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Rating: 'Heavy weather': Stormy Weather! This album represents, by unanimous recognition of international critics, the pinnacle of art achieved by the group. Now, everything is debatable, however, this record is a piece of music that one MUST absolutely own. If nothing else, to test your stereo (!?). They've released Super Audio CD versions, with gold support, etc.
Recorded in 1977, the group includes, along with Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, the founding members, Manolo Badrena on percussion, Jaco Pastorius on electric bass, and Alex Acuna, who originally joined the group as a percussionist but was pushed to drums by Pastorius during a session in which the main drummer was late and stayed there by popular demand from Zawinul.
1) 'Birdland' is an ode to joy created by Zawinul without commercial aims, but which nevertheless, due to its catchiness and the vocal version performed by the Manhattan Transfer, has become an international standard.
2) 'A Remark You Made' (an observation you made, by Zawinul) exactly conveys the idea of a conversation from a distance, by phone or telepathically, between two people in conflict with each other; with a blend of dialogues on equal footing between sax, fretless bass, and keyboards unmatched until then and still unbeaten. A benchmark piece for the technical-emotional skill of any bassist and, in any case, for anyone who dabbles with an instrument. It's easy to play three hundred notes. Now try to invent just a handful like these and place them in the right spot at the right moment if you can! Great Pastorius. Enormous everyone else. A stratospheric piece.
3) 'Teen Town'. What else could they possibly pull out of the hat now? Well: they record a piece by Jaco, dedicated to a teen club in Fort Lauderdale, his hometown. It starts with a light semi-disco intro of bass and drums (semi-Tony Williams) on which then Shorter, Zawinul, and Pastorius entwine short phrases; a piece that will lead many bassists, if not to suicide, to reconsider their value scale and to great self-esteem crises.
4) 'Harlequin' is a necessary break, very typical of Shorter and an absolutely characteristic piece of Weather Report. The difference between Jaco's background phrasing and just any brilliant bassist is strongly felt. Typically shorterian phrases strike you right in the heart. Not two centimeters further.
5) 'Rumba Mama' is a very brief interlude for Manolo Badrena: after all, he also exists in this monolith of 20th-century music, and it is right to acknowledge it.
6) 'Palladium' by Shorter: yet another direct hit. If until now you had survived, now it's the coup de grâce. At this point, you are in love with Weather Report, and you are beyond the 'I can quit whenever I want' phase.
7) 'The Juggler' is a piece by Zawinul played in a three-four time similar to a Viennese waltz. From the start, it gives you the exact sensation of a juggler, indeed, rotating his three oranges on a circus track before twenty spectators. It starts spare and simple only to grow into infinite possibilities of religious musical expression and then return to a few scattered notes. Acuna's work on this record is textbook. Never too praised. To keep up with such monsters, it takes a great musician. A varied and charming piece. Not much performed live as it requires silence around it. An ode to the juggler's solitude with flashes of journey between one performance and another. The perfect metaphor for a musician's life.
8) 'Havona' is the closing piece, and the honor was given to the greatest bassist of all time. No one is 'better' than anyone else. But Jaco is an exception. And in this piece, it is understood why. After a breathtaking introduction that would still send home all the pretentious wannabes around, the bass solo arrives.
The album lasts about 40 minutes. But it will seem like only two, and you'll play it from the beginning again. Then again. And again. Especially on a rainy day. In bad weather. Stormy weather.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Birdland (05:59)
5,000 light years from birdland
But Im still preachin the rhythm
Long-gone, uptight years from birdland
An Im still teachin it with em
Years from the land of the bird
An I am still feelin the spirit
5,000 light years from birdland
But I know people can hear it
Bird named it, bird made it, bird heard it, then played it
Well-stated! birdland--
It happened down in birdland
Oh!
In the middle of that hub
I remember one jazz club
Where we went to pat feet
Down on fifty-secon street
Everybody heard that word
That they named it after bird
Where the rhythm swooped and swirled
The jazz corner of the world
An the cats they gigged in there
Were beyond compare
Birdland - Im singin birdland
Birdland - ol swingin birdland
Hey, man, the music really turns you on!
Y turn me on,
Really, y turn me aroun
n turn me on
Down them stairs, lose them cares - where?
Down in birdland
Total swing, bop was king - there
Down in birdland
Bird would cook, max would look - where?
Down in birdland
Miles came through, trane came too - there
Down in birdland
Basie blew, blakey too - where?
Down in birdland
Cannonball played that hall - there
Down in birdland
Yeah---
There may never be nothin such as that
No mo - no mo
Down in birdland, thats where it was at
I know - I know
Back in them days bop was ridin high
Hello! n goodbye!
How well those cats remember
Their first birdland gig
To play in birdland is an honor we still dig
Yeah---that club was like--
In another world, sure enough--
Yeah, baby
All o the cats had the cookin on
People just sat an they was steady lookin on
Then bird--he came n spread the word--
Birdland
Yes, indeed, he did
Yes, indeed, he did
Yes, indeed, he did
Yes, he did, parker played at birdland
Yes, he really did
Yes, indeed, he really did
Yes, he really did
Told the truth down in birdland
Yes, indeed he did, yardbird parker played in
Birdland
Yes, indeed, he really did
Charlie parker played in birdland
Bird named it, bird made it, bird heard it,
Then played it
Well-stated! birdland
It happened down in birdland
Everybody dug that beat
Everybody stomped their feet
Everybody digs be-bop
An theyll never stop
Down them stairs, lose them cares - yeah!
Down in birdland
Total swing! bop was king - yeah!
Down in birdland
Bird would cook, max would look - yeah,
Down in birdland
Miles came through, trane came too - yeah!
Down in birdland
Basie blew, blakey too - yeah!
Down in birdland
Cannonball played that hall - yeah
Down in birdland
Down them stairs, lose them cares - yeah
Down in birdland
Total swing! bop was king - yeah
Down in birdland
Bird would cook, max would look - yeah,
Down in birdland
Miles came through, trane came too - yeah!
Down in birdland
Basie blew, blakey too - yeah!
Down in birdland
Cannonball played that hall - yeah
Down in birdland
Down them stairs, lose y cares -yeah
Down in birdland
Total swing! bop was king - yeah
Down in birdland
Bird would cook, max would look - yeah,
Down in birdland
Background solo:
Come in pairs down them stairs, lose y cares
Them that dares gits it!
Pay the gate, dont be late
Its a date! - whattay know
If y dig, then youll dig, its a groove
Quite a groove, cause y t move
Come in twos, pay your dues
What can you lose?
Just your blues!
So lose them!
The band swingin one and all and what a ball!
Yeah!
Music is good, music is better than good
Pretty good
Very nice
Really very good - things are bein like they should
Very good -- very good -- very good
All y gotta do is lend an ear
An listen to it
Then y dig a little sooner than soon
Youll be diggin everything diggin all the music
What a ball!
How y gonna figure out
A way t bring it all about amid a
Lot o other music on the setn on
The scene know what I mean?
How y gonna separate the music from the scene
gonna have t keep the memory clean
Y gonna hear a lotta sound -- a lotta soun
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