combo of Alex Acuna and Manolo Badrena are showcased nicely on "Rumba Mama", which begins with an unintelligible chant by Badrena that bleeds into a far-too-short groove. (This may have been one of those cases in which Weather Report recorded in a studio, and brought audience into the studio to combine the effects of the two environments.) In sum, this album is simply the greatest fusion album ever made, and arguably one of the best albums outright.