Heavy Weather - Weather Report (1977)

Weather Report was a partnership started by Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul to explore the edges of what could be accomplished in jazz fusion. By the time of this release, they’d added the amazing Jaco Pastorius and his unmatched bass skills. They made what is probably the best-loved and most widely accepted fusion album of the era.

This is one of those records that makes my head race with connections and diversions. I could talk about how a truly a great album like this could be copied so many times and lose so much in translation that it eventually became shorthand for “Seventies Cheese.” Or about how Zawinul’s use of the ARP synth brings up my hot take that the synth was poised to become its own unique instrument in the late 70s until in the mid 80s the music equipment business decided to make synths sound like horns or strings or organs and relegated it to an afterthought. Or, following on that, how the silver lining to the commercial Verschlimmbesserung of the synth also tried to make synths sound like drums, which ended up creating 808s and a whole new musical culture.

None of this is talking about the actual music, though, which still sounds fun and fresh even with all the historical baggage. Zawinul builds whole worlds with synth and organ, Jaco’s bass chugs underneath, and Shorter plays short punchy lines over top of it all.

Tracks I Liked

Birdland - grocery store music. Great stuff.