Weather Report
Heavy Weather

THE REVIEW

'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.